The enormous Henry Ford Museum ( ), ten miles from downtown at 20900 Oakwood Blvd, Dearborn, pays fulsome tribute to its founder (an inveterate collector of Americana) as a brilliant industrialist and do-gooder. The former is certainly true. The hero of the "second industrial revolution" and inventor of the assembly line didn't succeed by being a philanthropist. His Service Department of 3500 private policemen prompted the New York Times in 1928 to call him "an industrialist fascist - the Mussolini of Detroit." To Ford, unions were 'the worst things that ever struck the earth,' though he was forced to let the UAW into his factories in 1943, after only 34 out of 78,000 workers voted against joining a union. Ford also bowed to the economic necessity of employing blacks, though he banned them from the model communities he built for his white workers. Instead, the company constructed a separate town, which he sardonically named Inkster.

In addition to the massive " The Automobile in American Life " exhibit, the twelve-acre museum amounts to a giant curiosity shop, holding several planes and trains, rows and rows of domestic inventions, and cabinets full of schoolchild collectibles like dime novels, comics and baseball cards. Real oddities include the chair Lincoln was sitting in and the car Kennedy was riding in when each was shot, and even a test tube holding Edison's last breath. One pertinent item not on view, however, is the Iron Cross that Hitler presented to Ford (a notorious anti-Semite) in 1938.

Ford uprooted the houses of famous Americans from all over the country to relocate them in Greenfield Village . Among the 240 buildings, you'll find Ford's own birthplace, the Wright Brothers' cycle shop, Edison's laboratory and Firestone's farm. Costumed hosts demonstrate everything from weaving to puncture repairing.

Reached on SMART bus routes #200 and #250, the museum and village are open daily from 9am to 5pm, although the interiors of the village buildings are closed Jan 4 to March. Tickets are $12.50 for the museum or village, $24 for a two-day combination ticket. For further information, call 313/271-1620 or 1-800/835-5237.

Directly next door to the Ford sprawl, the Automotive Hall of Fame , 21400 Oakwood Blvd (summer daily 10am-5pm; rest of year closed Mon; $6; ), is more interesting than it might at first sound. In paying homage to the innovators and inventors of the global (not just the Detroit) auto industry, the interactive exhibits let visitors see how they would have handled problems encountered by Buick, Honda and the like. It's not just for mechanical types, either - there's a chance to pit your wits against the dealmakers who set up General Motors.

New additions include the Spirit of Ford at 1151 Village Rd (daily 9am-5pm; $9), which takes a fun, highly interactive look behind the scenes at Ford Motor Company.

Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village and the Automotive Hall of Fame

• Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village and the Automotive Hall of Fame

Michigan cities


All U.S. city guides