The Rouge Assembly Plant and Greenfield Village

The plan was to catch the first bus to that would take us to the F-150 assembly plant on the Rouge River in Detroit. At 9:20 AM we boarded the bus outside of the Henry Ford Museum and began our plant tour. It was a short ride to the visitor center where we were greeted by a Ford Motor Company tour guide who talked about the history of the Rouge Assembly Plant (built in 1917) and emphasized how "green" the current plant was with it's actual grass roof and water reclamation systems.

In the immense lobby area, the Twenty Millionth Model A Ford was on display along with a 1949 Ford, a 1956 Thunderbird and a '65 Mustang convertible. We took an elevator to the walkway that took us to the visitor gallery on the 2nd floor. The plant was already buzzing with the assembly line moving along at a good clip. I was surprised at how fast the line moved and how quickly the workers (and robots) installed parts onto the truck cabs and beds. The windshields were installed by a special machine - very interesting. You can also see how important it is to have the parts delivered to the various assembly stations on time and as needed. Anything that would stop the process would be a disaster I'm sure.

Greenfield Village

After a quick lunch, we followed a path that took us to the homes of many historically significant individuals, which included, just to name a few, Henry Ford’s boyhood home, the Wright brother’s Bicycle Shop, and Thomas Edison’s Laboratory. Thomas Edison even came out to talk to us about his recent experiments with the electric light bulb. He suggested we visit the rooming home of Sarah Jordan across the street from his lab where some of his employees completely electrified the home.

The visit to the railroad round house was especially interesting as we could explore the underneath of one of the classic steam engines. Walking under the belly of one of these beasts was quite an experience. We were happy to see a few items from our home state on display; the Spofford Saw Mill from Groveland and the Rocks Village toll booth of Haverhill. One of the activities that really added to the atmosphere were the Model T Fords that cruised the property giving visitors rides. We spent all afternoon here and we still only saw a small portion of the entire village. This is definitely a place where we will have to have a return visit.