Special report - Rouge reborn - The Detroit News Online5/4/04

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Tuesday, May 4, 2004

Ricardo Thomas / The Detroit News

Former Ford engineer Bill Johnson, right, takes the Williams family -- Harry, Anne-Marie and Philomena -- on a tour of the Rouge plant. More than 800 visitors sold out the factory's first day of tours since 1980.

Visitors pack Rouge plant
The Rouge Factory Tour opened Monday with a bang. Literally. Clare Fisher's ears may still be ringing. 05/04/04

F-150 plant tour revels in past, shows off future
The doors to Ford Motor Co.'s famous Rouge factory once again are opening to the public. At its peak, the Rouge was the largest manufacturing center in the world, with 93 structures on 2,000 acres, 100 miles of railroad tracks, 120 miles of conveyers, a fire department, a police force and a hospital. 05/03/04

Truck plant engineered to protect environment
05/03/04

Bus tour showcases century of Ford history, landmarks
05/03/04

Rouge plant milestones
05/03/04

Fond memories of plant endure for workers, visitors
From a catwalk high above the assembly line floor, Rodney Schrank and his classmates gazed spellbound at red-hot, molten steel pouring from huge blast furnaces. 05/02/04

High-tech Rouge will spur tourism
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. 04/30/04

Art, music and pop culture all helped to tell plant's story
In the opening scenes of Paul Schrader's 1978 film "Blue Collar," the sooty, orange smokestacks of the Rouge plant loom menacingly against the skyline as Bo Diddley plays a jagged, thumping blues riff. The film, starring Richard Pryor, depicted the struggles of three Detroit auto workers with a hard, mind-numbing job. 04/30/04

Green Rouge attracts bees, birds, praise
DEARBORN -- An unwelcome byproduct of the famed Rouge complex is that the neighboring Rouge River would catch fire from chemicals Ford Motor Co. dumped into it from the 1920s into the 1950s. 04/29/04

Young workers, old hands to produce trucks at Rouge
DEARBORN -- When Ford Motor Co. began the slow execution of its plant in Edison, N.J., 18 months ago, Roberto Christian joined the caravan of workers uprooted by the automaker's plan to close five factories and cut 12,000 jobs. 04/28/04

Truck plant buries noisy, grimy image
DEARBORN -- Auto plants historically have been hostile places where workers wrestle with steel -- and their own physical limitations -- in a sprint against time to build cars and trucks. 04/27/04

Daniel Howes
Cathedral to industry echoes its past glory
DEARBORN--In its day, Henry Ford's River Rouge was the largest single industrial complex the world had ever seen. 04/26/04

Virtual Tour

Click here to take a virtual walk-thru of the Ford Rouge Factory Tour.

Before you go, click here for hours, tickets, and other information.

Rouge Memories Forum

Have you ever worked at the Rouge? Are you among the legions of schoolchildren who toured it? Post your memories here and read what others have to say.

Photo Galleries

Ford's trade school
Henry Ford schooled boys in skilled trades.

The Rouge naval academy
Rouge naval academy trained sailors during WWII

The art of industry
Some of the great works of art inspired by the Rouge Plant.

The innovations
Ford's state-of-art truck plant sits well with workers and the environment.

The faces behind the Fords
Some of the workers that have toiled on the Rouge's assembly lines over the years.

The cars that Rouge built
A look at the rich history of auto assembly at the Rouge complex.

River Rouge: Ford factory through the decades
Aerial shots from the '20s, students on tour in the '50s, royals among celebrity guests.

Ford's Highland Park plant
Period postcards circa 1917 show operations at Ford's Highland Park plant, which the Rouge complex would soon replace.

Albert Kahn: Architect to the auto industry
Kahn built more than 1,000 buildings for Ford Motor Co.

Rouge Plant exterior
A large-size photo of its heyday

Rearview Mirror

The Rouge plant: The art of industry
Today, the Rouge is only one of many Ford Motor Co. manufacturing and assembling facilities. But it is still unique in American industry.

Once teeming with auto plants, Detroit now home to only a few nameplates
Here is a brief summary of some of the major auto makers who used to build cars in Detroit and helped make it the Motor City.

Special Reports Archive

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