Monday, May 20, 2019

A small place named Big Bay, that Henry Ford bought in 1943, but the Ford Company sold it in 1951 as it was not profitable to make cars there


Henry and Clara Ford enjoyed visiting Big Bay when staying at the nearby Huron Mountain Club. In 1943, Henry bought the community's sawmill, power plant, and houses and turned Big Bay into a company town. Its quaint hotel, the two-story building at right, became a popular destination for vacationing Ford executives. Ford Motor Company abandoned the unprofitable venture in 1951.


if it sounds shocking to hear that the founder of Fo Mo Co bought towns, then get ready for more shocks, he also owned Pequaming, Alberta, etc etc. and you've probably heard of Fordlandia

Ford was progressive in his employee care, to a point. If they had a strike, he had the police kill them. That's just a fact. Don't believe me? Look Harry Bennett and the Service Men, or Mayor of Detroit, Clyde Ford, Henry's cousin, and the Fort Street bascule bridge Massacre where Henry ordered his security guards, his "Service Men" to open fire, and the Dearborn Police Dept to open fire and told his cousin, the Mayor, to have the Detroit PD open fire, and some Ford hench men had Thompson submachine guns... so did some cops. The Detroit Fire Dept open up 2 inch fire hoses (this was in March 1932) to freeze the protestors and strikers.

But when they were working for him, he provided a town, homes, hospital, school, indoor plumbing, etc.


this map is from 1945

https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/379858/
https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/145299

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