The Henry Ford

No trip to the Dearborn area should be considered complete without a trip to The Henry Ford, also known as The Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village and as the Edison Institute, the name that Henry Ford, himself, favored. Henry Ford greatly admired Thomas Alva Edison and the two men became great friends. The Henry Ford was created in 1929, 18 years before Henry's death. Many of the early exhibits came from Ford's own personal collection. Henry said, "I am collecting the history of our people as written into things that their hands made and used. When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition...". Approximately 300 years are preserved in the exhibits and each is very significant to our history.

We spent one day at The Henry Ford and did not do it justice. We would have an annual pass if we lived close enough to use it. We entered the Village and our first encounter was with a steam locomotive, The Edison, a Baldwin 4-4-0. We were told that the Edison had been built at the Rouge Plant. We both love locomotives, especially steam. I remember them fondly from my childhood and Anne's dad was an engineer. We had to have a ride, the track goes around the Village complex which is about 200 odd acres and takes about 30 minutes, including several stops. We purchased tickets for unlimited rides! We had wide smiles as we left our coach after circuiting the grounds, thoroughly covered with fine soot particles. We could have ridden again and again but we had things to see. The Village has a roundhouse and we learned it is the only working roundhouse still in existence that is solely devoted to steam engines!

Other period rides were available and we rode them all. They have several horse drawn carriages and wagons and we rode in two different ones. It was "cool" to ride behind two giant Percherons, each one weighing about 2000 pounds. We were told that all Percherons are born black and that their color may change as they get older, some remaining black and others turning grey. Our grey team was named "Abe" and "Lincoln", not hard to remember. Another ride we thoroughly enjoyed was in vintage automobiles, ours was a 1914 Model T. Our smiles were genuine as we departed the 'depot'. We were told that we were riding in a 'new' 1914 T, not a restored or rebuilt one. Ford Motor Co. had undergone a project to build new vehicles from original drawings. Since no tooling existed, they were hand made. The project, as many do, ran into cost and schedule problems and the six cars built ended up costing about $250,000 each. The project stopped at six vehicles with Ford retaining 2 and donating 4 to Greenfield Village. Since the cars were new and manufactured by an auto manufacturing entity, they needed all the modern safety items in order for them to be licensed. That wasn't going to happen, can you image a 1914 Model T with seat and shoulder belts, air bags and a host of other required items? These cars are relegated to making the rounds in Greenfield village! We had a great ride in our authentic new old car! These cars get approximately 10,000 miles a year taking visitors around Greenfield Village.

Our next ride was on a vintage 1913 Herschell-Spillman carousel, relocated from Spokane, Washington where it had operated as recently as 1950. Herschell-Spillman carousels are noted for their giant green frogs, the only animals to be dressed in human clothes on any carousel. We loved it and one of the attendants sang the songs being played by the carousel and she had a beautiful voice!

My favorite exhibits had to be the Wright Brothers home and bicycle shop where aviation history was made. Also Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory was very interesting. You have to visit the Village to see this wealth of American history exhibited there. After lunch we decided we had better move on to the Museum.

The Henry Ford Museum is about 12 acres of covered exhibits and even includes a high school, The Henry Ford Academy. The high school is open only to residents of Wayne County and boasts a 98% graduation rate. It is the nation's first charter school . We understand that applicants are selected by some sort of lottery from the application pool. Too bad more of our nation's schools don't have these results!

The car in which John Kennedy was assassinated is on display as well as the Presidental cars for Reagan, Eisenhower, FDR and the carriage that Teddy Roosevelt used (he did not want to use a car). These vehicles were provided by Ford Motor Co. and remained their property. Kennedy's vehicle was armored (look at the rear window glass thickness) but Kennedy wanted the top off so he could be closer to the crowd. I remember well where I was on November 22, 1963, in Ann Arbor, when we heard the dreadful news.

One exhibit I found especially nostalgic was a 1965 white Mustang. That was my first car but unfortunately it was not serial number 1 and it was not a convertible! No. 1 was originally purchased by a Canadian and was repurchased for the Museum at a price of $1 M with a new car thrown in, at least that was what we heard from another visitor that seemed taken by the exhibit. Since my Mustang ended up in an accident in 1968, I would have been out of luck anyway!

I could go on and on about the wonders on display at The Henry Ford. You just have to see it for yourselves!