First Officer’s Entry:
OK. I’m impressed. And I’m old and crotchety, and
not easily impressed.
And I’m
impressed.
We just
spent two days at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and I am darned impressed.
We spent 6
hours yesterday at the “Greenfield Village” and 6 hours today in the Henry Ford
Museum. Both days were wonderful. Believe me this place lives up to its hype.
Cheryl and I
took over 200 photos in those two days.
The ones below are just a small sampling. I actually OD’d on spectacular sights both
days and just stopped taking pictures.
Since the sights couldn’t fit into my head I figured they sure couldn’t fit
into 7” photos. So I just gave up and
went into wander-and-gape mode.
Ya gotta see
this place! Don’t miss it, even if you
can!
I will now
allow the Captain to write some elegant, eloquent, thoughtful, descriptive
words on the subject. Prepare to be
dazzled.
Captain’s Entry:
No pressure
on the captain. . .
The First
Officer’s descriptors of The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village are spot on.
Greenfield
Village transported us back in time to an era of croquet on the green, horses
pulling buggies, and cars that look suspiciously like buggies without their
horses attached. This place actually
slowed down Frank’s usual full-speed-ahead walking pace to a stroll. We sat by
the lake and watched the ducks, geese, and fish getting fed. We stood in line
to buy, wait for it, FROZEN CUSTARD! We rode the steam train all around this
huge place and walked and walked and walked among the houses of well-known
creative people like Robert Frost, Stephen Foster, Noah Webster, James McGuffey,
and George Washington Carver.
Actors in
period costumes told us stories about the days when Edison and Ford worked
together and how each of them later on produced their own brand of inventions.
To top that, everything displayed in the Village works! There’s a working farm
growing wheat and vegetables, a blacksmith’s shop, a steam train, a railroad
turntable, and more than one completely restored (not modernized) running
omnibus, and a whole fleet of Model A’s and T’s hauling passengers around its
200 acres.
The 1913 carousel
in the square was designed by Herschell-Spillman, who created the only
carousels outfitted with giant green frogs and others with animals wearing
clothes. This one with distinctly-painted animals resided in Spokane, Washington from 1923 until sometime in
the 1950s when Ford brought it and its Wurlitzer music to the Village.
Next to
the carousel is a newly created park for kids with towers to climb, a steam
shovel and a kid-level truck with the back of the cab removed so the kids can
climb in the truck bed and directly into the cab to “drive.”
I hope you
can now somewhat appreciate the landscape and atmosphere of Greenfield Village.
It’s all very clean and postmodern, but still a very enjoyable way to immerse
yourself in history and biography. Wednesday: Inside the museum . . .
The Henry
Ford (Museum) covers nine acres of indoor space and the ceilings of this
one-story museum are 40 feet high! It’s divided into 10 exhibit areas: Driving
America, Railroads, Presidential vehicles, Heroes of the Sky, With Liberty and
Justice for All, Made in America, Your Place in Time, Dymaxion House, Fully
Furnished and Agriculture. We saw them all!
My favorites
were Railroads, Heroes of the Sky and With Liberty and Justice for All.
Did you
know that stagecoaches were fitted with railroad iron wheels and pulled in line
on rails by horses? Eventually the horses were replaced with a steam engine.
Also, new stage coaches were shipped all over the country by rail on flat cars!
We saw a picture of maybe 50 coaches aboard a train roaring across the plains.
Among the
planes exhibited were a Ford Tri-motor, a 1939 DC-3, and a Sikorsky Helicopter.
In the Liberty exhibit we sat in the actual bus where Rosa Parks challenged the
status quo and set the white establishment on its ear. The bus was rescued from
a farmer’s field where it was being used to store farm equipment. Henry brought
it home to his amazing museum where it belongs and fully restored it.
The Henry
Ford stands tall among all the museums Frank and I have visited over these many
years. My parents brought me here to Dearborn to see the museum in the late
50s, and I’ve always remembered it. I’m so glad to have the chance to share it
with Frank. We both urge you to make the trip to see this fabulous place and
spend a day or two or three.
Tomorrow we
leave for an RV park near Alpena where we hope to take a tour on a glass bottom
boat to see some underwater ship wrecks. Then on Sunday morning we head up to
Mackinaw City to stay at a fancy resort called Mackinaw Mill Creek. It will be
our home base as we visit Mackinac Island where no motorized vehicles are
allowed.
We plan to ride over to the island on a hydro-foil ferry and spend the day seeing
Fort Mackinac and taking a surrey ride around the island. The horse carriage
ride stops at the Grand Hotel where the movie Somewhere in Time was filmed in
the 1980s.
We hope you
enjoy our photo splash!
End Log
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