Sterling Heights

Sterling Heights is a city in Macomb County, Michigan, United States, in the northern suburbs of Detroit along the Clinton River. Many Chaldeans, Catholic Christians from Iraq, have made it their home, and their churches and bakeries mark its neighborhoods.

The land was first part of Shelby Township, broke away as Jefferson Township in 1835 and took the name Sterling Township three years later. Until the 1950s it was a farming area, known for its rhubarb fields that supplied the markets of Detroit. New roads brought suburban houses for workers of the car plants of the Detroit area, and the township grew quickly. When it became a city in 1968, the word Heights was added to the name, because a village called Sterling already existed in Arenac County. Lakeside Mall opened in the city in the 1970s.

Stellantis builds Ram full-size pickup trucks at its Sterling Heights Assembly plant, and the company also runs a stamping plant in the city. Families from Eastern Europe settled in the city from the 1960s, and their markets and restaurants line its main roads.

Freedom Hill County Park, in the south of the city, has an amphitheater for summer concerts. Dodge Park, across from city hall, hosts Sterling Fest, the summer festival of the city, with music and food stalls. The Clinton River Trail follows the river through the northeast of the city, and the Sterling Heights Nature Center keeps woods and ponds with trails for walkers along the river.