In its day the Rouge was the hub of Henry Ford's monumental ideas of industrial practice, aiming to place every step of automobile production under the direct control of the Ford Motor Company. This meant building a citizenless city where iron ore and rubber from Ford owned mines and plantations came in one gate and new Fords rolled out the other. Ninety-three buildings and nearly 16 million square feet of factory floor were built in Dearborn, Michigan to run every step in between. After hard times hit in the 80s and 90s, Ford scaled back the plant to its current 600 acres, still enough to be Ford's single largest industrial complex.
A bus tour out of the Henry Ford Museum gives an idea of the Rouge's former scale before shuttling tourists through the multimedia bells and whistles. The tour runs daily on the half hour, costing guests a princely $21.50. Definitely a tourist trap but a great place to get that sprawling industrial landscape fix (no doubt why you're hanging around Detroit in the first place). Unfortunately, word has it that the ever popular "Calvin peeing on a Chevy logo/Honda logo/Dolce and Gabana logo/etc" truck decal is not sold in the giftshop.
Related Stories:
· Ford Rouge Factory Tour Website
· Dearborn Hotels [HotelChatter]
[Photo: Jeff Wilcox]
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