Driving down 75 we arrived at Sterling State Park located on the shore of Lake Erie below Detroit. The state park is home to a variety of migrating bird species including hawks and eagles. Many birds were arriving during our stay. The drive in takes you along a tree lined road one half mile to the main entrance.

From there its another mile to the campground  passing through inlets and estuaries. Nary a soul to be found. We were greeted by Ranger Joe manning the tiny guard shack deep in the park and seemingly in the middle of nowhere. He checked us in and sent us off through the dark to find our site. Since we arrived at night we didn’t get a lay of the land until the next morning. The wind had increased and was a consistent thirty knots. Nowhere to hide from the wind as the entire campground is flat and exposed to the shoreline of Lake Erie. There is a coal plant located directly to the south with steam billowing sideways into the atmosphere reminding me of Smoke Stacks in Huntington Beach during a Santa Ana wind.

On further inspection there is a nuclear power plant just to the north with Three Mile Island style reactors imposing over the landscape.

We finally found the perfect spot to meet all of our energy needs. “Coal on the left of me, Nuclear reactors on the right, here I am, stuck in the middle again…” A bit daunting to say the least. However, I found great comfort when I was told the reactors were temporarily shut down for refueling…Blah.

Located within striking distance of Motor City, we had little interest in taking the kids on a tour of abandoned down town but we did want to visit, The Henry Ford. Ford is a presence here to say the least. Our thirty minute drive to Dearborn, home of Ford, was dotted along the way with manufacturing facilities. Domestic cars are king here as the most abundant imports on the road are Hyundai and Kia. Ford has a massive campus here which surrounds the museum facilities. Their Design, engineering and R & D divisions are but a few of the buildings surrounding the public portion of the campus which offers the Henry Ford Museum, The Greenfield Village, Factory tour and IMAX theater. We took the advice of Ranger Joe and the weather so we split our visit into two days.

Rain was on the way so we spent the first day outside walking through
history in Greenfield Village. Upon entering we were greeted with the most impressive collection of working Model T’s I have ever seen. I couldn’t help but wish my parents were with us as they would have greatly enjoyed and appreciated the experience. My dad would have especially enjoyed the automotive collection.

Henry Ford preserved a huge chunk of the American experience here. He had the money and foresight to preserve a piece of our nation’s past by moving period buildings and homes of industrialists and history makers from their original location and reassembling them in Greenfield Village. For example, the structures from the entire Firestone family farm was moved from it’s original location and reassembled here. It is a working farm consisting of pastures, apple orchards, barn buildings, animal pens and family home. It was reconstructed here in the early 1900’s with every original stone and board. Upon walking into the Firestone family home the aroma of bacon filled the small kitchen. There were three women in period dress preparing a dinner of ham, potatoes and apple pie for all of the farm workers.

They were using period utensils and cookware which made the task of preparing a meal for nine people all the more labor intensive. But what a great reward as all of the food was harvested on the farm including the ham. The women answered all of our questions about the meal, home and Firestone family in addition to offering a narrative of their daily life.
There are way too many structures to describe but a few stand outs are Fords workshop where he developed the Quadricycle, his first self propelled motor car and the  prototypes for what would become the Model T.

Thomas Edison’s workshop where he and his team created the first electric light bulb that functioned well enough for sustained use.

The court house where Abraham Lincoln made a name for himself as an attorney in the early years of his career.

and the Wright brothers bicycle shop which housed many of the tools used to build their plane.

 

Each structure carefully reassembled providing the experience of walking through the original. Each building had an oral historian on site to paint a picture of it’s history and the life within.
Henry Ford went to great lengths to reassemble the structures to replicate the original as closely as possible. In fact the courthouse where Lincoln worked was one of Fords favorites as Ford greatly admired Lincoln. We were told he had the dirt beneath and surrounding the original building transported to Greenfield Village so the structure could be reassembled on its original dirt foundation. In addition he had the plaster from the interior walls ground into powder so they could reapply it when they refinished the interior walls. It was a humbling to experience the space where he honed his skills.
The following rainy day was Parker’s Birthday so we spent our time in the museum. Ford greatly appreciated history, machinery, manufacturing and invention. The museum offers a wide display of his interests. From automobiles and farm equipment to industrial machinery and trains to furniture and domestic artifacts.

This is a piece my parents purchased way back when and was a fixture in our home.

Stand outs for me are the Model T Ford blown apart displaying the simplicity of that first production car.

The Presidential limousines.

The actual chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated.

and a massive coal powered locomotive with three or four passenger cars attached. Imagine a space large enough to fit a locomotive almost two stories tall and the length of a city block.

A few of my favorites;

We recommend The Henry Ford as a must see for anyone visiting the Motor City. We exhausted the kids walking around but not enough to slow down their excitement as the ride home was filled with conversations of our day and the anticipation of celebrating Parker’s birthday. We stopped by a market on the way home and picked up a little cake and ice cream to celebrate our eight year old’s big day.

The next morning the rain had passed but the wind was still howling, only slightly less. I was up early and took the dog for a walk along the shore of Lake Erie.

I was saddened to see the garbage all along the shoreline. The constant winds and the tidal surge that came at the height of the storm left all kinds of discarded debris.

At home our family has a practice of picking up three pieces of trash every time we leave a beach. My three pieces hardly made an impression here. After Charlie chased a gaggle of geese in the water until he was soaked we made our way back to our site to pack up and head out.

Next stop Mentor, Ohio.