Henry Ford

Warren ought to have a PBS special about him, the house and the story of the timber barons.

Dearborn MI, home of the Ford Motor Company and one of my personal bucket list items, the Henry Ford Museum. 

Why?

I'm a life long airplane nut. I just love them. The ones who perfected powered flight where a pair of brothers from Dayton Ohio. The Wright brothers. Orville and Wilbur. They started making bicycles before starting their experiments with airplanes.

I've been to Kittyhawk, seen the original (ish) Wright flyer, read the books, been to Dayton. What else can there be to see about them?

Interior of the Wright Bicycle shop

Well maybe their bicycle shop? 

Which is not in Dayton nor at the Smithsonian. It's at the Henry Ford Museum together with tons of other stuff that Henry collected and put here. Cars, airplanes, steam engines, horse drawn carriages, farm equipment. Quite a broad collection of stuff in a huge purpose built building that must be worth many, many millions.

Ford Trimotor Airplane

Which much to my amusement has a leaky roof!

The bus that Rosa Parks rode on in protest against segregation.

We spent 2 days there, one just in the museum, a collection of things showing the innovations that lead to industrialization and our modern world.  Quite absorbing and a very long walk.

One of many giant steam engines

The second day we spent exploring Greenfield Village which is a kind of Theme Park dedicated to the people who invented the things that brought our modern world into being. Harvey Firestone's first factory, Edison's original Menlo Park building, Henry Ford's family Farm and what I wanted to see most: The Wright Brothers bicycle shop and their family home.

The Wright brothers workshop from Dayton Ohio

When Henry Ford started this place he bought the ACTUAL buildings and transported them piece by piece to be reassembled in his park. Ford was a great friend and admirer of Thomas Edison and there are lots of things associated with him. 

Edison's original factory

I pointed out that Edison wasn't the magnanimous gentleman the park seemed to suggest. Far from it, he cheated Tesla and was involved in dirty dealings trying to cheat the Wright Brothers too. He was a pretty scurrilous person.

Presenters in period costume explain everything

The “Presenters” were quick to point out that their scripted viewpoints were from a time prior to Tesla's association with Edison!!

Working water tower for the steam trains

Overall we enjoyed the experience and took the opportunity to ride the steam train around and around the park a couple of times. 

The train runs around the perimeter of the park

If you visit the “Henry Ford” as it's now called look for the combination tickets that get you in both the museum and the park.

Horse drawn wagons, model T's, 1920's buses run around the park too

You don't have to do both in one day so you can spread it over 2 days and they don't have to be consecutive. We did the museum on Tuesday and the park on Thursday due to weather concerns. DO be aware though that there is no re-entry. Once you leave one of them you have to pay again to get back in. So do the WHOLE museum before leaving.

Heron on the lake

That's not difficult to do as there are places to sit and a couple of restaurants too.

The last original windmill apparently

Our good friends Graham and Ellaine Butler recommended a place close to the park for dinner called “Fords Garage” which was big and packed with customers when we went. Obviously it's a Ford themed place. They have decent beer and a large burger selection.

Ford's Garage. Burgers and beer.

Also close by was the Dearborn Elks Lodge, which I imagined would be quite large being so close to Fords Technical facilities but turned out to be extremely small having been downsized 3 years ago due to falling membership. If you have the Elks RV listing this Lodge is listed as having RV facilities but it's out of date. The parking lot is tiny with only room for about 10 cars, so beware!

A couple of trips to Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti finished out our stay in the Dearborn area.