Great Lakes Road Trip Day 2; Hunting memory lane in western Metro Detroit and Greenfield Village

The second day of the trip was spent locally with some family. The day started out with a trip down M-5 to find my Grand Parents house off of Grand River Avenue which was once US 16.

Specifically my Grand Parents lived off of Grand River Avenue in Redford. I want to say they bought their house back in the 1950s or 1960s but the exact date eludes me. I remember actually walking to the grocery store and McDonald's with my Grand Parents when the neighborhood was still decent. A lot of the blight that has taken over Detroit really has migrated northwest on Grand River, there was essentially almost no activity or people moving about.

I had some family members with me who wanted to look at old houses that they lived in decades ago. This involved crossing back over Telegraph Road on 6 Mile to return to Grand River Avenue. I liked the Michigan Left diagram on this guide sign in particular.

I took Grand River Avenue on M-5 down to the M-39 on the Southfield Freeway. I haven't been on the Southfield Freeway since maybe 1990 and really it didn't look any different than it did back in that era. The interchange with I-96 always was something that was amusing to me given how complex the design was. I jumped off on Michigan Avenue/US 12 in Dearborn and headed over to the Henry Ford.

I haven't been to The Henry Ford since the mid-1980s and it was nice to see a museum about engineering that is this high in quality. The irony for me is that I've found so many of the buildings and machinery rotting away in mining camps out west that was fully operational in Greenfield Village, it was a little of surreal site for me. I really enjoyed some of the Edison displays and the rail features most out of everything we went to see.

On the way back north to I took US 12 west on Michigan Avenue, US 24 north on Telegraph, and I-96/I-275. I had to make a stop in Farmington Hills to drop off a family member which didn't help with traffic but at least allowed me an opportunity to take a picture of the I-696 "Ends" shield and placard.

Comments

Morgan Territory Road

Morgan Territory Road is an approximately 14.7-mile-long roadway mostly located in the Diablo Range of Contra Costa County, California. The roadway is named after settler Jerimah Morgan who established a ranch in the Diablo Range in 1857. Morgan Territory Road was one of several facilities constructed during the Gold Rush era to serve the ranch holdings. The East Bay Regional Park District would acquire 930 acres of Morgan Territory in 1975 in an effort to establish a preserve east of Mount Diablo. The preserve has since been expanded to 5,324 acres. The preserve functionally stunts the development along roadway allowing it to remain surprisingly primitive in a major urban area. Part 1; the history of Morgan Territory Road During the period of early period of American Statehood much of the Diablo Range of Contra Costa County was sparsely developed. Jerimah Morgan acquired 2,000 acres of land east of Mount Diablo in 1856 and established a ranch in 1857. Morgan Territory Road is

The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge (Madera County)

The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge is an early era arch concrete structure found alongside modern Madera County Road 200. The structure was modeled as a smaller scale of the 1905 Pollasky Bridge (still in ruins at the San Joaquin River) and was one of many early twentieth century improvements to what was then known as the Fresno-Fresno Flats Road. The 1915-era bridge was replaced with a modernized concrete span during 1947 but was never demolished. The original concrete structure can be still found sitting in the brush north of the 2023 Fine Gold Creek Bridge. Part 1; the history of the 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge lies near the site of the former mining community of Fine Gold. Mining claims were staked at Fine Gold during the Mariposa War during 1850. The community was never very large but became a stopping point on the stage road between the original Fresno County seat at Millerton and Fresno Flats (now Oakhurst). The stage road eventually bypas

Old Sonoma Road

Old Sonoma Road is an approximately five-mile highway located in the Mayacamas Mountains of western Napa County. The roadway is part of the original stage road which connected Napa Valley west to Mission San Francisco Solano as part of El Camino Real. Much of Old Sonoma Road was bypassed by the start of the twentieth century by way of Sonoma Highway. A portion of Old Sonoma Road over the 1896 Carneros Creek Bridge (pictured as the blog cover) was adopted as part of Legislative Route Number 8 upon voter approval of the 1909 First State Highway Bond Act. The 1896 Carneros Creek Bridge served as a segment of California State Route 37 and California State Route 12 from 1934 through 1954. Part 1; the history of Old Sonoma Road Old Sonoma Road has origins tied to the formation of Mission San Francisco Solano and the Spanish iteration of El Camino Real. Mission San Francisco Solano was founded as the last and most northern Spanish Mission of Alta California on July 4, 1823. The new M

Gribblenation

Search This Blog