History Henry Ford's 1941 Soybean Car

The chemical Fords and the glass Fords are the same family -- John P. Ford and his sons Edward and Emory. They not related to the Henry Fords. I believe it was Emory with the Port Huron place. He was also known for an exceptional estate in the Grosse Pointe area.

 

When they were designing the Model T he made sure there was room for 4 milk cans behind the front seat.

 

Ford owned hundreds of thousands of acres in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but I believe his largest working farm was somewhere around Mt. Pleasant, which is right in the middle of the state.

Also, before the aircraft plant was built there, Willow Run was a working farm -- a sort of work camp and school for boys.

 

Wonder how he would feel about Detroit returning to nature. Ford Main shut down. Large sections practically abandoned. Talk of demolishing whole neighborhoods and plowing them up for farm land.

 

I like the triangulation shown in the chassis. With the lightweight body panels, it might have made a nice Late Model stock car in it's day.

 

Wow, you made me think of old Craftsman screwdriver handles. It's worth noting that the car was destroyed not long after it was built, which is unusual in Ford-world. Suggests the car was not holding up well.

 

??? No such place as "Ford Main". The Rouge complex in east Dearborn is still going strong building F150's. The only Ford assembly plant in SE Michigan that shut down is the Wixom plant for Lincolns (leveled recently).

I'd love to see farming return to Detroit!

Steve

 

The Wixom plant closing still kind of baffles me. It was touted as one of the most advanced and efficient around.