Claim: Detroit was founded by a Spanish explorer.
Evidence: Detroit was founded on July 24 , 1701 by the French explorer and adventurer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and a party of settlers.
Antoine Laumet de La Mothe , sieur de Cadillac -LRB- -LSB- ˈkædᵻlæk -RSB- -LSB- kadijak -RSB- March 5 , 1658October 16 , 1730 -RRB- , usually referred to as Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac -LRB- aka de la Motte -RRB- , was a French explorer and adventurer in New France , an area of North America that stretched from present-day Eastern Canada in the north to Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico in the south.