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Entering the Rouge Visitors Center at the Dearborn Truck Plant, you see an array of the cars produced at the Rouge over the years and vintage photos as you enter the first theater.Ford's Rouge Reborn
High-tech Rouge will spur tourism
The Henry Ford helps Rouge plant develop tour that kindles excitement, interaction
In the first theater at the Rouge Visitors Center, vintage films from the National Archives and the Reuther Library at Wayne State University, show the history of Ford and the Rouge plant.The Ford Rouge manufacturing complex reopens for public tours of the Dearborn Truck Plant on Monday after a nearly 25-year hiatus.
What: Visitors take a bus from The Henry Ford museum and view historic sites along the route before entering the Ford Rouge Factory Tour visitor's center, view two films, visit an observation deck overlooking the complex followed by the self-guided plant tour.
Where: All timed-ticket tours begin and end at The Henry Ford in Dearborn.
When: Seven days a week, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets: $14 for adults; $13 for seniors, $10 for youth age 3-12. Children younger than 3 are admitted free. Museum member ticket prices: $10 for adults, $8.50 for children.
Ticket info: Call (313) 982-6001 or log on to www.thehenryford.org.
General info: (313) 982-6100 or www. thehenryford.org
With the new Ford Rouge factory tour, it's the first time in a while that automotive production has been on display. The old Stroh's and Vernors tours are long gone, and Dow Chemical in Midland discontinued its tours after September 11, but other industries still offer a peek at their manufacturing process, real or simulated:
Kellogg's Cereal City, Battle Creek. The real Kellogg factory tours were discontinued in the mid-'80s, allegedly because of fears of corporate spies. Hershey's Chocolate World in Pennsylvania, the Kellogg's "factory" is a simulated, smaller model of what goes on in the real manufacturing areas. Tickets are $7.95 for adults; $6.50 for seniors 65 and older; $4.95 for children 3-12; 2 and younger are free. Times through May 30 (call later for summer hours): closed Monday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tues.-Fri.; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.; noon-5 p.m. Sun. (269) 962-6230.
Chelsea Milling (Jiffy Mixes), Chelsea. This tour offers a peek at real -- not simulated -- manufacturing. Jiffy was the first company to offer premixed baking mixes back in 1930. Chelsea mills its own wheat into flour, mixes the ingredients, then puts it in those familiar blue boxes. Tours are free, but reservations are required; call (734) 475-1361.
Creole Cigar Factory, Lansing. Who knew Lansing was a bustling center of cigar production at the turn of the century? The Creole closed back in 1919 but a new Creole, making hand-rolled cigars, re-opened in 1999. You can watch as the Dominican-born torcedors make the cigars by hand. Tours are free. Call (866) 66 CIGAR.
Lionel Trains, Chesterfield. The 45-minute tour is free and offered three times a day Wed.-Sat. For a reservation and exact tour times, call (586) 949-4100, ext. 1211.
Morley Candy Makers and Sanders Candy Factory, 23770 Hall Road (M-59), Clinton Township. You get to see actual chocolate melted and poured over caramel to make vanilla caramels. Free sample at the end. Tours are free but require a reservation. Call (800) 682-2760.
Simplicity Pattern Co., Niles. You can observe workers making the tissue for sewing patterns, as well as pattern plate making, pattern printing, envelope printing, etc. Tours for groups of 12 or more are offered on a limited basis. Reservation and two weeks' notice required. Call (269) 687-1565.
Hoegh Pet Casket Factory, Gladstone. Yes, you really can see pet caskets being made, from parrot-size on up, made of high-impact styrene plastic. Free; call for times. (906) 428-2151.
Monitor Sugar Co. (Big Chief sugar), Bay City. Offers factory tours to schools. Call (989) 686-0161.
The Ford Motor Co. Rouge plant opens for public tours Monday for the first time in nearly 25 years. This series examines the plant's rich past and its impact on Ford and Metro Detroit.
Monday: The past and future of the cathedral to industry.
Tuesday: Inside the new Dearborn Truck Plant.
Wednesday: The latest wave and new generation of workers assigned to the Rouge complex.
Thursday: The plant's environmental innovations.
Today: How the resumption of plant tours is expected to boost Metro Detroit tourism and economic activity.
Sunday: Recollections of former factory workers and Metro Detroiters who toured the plant years ago.
SPECIAL GUIDE: On Monday, a four-page pull-away guide to the new visitors center, plant and tours.
