| |
Detroit Factoids
Fact 1: Want to see the chair Lincoln was killed in, the plane Admiral Byrd used to fly over the South Pole, or the original Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile? The Henry Ford Museum offers a look at such artifacts as it tells the tale of American ingenuity. The museum details how Ford built his car company from a tiny Detroit wagon shop, which employed only ten people in 1903.
Fact 2: Want to visit a stop on the Underground Railroad? Detroit played a major role in the Underground Railroad that abolitionists used to bring slaves to freedom from the South. Second Baptist Church, the city's oldest black congregation, served as a station for the escaping slaves in the mid 1800's.
Fact 3: Detroit is known as the Motor City for more than just its reputation as the center of the nation's car industry. The city was the first to have a paved road, the first to install traffic lights, and the first with an urban freeway.
Fact 4: The Plymouth International Ice Sculpture Spectacular is the oldest and largest ice-carving event in the nation. Professional and amateur sculptors turn blocks of ice into spectacular works of art each winter.
Fact 5: With more than 11,000 inland lakes and over 36,000 miles of streams, Michigan really is a water lover’s haven. It does not matter if you are in Detroit or any other part of the state; you are never more than 6 miles away from water!
Fact 6: Detroit is home to the Motown sound. Berry Gordy, Jr. opened a studio in 1961 that would spawn music greats like The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, and Stevie Wonder. The Motown Historical Museum includes the house where Gordy started Hitsville USA and his original recording studio.
Fact 7: The Detroit Zoo made history by becoming the first to take its animals out of cages and present them in natural-like habitats. The Belle Isle Zoo features a 3/4-mile elevated boardwalk that gives visitors great panoramic views of animal exhibits.
Fact 8: Yes, there was a Detroit before the car. British and American soldiers faced off nearby in one of the largest military encounters in the War of 1812. More American casualties occurred during the Battle of the River Raisin than in any other single battle in the war. Americans rallied to the battle cry "Remember the Raisin!"
Fact 9: Thirsty? James Vernor, a Detroit pharmacist, developed the recipe for the nation’s oldest soft drink, Vernor’s ginger ale, here in 1866. Vernor is buried among 52,000 others in Michigan’s most historic cemetery, Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.
Fact 10: Detroit began in style - with a Cadillac. In 1701, French trader Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac set up an operations base in the area that would become this metropolis. Naming the place Ville d'Etroit, Cadillac used it as a base to send furs to Canada.
More to come...
|