Detroit: Vacation Spot for History Lovers (Part 2)

 

    For our first real post-pandemic trip, we chose to visit two cities that we'd never visited before: Detroit and Milwaukee. Those two midwestern cities may not be front of mind for history lovers who are considering travel destinations, but, as we discovered, there are lots of things to do in each.

    Detroit was on our list largely because of The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, a few minutes from downtown Detroit. The complex made it to my consciousness years ago, and I'd recently read Fordlandia, about Henry Ford and his efforts to corner the international rubber market, which was a great read. As those who know me are aware, I detest and despise the man and practically everything about him, but I have to grudgingly admit that he created an incredible collection of historical objects. During his middle years, Ford became a supercollector of historical artifacts, especially those artifacts that related to men like him, in his mind: innovators, inventors, moralists, nationalists, patriots - AMURICANS!!! He and his agents scoured the country purchasing buildings and their contents, dismantling them, and shipping them to Dearborn, where they were reassembled to form Greenfield Village. He started with the property of his friends, Thomas Edison Wright Brothers,  and Harvey Firestone for example, and then included American nationalists and assimilationists like William McGuffey and Noah Webster. Over the years, more buildings have been moved in to represent more of America. Just a few weeks ago, it was announced that a Selma Alabama home used in the planning and coordination of the Selma marches had been purchased for the Village.

    Not only can visitors walk among and through the buildings, but they can also meet knowledgeable  and enthusiastic docents who are eager to tell you the stories of the buildings. Visitors can also ride around the village in model Ts and model As, or they can take a train ride pulled by an old steam engine or by Thomas the Tank Engine. It's really a great experience all around.

George Washington Carver birthplace

Wright Brothers bicycle shop 

An Illinois county courtroom in which a young Abraham Lincoln argued cases

Display in the H.J. Heinz house

H.J. Heinz home where many of the Heinz products were first produced

Inside Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory

Noah Webster home

Henry Ford birthplace

William McGuffey birthplace

inside Ford's birthplace

inside Ford's birthplace

Edison's Menlo Park Lab buildings

slave cabins from Georgia coast

Edison's Menlo Park Lab

The last Model T to come off the assembly line

    One could take a whole day to see Greenfield Village; seeing the entire Ford complex takes at least two days. On our second day, we did the tour of the River Rouge Ford Plant. Henry Ford originally built the factory as a showcase of  modern American industrial technology. Today, Ford F-150 Crew Cabs are manufactured there. It was really interesting to see the assembly lines at work.

    The Museum of American Innovation, as you would expect, has lots and lots of cars in it, but you could spend a whole day there. 

The Kennedy presidential assassination limo in which he was assassinated. (After the assassination, it was reconfigured.)

The Montgomery City bus on which Rosa Parks was arrested