Think Ford, and visions of industrial Frankenstein-like factories begin to surface, belching big billowing clouds of thick black smoke into the skies to obscure the natural background of blue. The $5 dollar day not withstanding, Ford was not exactly an upstanding friend of labor, so it's easy to picture auto workers from the midwest and deep south, performing menial, tedious, heavy metal tasks, keeping pace all the time with the demands of the assemblyline. It's a Fritz Lang "Metropolis" moment, with the dull grey factory world of the blue collar worker toiling to produce white collar goods. Beware the False Maria!
Flashback! Henry was born in 1863 in what is today, Dearborn, Michigan just west of The Motor City. Raised on a farm, he enjoyed tinkering with machinery, taking them apart, and putting them back together again in an attempt to learn how they worked as one harmonious piece to complete a given task. He used this ability of trying to perfect ideas that would make farming easier and more productive. He was a product of another age where the sun was setting, but ready to face and in fact introduce the daunting dawn of a new age. He was born by simple candlelight, but his factories would soon be illuminating the stage of the industrial age as a beacon for workers across America to come to the "brave new world" of automotive engineering and manufacturing. The horseless carriage was let out of the stall, and the village blacksmith was well on his way to extinction. There would be no turning back.
As a product of the Motor City myself, I was always cognizant of the fact that the name Ford was everywhere and was more pervasive than cow pies in a pasture. It was almost Orwellian in nature.
There were streets and freeways (eventually) named after him, Ford factories, Ford Great Lakes freighters bearing the Ford name plying the Detroit River, the Ford World Headquarters, (the Glass House) and of course, the car itself. I had, always associated Ford with the industrial rape of the agrarian and pastoral life that defined the 19th Century, but as I learned more, I found that Ford was more of an industrial Jekyll and Hyde.
Henry Ford had a green side? Youbetcha, weirdly enough. He was a somewhat schizoid personality to begin with, split down the middle like an overripe watermelon with his agrarian upbringing on one side, and his penchant for tinkering and machinery on the other. This is the same man who would in time split the agrarian atom and initiate an explosion of industry never before witnessed on the planet. As it turns out, old Henry did have a green side that would manifest itself in ways that were surprisingly ahead of their time.
Henry was exploring the possibilities of the use of bio-fuels by 1917, teaming up with people like George Washington Carver to find ways of developing a renewable energy source for vehicles that would also join in the battle to combat the growing problem of pollution. Rudolph Diesel was also ahead of the pack at the early part of the century with his developments, but as all things in America..it eventually came down to oil and oil money bulldozing their way into the role as the accepted fuel for America's motoring needs.
There are factories, and then there is the Ford Rouge Plant, if ever there was a Roman Colliseum of Industry, this is it. It's the historic vehicular version of the Garage Mahal sitting on the banks of the Rouge River and is still operational today and open for guided tours, educational films, and tour of the factory roof. Yes, I said "roof" and it's well worth it. I went on the tour for the first time 5 years ago, and was surprised when the guide took us to the roof of the factory. With the wheels of machinery and the engine of capitalism groaning and whirring below us, the roof was it's antithesis in the form of a massive garden of green sedom. The Rouge Plant's plant life had taken root, not by accident, but by agricultural/architechural design. Today this ten and a half acre "field of greens" is the worlds largest living roof.
Hank also had a hankering for preserving the past, one that he felt responsible for obliterating, and used his new wealth to to collect machinery and artifacts and whole buildings of the time, some with a historical nature and preserving them in a manner that educate future generations. It is today a repostitory of history that rivals the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. The combined project is called the Edison Institute in Dearborn, Michigan, named after Fords good friend, Thomas Alva Edison, and includes the Henry Ford Museum indoor collection and the recreated outdoor diarama called Greenfield Village. The project began in 1929, and today is 80 acres of nostalgia that includes over 80 historical structures including the courthouse from Illinois where a young Abe Lincoln practiced law to the Wright Brothers bicycle shop and the Harvey Firestone Farm.
There are "working" farms on the grounds and the "farmers" dressed in period costume go about their daily chores of prepping the soil, tending the garden, animal care and feeding, and all in the organic manner of the day. Horse drawn carriages take you for rides through this wonderland of history where you may happen upon a re-enactment of an 1867 baseball game. It wasn't all ag in the 19th century, but art as well. A lot of it was utilitarian in nature, and the artisans crafts are also carefully preserved at Greenfield Village at Liberty Craftsworks. You can watch the glassblowers, potters,and demonstrations of fabric arts. For the thumbs of green, there is the Garden House Store where there is a distinctive collection of accessories and furnishings for outdoors and indoodrs, and is located in the birth home of pioneering American botanist, Luther Burbank.
Nearby the Edison Institute is the Henry Ford Mansion, Fairlane which was completed in 1916, where Henry and his wife, Clara Bryant spent their remaining years. It was established mainly as a "bird sanctuary" and for the preservation of wildlife such as deer and fox, but mainly birds. As Henry said, "I like birds, they don't vote and they don't run for office!" Henry had the mansion built on the banks of the Rouge River, and it included a "man-made waterfall" near his pump house that he had built to utilize hydro-power for electricity, a renewable resource, and completely self sufficient and off the grid. The landscaping was artfully designed by the Jens Jensen, with landscaping costs alone running to the tune of $370,000, that included a rather large opulent greenhouse for grafting, experimenting and propagation, a root cellar, a vegetable garden, a 1,000 plant peony garden and a 10,000 plant rose garden that was tended to with live and care by Clara, and was her pride and joy. Now , remember those birds Henry loved so much? Well, he made sure they had suitable housing and provided over 500 birdhouses on the property!
There is a large swath that runs from the side porch of the mansion to a small pond that is home to ducks, geese, all manner of fish, and turtles. Surrounding the pond is a series of dirt paths that hug the shore and on ocassion veer off into the forest to view different types of trees, and one section takes you on a hike through prarie grass. Just before the gates to the Kingdom of Ford, U of M has had an organic garden for experimentation since the early 1970's, before it was fashionable. It also held an attraction for me and worked at it as a volunteer one day a week.
When I was a kid I would hop the fence to the Mansion grounds as often as possible with my friends. We, had to sneak on the grounds of course as it was private property, but with the forests, the natural settings, the woods and pond, it was a natural extension of childhoods imagination of Robin Hoods, mythical pirates and explorers. Besides living in the concrete confines of Detroit, all this "nature" was pretty overwhelming, but gave me a lifelong love of all things natural and organic. My kids were taken there often when they were growing up, hiking and berry picking along the paths, and hopefully my grandchildren will have the same experiences that their parents had. Knowing my kids, the tradition is in good hands.
When the Tin Lizzie started rolling off the assemblylines it was available only in the color black. The joke in advertising circles was...you can have Model T in any color..as long as it's black, but remember, there is also a green side to a Ford!