Rouge: Pictured in Its Prime

Introduction

INTRODUCTION Now, in this new millennium, when the famous Rouge factory site in Dearborn, Michigan, is undergoing an industrial renaissance, it is imperative that we vividly portray its illustrious past before it is entirely forgotten. Once the largest, most efficient, and most highly integrated automotive manufacturing complex in the world, “the Rouge,” as Detroiters called it, supplied direct sustenance to nearly 100,000 American families. Based on experience building automobiles at Detroit’s Piquette and Highland Park factories, Henry Ford by 1914 had visualized the ultimate— the continuous, uninterrupted processing of minerals from the earth into tractors and automobiles. Beginning with iron ore, within a matter of hours rather than days or weeks, the very same iron would be processed into a vehicle.This concept of manufacture was indeed unique within the automotive industry. Despite contentious stockholders within Ford Motor Company, Ford maneuvered to begin construction of his idealized factory on the River Rouge, where he could build as many Fordson tractors as he was building ModelT automobiles at Highland Park. Leading in the construction were the powerplant, blast furnaces, ore bins, coke ovens, and a giant foundry, iron castings being the major components of Fordson tractors as well as Model T automobile engines. Following a few years later would be the open-hearth furnaces, steel mills, press shop, glass plant, and complete automotive assembly operations. Equipment and processes at the Rouge were always being changed to provide improved productivity. A machine was replaced as soon as a more efficient one could be either designed and built or purchased. Entire operations such as power generation, the coking process, glass manufacture, steelmaking and fabrication, and vehicle assembly were upgraded at frequent intervals. The story of the Rouge is a story of progress both industrially and socially. Investments totaling many millions of dollars, especially during the depressed 1930s, provided Ford workers with gainful employment during those otherwise hard times. First known as the River Rouge Plant, in 1926 it became known as the Fordson Plant, because the Village of Springwells in which it was located then became the Village of Fordson, named after Henry and Edsel Ford. In 1929, when the Village of Fordson and the Village of Dearborn consolidated into the City of Dearborn, the Fordson Plant was renamed the Rouge Plant. The Rouge was an industrial city in itself, covering an area of 1300 acres, with 23 miles of roadways, 100 miles of railroad tracks, 120 miles of conveyors , and more than a mile of docks facing storage bins capable of holding 2 million tons of raw materials. The main powerhouse burned pulverized coal to provide 330,000 kilowatts of electricity, enough to supply the City of Detroit if necessary. Gas produced by the coke ovens could supply the domestic requirements of a city of 1.5 million population. Water pumped from the Detroit River through a two-mile-long, fifteen-foot-diameter tunnel supplied 700 million gallons a day, as much as was consumed by the cities of Detroit, Cincinnati, and Washington combined. The Ford Fleet, with its twenty-nine vessels, connected the Rouge with the industrial world beyond. Henry and Edsel Ford spent considerable time at the Rouge Plant prior 11 Introduction to 1940. They were especially concerned about working conditions in the buildings that covered 170 acres within the plant. All buildings were to be clean, the lighting adequate, and ventilation acceptable. Air conditioning was provided to the foundry at the same time as it was provided to the Miller Road executive offices at Gate Four. Rigid control of temperature was essential in some manufacturing areas in order to maintain precise and interchangeable sizes of parts, such as pistons in engines. From its very beginning until about 1940, the Rouge Plant, under the personal direction of Henry and Edsel Ford, prospered as the company’s main and most efficient automotive production plant. With the coming of World War II and immense government defense contracts, production peaked temporarily, but immediately following the war, decentralization of manufacturing was deemed advisable partly because of the fear of Soviet nuclear attacks. As a result, the Rouge has been relieved of much of its previous burden, and its glorious past becomes history. From time to time over the years, guest photographers such as Charles Sheeler and Michael Kenna have produced limited collections of photographs depicting the unique architecture and machinery of the Rouge in exceptionally artistic fashion. And back in 1932, Diego Rivera was commissioned by Edsel Ford to execute a series...