DEARBORN, Mich. -- It's no surprise that the Henry Ford Museum has enough cars to fill a Motown freeway, but its vast collection of automobiles -- a stunning variety of makes, models, eras and designs -- is just one part of a more general tribute to American know-how.Ford, the auto pioneer who founded Ford Motor Co. and invented the modern assembly line, opened his museum in this suburb 15 miles west of Detroit on Sept. 27, 1928, "to honor the common genius of the American people."His friend, Thomas Edison, 87 at the time, helped dedicate the massive facility, and the cornerstone where he wrote his name in wet cement stands sentry at the entrance, a shovel sticking up from the solid block. Nearby, a small screen shows a video loop of Edison signing his name and, beside it, a test tube containing the famed inventor's last breath, sealed with paraffin wax on Oct. 18, 1931.From milestone inventions to pop-culture trivia, there are literally millions of artifacts displayed under the museum's nine-acre roof.The Henry Ford, which comprises the museum and neighboring Greenfield Village, are billed as America's Greatest History Attraction, and who could argue?Each venue requires a day to peruse, or longer for those who like to linger, and the museum's broad range of exhibits includes planes, trains, sleds, stage coaches, motorcycles, RVs, bicycles, presidential limousines and an Oscar Mayer Weinermobile; factory and farm equipment and household appliances through the centuries; furniture; pop culture sorted by decades; jewelry, and a futuristic "Dymaxion House," looking like a giant Hershey Kiss, invented by R. Buckminster Fuller.Some special artifacts of American history include letters written by George Washington, and his Revolutionary War camp cot and mess kit; the red padded rocking chair in which Abraham Lincoln was assassinated April 14, 1865; the limousine John F. Kennedy was in when he was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963, and the Montgomery, Ala., city bus on which Rosa Parks took a stand for civil rights on Dec. 1, 1955."It's fantastic. I love, love it," said Craig Cleveland, 38, of Fort Thomas, Ky. "It's a huge space and the exhibits are first-rate. The historical things such as Abraham Lincoln's chair, that was the big thing, and the letters from George Washington -- the original letters he wrote -- that's the stuff I like."His wife, Kim, 37, said their 1-year-old daughter, Lily, was too young to appreciate the museum, but their 4-year-old son, Parker, enjoyed "anything he could go on or climb into."Bill Charlton, 62, of Lakewood, Colo., viewed the Allegheny Locomotive No. 1601, a towering, 603.5-ton, 76-foot-long coal-fired engine that is the most photographed item in the museum.It was built by Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio, in 1941 and hauled coal through the mountains for 407,000 miles before being retired in 1956."Boy, everything is so fantastic. This place is wonderful, it's hard to pick a favorite," said Charlton.Museum employee Joe Connor, 67, of Plymouth, Mich., said the bus where Parks refused to move to the back was discovered by the museum about six or seven years ago when it was put on sale on eBay.Henry Ford Museum officials asked that the bus be taken off the online auction house while they tried to verify its authenticity, and a year later it went back on sale through a different auction firm.The Henry Ford Museum bought it for $319,000, then spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of it funded through a grant, to restore it.Audio tours, using cell phones supplied by the museum, offer descriptions of selected exhibits, and the museum has an IMAX theater. Tours of a working factory, Ford's Rouge Plant, where F-150 pickup trucks are assembled, are available for an extra $14.For people with limited time to spend, the museum visitor's guide lists seven must-see artifacts: the Dymaxion House; Weinermobile; Lincoln Chair; Rosa Parks Bus; Kennedy Presidential Limousine; Allegheny Locomotive, and a 1939 Douglas DC-3.Here are some other artifacts worth a look:-- A 1983 Honda Accord, the first car built in America by a Japanese company.-- "The Green Book for the Negro Motorist," from 1949, with a Mark Twain quote on the cover: "Travel is fatal to prejudice."-- A 1935 trailer given to Charles Lindbergh by Henry Ford, with Lindbergh writing his annual trip itinerary on the bottom of a kitchen drawer.-- A 1924 Doble 100-mph steam-powered luxury car that sold for $9,750.-- A Pung sleigh that George Washington may have ridden to church on Christmas Day, 1776.-- A complete 1946 portable diner with a menu listing an egg sandwich for 10 cents.-- "Heroes of the Skies," an airplane exhibit that includes a workstation to make and fly paper airplanes.-- Goldenrod, a rocketshiplike race car with four 600-horsepower engines that hit 409.277 mph on the Bonneville, Utah, Salt Flats in 1965.-- A music video "green screen" where visitors can dance along with Van Halen on the song "Jump."-- A replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer that flew 852 feet, with a maximum speed of 9.9 mph.X...X...XIF YOU GOAdmission: For adults, $14 for museum, $20 for Greenfield Village, or $30 for both; seniors 62 and over or active military, $13, $19 and $28; for children 5-12, $10, $14 and $22; free for children age 4 and under.Hours: Museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. 365 days a year; the village is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Nov. 2; Friday through Sunday Nov. 3 to Dec. 28, and closed Jan. 1 to April 14.Ford Rouge Factory Tour is 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; $14 for adults, $13 for seniors and $10 for children ages 5-12.For more information, go to www.TheHenry Ford.org or call 313-982-6001.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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