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DEARBORN -- Mention Detroit to tourists and the first two things they think of are almost always cars and music. For music, visitors can go to the Motown Historical Museum and see where Diana Ross sang “Baby Love,” but since tours of Ford’s Rouge plant ended in 1980, they haven’t been able to watch molten steel become Mustangs.
That all changes with the new Ford Rouge factory tour, which opens to the public on Monday. Ford Motor Co.’s partnership with The Henry Ford to craft this fresh attraction for visitors to southeastern Michigan has local tourism officials smiling.
“One of the things we get asked about the most that we can’t provide happens to be automotive tours,” says Dave Morris of Travel Michigan. “Years ago it used to be a very popular activity. With increased insurance liability, those kinds of things went by the wayside. But it wasn’t due to lack of demand.”
The old Rouge plant tours drew up to 250,000 visitors a year for a total of more than 7.2 million visitors from 1924, when they opened, to 1980. Predictions are that the new Rouge tours will draw 300,000 visitors a year. That would add up to $23,725,000 in economic impact to Metro Detroit in the first 12 months of its opening, based on the Travel Michigan economic impact model originally developed by Michigan State University.
The Rouge plant’s location on the border of Dearborn and Detroit is within a 10-mile radius of Metro Airport, an area that David Littman, chief economist of Comerica Bank, sees as key to Metro Detroit’s economic revival.
“And a big part of that revival is tourism,” Littman says. The economist sees the reopened Rouge tours as part of a “critical mass” of events that will boost tourism and trade in southeastern Michigan.
Today, you can’t see actual production at Cereal City in Battle Creek, but instead there’s a smaller, simulated process on display.
That differs sharply from the vision that The Henry Ford and Ford Motor Co. have for the new Rouge tours of the Dearborn Truck Plant. This is actual manufacturing of the Ford F-150 pickup truck, complete with a sign asking that visitors don’t shout or distract the workers.
“This is back to the real thing,” says Scott Mallwitz, director of experience design at The Henry Ford. “When you simulate it, there’s a lack of context. The public knows that Cereal City is a simulation. That’s why we at the museum played such a role in all this. It had to be real.”
Most agree that the driving factor in getting a Rouge tour going again was Ford’s chairman and CEO.
“It started with us recognizing we needed a visitor’s experience,” says Bill Ford Jr. “We wanted to tell our story, but we were really ill-equipped to do that. We don’t handle entertainment customers on a daily basis.”
The Henry Ford does handle entertainment customers, and according to Mallwitz, its focus in designing much of the new tour experience was to keep the kids interested.
While the tour of the pristine, airy and light truck plant doesn’t give you the fiery, somewhat scary Dante’s Infernolike experience visitors to the old Rouge factory had, the museum and Ford hope that the many computers kids can operate and unusual sights such as a beehive tended by a millwright, the famous grass roof and groves of crab apple trees will make up for the loss of fire and brimstone.
“See those kids over there?” Mallwitz says, pointing out a group of 8- to 10-year-olds visiting the Rouge plant last week. “Eighty-five percent of them have been to Orlando. And kids drive the decision-making in the leisure market. Expectations are so much higher now, kids today have more computing ability in their PlayStations than we have in one floor of the museum. So when we designed this we asked, ‘How engaging is it to kids? Will they like it?’ ”
The children were quiet, engrossed in the first of two films shown to visitors before you enter the plant. The film has a wealth of old black-and-white historical footage of Henry Ford and production at Ford Motor’s Highland Park plant and the Rouge.
“We needed to answer the question, ‘Why did it happen here?’ ’’ Mallwitz says. “People from here take it for granted, but we needed to explain that. The kids are paying attention, but if the second movie was just like that, we’d lose them.”
Thus, the second film you see before entering the plant itself is an interactive experience meant to give you some of the sensations of being in an auto plant, including being showered with mist (when you’re watching the paint process) and having a wind machine blow your hair in the primal foundry scenes.
Bill Ford believes that the tour will offer something for those who have never set foot in an auto plant before, as well as those familiar with the process.
“For the totally uninitiated, for the kids and people who don’t live in Detroit, the movies and stuff, they think that’s the coolest thing,” says Ford. “For the people who know something about manufacturing, being out in the plant and seeing how flexible the manufacturing is and how the plant’s laid out and the fact that you do have natural light, there (is) something in it for everybody.”
News staff writer Eric Mayne contributed to this report. You can reach Susan Whitall at (313) 222-2156 or swhitall@detnews.com.
Visitors to the Rouge tours can get more information from computers positioned throughout the factory.
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