Rouge: Pictured in Its Prime

1. Early Construction

1 EARLY CONSTRUCTION Ironically, on the same December 2, 1916, that the company passed its resolution approving the Rouge development, the Dodge brothers, minor stockholders of Ford Motor Company, filed a bill of complaint insisting that additional company dividends be given to stockholders instead of being spent on expansion such as that planned on the Rouge River. This legal case kept Henry Ford and William Mayo busy defending the Rouge expansion project in court until December 5, 1917, when a special dividend of $19,275,385 was ordered to be delivered to the stockholders within ninety days. Although the company was immersed in the court battle and caught in a financial bind, work at the Rouge location had begun. Dock construction and bins for iron ore, coal, and limestone had been started in April 1917, months before Congress gave final approval for the river dredging work. In June 1917, extensive excavation work was under way for blast-furnace construction. Under general supervision of Mayo, Julian Kennedy of Pittsburgh designed the Rouge blast furnaces, and Albert Kahn of Detroit designed the foundry and other buildings to fit whatever function for which they were to be used. Coke ovens were designed by the Semet-Solvay Company and constructed by the Heyl-Patterson Company. Cement for the construction of Rouge building foundations and the giant storage bins was furnished by the Edison Portland Cement Company of Stewartville, New Jersey. Two twenty-five-car railroad trains a week hauled cement to the Rouge, the limit being reached when there was a shortage of cars, not cement. In charge of river dredging was Col. Edward R. Markham, U.S. engineer for the Michigan District, who was to complete the dredging by 1921 but found it took until 1923 with a cost of $10 million to establish widths and depths sufficient to permit oceangoing ships to dock at the Rouge. Henry Ford, who was to furnish land on each side of the river downstream of the plant so that the dredged mud and silt could be discarded on the river banks, found himself in trouble with many landowners not wishing to give up their land. Entry of the United States into World War I on April 6, 1917, found Ford Motor Company’s far-flung factories immediately assigned to the manufacture of a variety of defense products, such as aircraft engines, tanks, trucks, tractors, ambulances, and helmets. The partially developed Rouge site, because of its embryonic ship canal, was promptly put to use building small seagoing submarine chasers. 25 Opposite, top: Steam shovels and horse-drawn carts on narrow-gauge rails remove soil where ore and coal bins will be, while steam-driven pile drivers sink long posts for future building foundations. The date is May 18, 1917. (833.20015) Opposite, bottom: By July 1917, a much larger steam shovel together with steam railroad equipment has greatly increased the efficiency of operations. This constant improvement in equipment to provide greater efficiency is characteristic of all Ford operations. (833.20296) Right: Piles are driven into the earth to support one of the circular blast-furnace foundations. Because of the great weight carried by the furnace when it is filled, the foundation must be supported very solidly, as any settling caused by insufficient support would make it necessary to shut down the furnace. This photograph was taken on November 30, 1917. (833.20935) Below: The site of the Rouge Plant is a morass of mud in the early spring of 1918. The dredge Niagara makes its way slowly up from the river, forming the boat slip. (833.21874) 27 Above: The Niagara, belonging to the Duluth-Superior Dredging Company, contractors for river and harbor improvements, was employed by the U.S. government between 1918 and 1923 in dredging the Rouge River, the turning basin, and the boat slip. (Photograph courtesy of Dearborn Historical Museum) An April 25, 1918, photograph of the two Hulett ship unloaders that would dip into the holds of the ore- or limestone-laden ships and transfer the load from the ships into the proper storage bins. (833.21924) 28 Top: Looking south from the north end of the boat slip on July 3, 1918, while the Niagara works to deepen the channel, men are separating bins into limestone, ore, and coal sections.To the left of the Hulett unloaders, one can see the skeleton of one of the new Mead-Morrison transfer...