Detroit and pride of country

Written on: April 28, 2026 by Steve 
Midwest
Henry Ford’s first car, made in 1896, seven years before the Model T.

After leaving the City of Steel, we headed to Detroit and started out by exploring the industry that made Detroit famous.

Rouge factory floor. I snuck in this poorly done illicit photo as Ford bans factory pictures. So sue me, Ford.

First up, was a visit to the Ford Rouge factory. The Rouge on 3 square miles of land (named after the Rouge River on a parcel that Ford originally intended to make into a bird refuge .. oops) was established in 1928, employing as many as 100,000 people to make the Model A and other Ford products. The complex now makes the F-150 truck, which for 40 years has been the best selling vehicle in the US (which makes me question our sanity). Walking around the visitor’s catwalk at the factory and watching trucks being assembled with the combination of robots and people doing their specialized tasks was mesmerizing.

This Ford 1957 Country Squire Wagon advertisement in the Innovation Museum was for the Havas family car!

After the factory tour, we went to the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation which is amazingly large and has examples of innovation across industry after industry after industry. Cars, railroads, airplanes, steam power, electric power, mathematics, agriculture, etc are all shown with examples of innovations and new technologies that we benefit from every day. And in all of these, America was a world leader.

Deconstructed Model T.

Throughout this trip we’ve been contemplating past and present American sins, even while enjoying people and loving the sights. Detroit is a reminder of part of what I love about my country. I was a kid in an era where our industrial heartland was indeed amazing and, as an American, I’m deeply proud of that history. I do not need our country to be ‘great again’ in the sense of trying to recreate a bygone era that exists only in our imaginations. But we used to do great things .. and I do wish for us to do great things again. There are certainly hard problems to be solved and our can do spirit remains one of our competitive edges .. if we can recapture that.