Dearborn Things to Do

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Dimensions:
Length: 64' 6";
Wingspan: 95'
Weight (empty): 15,800 lbs.

Construction Materials: Aluminum, fabric on ailerons, elevators and rudder
Builder: Douglas Aircraft Company, Santa Monica, California
Cost: $110,000 new; $35,000 when bought by North Central Airlines in 1952
Number Built: 10,926 in U.S. (10,123 military, 803 civilian); about 3,500 additional Japanese and Soviet versions
Engine Type: Two Wright Cyclone, 9-cylinder, 1,000-horsepower, radial, air-cooled internal combustion engines
Engine Builder: Wright Aeronautical Company, Patterson, New Jersey
Configuration: 1-pilot/21-passenger tractor monoplane
Maximum Speed: 190 m.p.h.

Flying into the Record Books
As an airliner for Eastern Airlines and North Central Airlines, this DC-3:

Flew more than 12 million miles in 83,032 hours
Used 550 main gear tires and 25,000 spark plugs
Wore out 136 engines
Consumed almost 9 million gallons of gasoline
Taxied over 100,000 miles
Flew an additional 1,843 hours after being refitted as a corporate plane
When it was donated to the Museum in 1975, it had spent more time aloft than any other airplane in history. That record has since been broken by another DC-3.

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Standing 26 feet high, this neon sign was installed in August 1960 at the second McDonald's franchise in Michigan.It reads "Licensee of the McDonal's speedee Service System-Hamburgers Over Million Sold."

Our entire family loved it here. Great for the kids, lots to see and do! My kids especially loved the plastic mold machines you can do for $2.00 each. We got molds of the Rosa Parks bus, Abe Lincoln, a Ford truck, & a Mustang. Be sure to see Kennedy's car that he was shot in, and Abe Lincoln's chair! Great photo opps. We did spend the extra $$$ to get into the Greenfield Village, but please don't waste your money. It was literally like an abandoned bunch of buildings...nothing like it looked like on their website. All we saw there were 5 very dirty sheep!

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Greenfield Village is a re-creation of a 19th century American town. Henry Ford learned that his boyhood home was being razed for road construction. So he moved and restored the old house, and built this village around it. It's one of America's best living history museums, showing life as it was in Ford's youth.

Open daily from 9:00 to 5:00. A $30 ticket gets you into everything (there are AAA, military, senior, and student discounts). Tickets are available online.

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Within Greenfield Village there are seven historic areas (districts) that represent how American went from town living to an industrial power.

Each of the districts has homes and work places with "actor-volunteers" living and working as they would in historical accuracy to the period of that area.

The Henry Ford area shows Ford's home and first workshop, a replica of the one-room schools of his time and has period furniture and artifacts for viewing (but do not touch).

The Main Street area shows a 19th century town with shops and post office and tavern and courthouse and various town buildings of that period. Most of the buildings have several rooms open for viewing with actors portraying activities pertinent to the area.

The Working Farm area is just what the name implies; a 19th century American farm with animals and machinery and farmer and his wife.

The Railroad Junction area shows how important steam transportation was to the growth of America. You can see a depot and a roundhouse and several trains.

The Historic Homes area shows homes that have been transplanted and rebuilt from their original sites around Michigan to their present place at Greenfield Village. There is a lot to see in this area and a lot of "period personalities" to talk to.

The Thomas Edison area shows many of the things for which Edison was famous.
The Liberty Craftsworks area has buildings the 19th century handicrafts still being practiced today.

The experience is fantastic for kids of all ages. See the website below for information on how to get there and what the ticket costs are (not cheap, but worth it).

Dearborn has many different types of local hangouts to check out. If you're on the west side of the city, you'll want to check out Crave Lounge, for their sushi and martinis. They have dj's spinning house music on weekends as well. Other martini lounges include Silky's (attached to Kiernan's steak house) and the Double Olive, which is part martini lounge, part dance club. A second room has recently been added where a dance floor and DJ are set up. For a more laid back, casual atmosphere, there's Cheli's and Bailey's, more along the lines of a sports bar. And there's also Howells, a local watering hole like Cheers.
For the east side of the city, there's plenty of "gentlemans clubs," as well as casual places like Paisano's, an Italian restaurant with a comedy club in the basement, and KC's Dive.

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Probably no one personifies this state more than Henry Ford. He created a car that was sturdy, reliable, functional, and affordable to the average American. He also pioneered modern techniques of mass production. And he paid his workers a lving wage, on the premise that they couldn't afford his cars otherwise. He also forbade them to drink--on or off the job (and it was enforced).

This museum is all about the early industrial age. It's the best of its kind that I've seen in the U.S. The displays of old autos, farm machinery, tools, and other memorabilia are impressive, to say the least. Don't miss this.

Be sure to check out Greenfield Village, nearby. It's one of America's best "living history" museums.

A historical trip in time, Greenfield Village takes you back to early inventions and historical figures' homes. Wear comfortable shoes, as this covers quite a bit of ground and in order to see everything in the park, you will be doing a lot of walking!