[4] A Shawnee village was built in the area by war chief Blue Jacket after the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.

The founder of Trenton is considered to be Abram Caleb Truax, a member of the territorial militia in attendance when General William Hull surrendered Detroit to the British General Isaac Brock early in the War of 1812.

After the war, in 1816, Truax acquired a large tract of land in the Michigan Territory along the Detroit River from the U.S. government and constructed a sawmill, church and store in what is today downtown Trenton.

The post office name was changed to "Truago" in 1837, and to "Trenton" in 1847, after a type of limestone mined from a local quarry.

In 1834 an industrialist, Giles Bryan Slocum, constructed a dock, making Trenton a major hub of steamboat traffic.

[8] In 1846, Captain Arthur Edwards founded the Detroit & Cleveland Steamboat Company in Trenton.

[12] The city is located between Detroit and Monroe, Michigan, in the southeastern part of the state.

The city is located on the western bank of the Detroit River and is bounded by Grosse Ile to the east, Gibraltar to the south, Riverview to the north, Brownstown Township to the west and south and Woodhaven to the west.

The inner smokestacks were lined with asbestos to achieve this, which ended up later being removed at great cost.

[18] In 1948, McLouth Steel purchased riverfront land along Jefferson Avenue to begin building its second complex.

Between the land purchase and the buildout, the project cost more than $100 million [19] and by 1949, the first ingots were poured at the site.

By 1954, the Trenton Plant was dedicated and McLouth became able to produce iron as an integrated steel mill.

McLouth, the ninth largest steelmaker in the United States, was known both by the industry and its own slogan as a pioneer.

It was the first in the United States to use the basic oxygen process,[20] the first to have online computer control of steelmaking processes, the first to use a continuous caster in the United States,[20] the first to cast 100% of its steel by continuous caster, and the first to use inductive slab heating.

[20] Due to a high dependence on automotive customers, outdated and incorrectly sized equipment, union-management struggles, and economic downturns, McLouth underwent multiple bankruptcies and reorganizations in the 1980s and 1990s.

The proposed use for the land is an intermodal operation utilizing its port, rail lines, and proximity to freeways.

[22] Demolition and cleanup is currently being led by Crown Enterprises and overseen by the EPA and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).

Specialties there include diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and GI surgery, geriatrics, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and urology.

In 1985, the north factory underwent another expansion, and later in 2005, Daimler Chrysler reportedly invested $297 million in order to expand the Trenton Engine plant to prepare to build a new 4.0 L version of the SOHC V6 and to also revitalize the 3.8 line.

A portion of Trenton, north of King Road, is in the Riverview Community School District.

[25] Slocum Truax Junior High School was a former junior high school that resided in the present-day Slocum Truax Park in a neighborhood nearby downtown Trenton, which ended up closing in July 1979.

The city recently spent $8.4 million to renovate the Kennedy Recreation Center, a 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m2) complex along West Road that includes ice rinks, meeting rooms, and sports services, a sporting goods shop.

The facility is home to the Trenton, Riverview, Grosse Ile, and Gibraltar Carlson High School hockey teams.

Adjacent is the Kennedy Outdoor Aquatic Center, a 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) pool and water park that opened in 2005.

Along the Detroit River, Elizabeth Park, operated by Wayne County, is a popular destination for picnic-goers, fishermen, and boaters.

In the south of the city, is the Humbug Marsh Unit of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge features the last natural shoreline on the Detroit River as well as old growth forest, marshland, swamps and savanna.

White-tailed deer, red fox, coyotes, beavers, muskrat, and river otters all live in the Humbug Marsh Unit.

The park also features an information center, fishing pier, observation decks and picnic areas.

Hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, bird watching, kayaking and fishing are all popular outdoor activities at the park, where there are many viewpoints of the Detroit River opening up to Lake Erie.