Detroit [Henry Ford]

The only good thing about staying in Dearborn is that it is close to one of my destinations, the Henry Ford Museum . Although I felt it was a requisite destination for the Detroit area, I also had fairly low expectations. They were not exceeded. This is an expensive destination. I paid over $75.00 for a few different experiences. I am not convinced it was worth the price.

My first activity upon arriving was the Rouge factory tour . I thought this would be a cool place to get some photos and there was no advisement on the web page that photography was prohibited. That information was only provided after you took the 20 minute bus ride from the museum and arrived at the factory. That pretty much blew my day right there.

Upon arrival you are ushered into a theatre to view the first of two films. The first is mostly historical, but is obviously an homage to homage to Henry Ford. I could have done with less theatrics and more information, They gave passing lip service to his resistance to the labor movement, even though he operated a factory with dangerous conditions. The second film I could have done without completely. It was sort a bad MTV version of auto assembly. Really, it should have come with sound and light warnings (hey, they even did that at the Rock and Roll museum in Cleveland). I had to cover my ears and close my eyes for most of it. And no once can look at four screens simultaneously.

On to the actually assembly plant. In spite of the photography ban, this was actually quite interesting. They have a 1/3 mile elevated walkway where you can observe the assembly line of cars (mostly trucks it looked like) being put together. Apparently a vehicle comes off of the assembly line every 53 seconds. While they explained a fairly impressive QC system, humans are still present at each assembly station. I asked about the error rate and was told that information was not for public consumption. OK, then.

After taking the bus back to the main complex, I walked around Greenfield Village . This is another one of those outdoor campuses reconstructed from historical structures that have been moved on to the location. It pays homage to American innovation. It is a good activity for families and kids, less exciting for me.

Then I went into the main museum . This was a huge and confusing place. I guess it had to be huge to house a lot of large objects like cars and steam engines. It also had a large aviation component as Ford also manufactured planes for a time. Then it became completely incoherent, with an area for furniture, a futuristic house, and a meager nod to civil rights history that was not connected with anything else at all. It was interesting to learn that Henry Ford played the “fiddle” and owned quite a collection of expensive violins, including a Stradivarius. Honestly, the most interesting exhibit was a temporary retrospective about Julia Child. Maybe I am just more interested in food and cooking than cars, but it was the only exhibit that really got my attention.

All in all, a bit of a disappointing and far too expensive day. Tomorrow I will explore Downtown Detroit.