Detroit Michigan, USA

Back in the USA
Motown and motor vehicles.
We were not even planning to stop in Detroit but I am so glad we did, what an interesting city. The weather was sunny, warm and humid, just like home, for some reason I imagined Detroit to always be cold and grey. We camped at the fairgrounds right next door to Walmart, so cheap and easy, with horse and dog shows thrown in.
First stop the Ford model T factory, Piquette Ave Plant. This building was rescued from demolition by Dr Jerry Mitchel and Randy Mason in 1998, Dr Jerry now lives in Fords old residence in Detroit. I can’t imagine such a historic building being razed and replace with a warehouse.

Henry Ford had previously started two auto companies which had failed. In 1904 when the Piquette plant was being constructed Henry was 41 years old. On October 1 1908 they first started producing the Model T Ford and the first 1200 model Ts were assembled here. In 1911 Ford motor co sold the building to Studebaker who used it until 1933. Ford plant was then moved to Highland Park Ford Plant.
Between 1908 and 1927, using the moving assembly line, ford built 15 million model T ford cars longest production run of any auto model until VW beetle. By building just one model the engineers could develop a system of interchangeable parts which unskilled workers could assemble.

Ford River Rouge plant
We could not film in the factory, so I can’t show the employees all lined up at the moving conveyor belt assembling parts and sections of the pickups. Very interesting to watch but to do the same thing all day must be exhausting.
Some facts
Construction began in 1917 and by 1928 it was the largest integrated factory in the world.
One Ford is rolled out the door every 52 seconds - we saw them, amazing.
1400 per day 24 hours a day
1250 ford F150 pickups per day
20 hours to build one vehicle and 10,000 people put their hands on it.

So many old derelict buildings, so many stories, I loved driving around Detroit looking at them. Many of the houses have been pulled down and replaced with empty grass lots giving the city a feeling of being uncrowded and peaceful. The empty derelict factories, schools and churches are an interesting sight. Talking to a local pastor he told us how he tried to renovate and operate a church out of one of the abandoned buildings but gave up because it had been broken into so many times that he lost count. The thieves would steal the copper wire and plumbing, not a cheap thing to replace, so the buildings just remain vacant and occasionally the community pulls them down if they become crack houses.