LOWER PENINSULA 11. C.C.C. Museum, Roscommon 15. Labor Holiday The Civilian Conserva- Monument, Lansing You can find these labor-history sites on and off the highways of Michigan’s two peninsulas. Consult the map on the tion Corps Museum A historical marker reverse side for approximate locations, and call each site or check their website for opening hours. Enjoy your road trip! honors the 100,000 at City Hall Plaza Michigan men who commemorates UPPER PENINSULA Illustrations: Melissa Washburn, Design: Barbara Barefield, Editor: Dave Elsila worked in conservation the Lansing and preservation, including Labor Holi- 1. Italian Hall and Keweenaw on U.S. 41, eight miles south of L’anse. 21-foot drop between Lakes Superior planting millions of trees. day, a citywide National Historic Park, Calumet 906-487-3673; mtu.edu/forest/fordcenter and Huron. The visitor center, 312 West The C.C.C. was a program in the Great general strike that Seventy-three people died as 4. Iron Industry Museum, Portage Avenue, has exhibits on the Depression to provide employment for shut down much of the city’s fac- they tried to escape down Negaunee, and Cliff Shaft Mine history of this marvel of engineering, young men. 11747 N. Higgins Lake Dr. tories and businesses on June 7, a narrow staircase in the Museum, Ishpeming operated by the U.S. Army Corps of 989-348-6178; michigan.gov 1937. Workers took over downtown Engineers. 906-253-9290; saultstemarie. Italian Hall in 1913 after Unionized miners have streets to protest strong-arm tactics someone yelled “fire” com/member-detail/soo-locks-visitor-center 12. Michigan Firefighters by police against strikers at Capital Sit-down strike worked in open-pit iron memorial, Flint. during a Christmas Party Memorial, Roscommon City Wrecking Co., one of many shops mines in the Marquette A 12-foot-high bronze statue weighing for children of striking copper Range for decades. The LOWER PENINSULA newly organized by the United Auto- miners. Visit the memorial at Seventh 2,000 pounds honors Michigan firefighters mobile Workers. Capital City eventually Iron Industry Museum, 73 Forge 8. Ironworkers Walk of Fame, and Elm Streets, and the Keweenaw who have lost their lives in the call of duty. negotiated a contract with its workers. Rd., Negaunee, documents their heri- Mackinaw City More than 75 names appear on the base 18. U.S. Postal National Historic Park visitors’ center, tage, and in nearby Ishpeming, the Cliff 517-483-4000; lansingmi.gov 98 Fifth Street, for exhibits and maps This “Walk of Iron” honors the of the statue. 1295 E. Robinson Lake Rd. Service Museum/ Railroad Shaft Mine Museum, 501 W. Euclid workers who built the Mackinac 989-275-5880; firemensmemorial.org 16. Spirit of Solidarity Monument, Workers Monument, Marshall and directions to other sites, including a Street, is housed in a former iron mine. Grand Rapids Bridge linking Michigan’s Lower Visitors can learn about the history of the former copper mine, open to tours. Look for the memorial stone to miners 13. Memorial and Upper Peninsulas. A The monument in postal system including the contributions Drive 36 miles south of killed in 1926 in the Barnes-Hecker min- Museum, Harbor Beach statue of an ironworker throw- Ah-Nab-Awen Park, 303 of postal workers and letter carriers at Calumet to visit the ing tragedy on the museum’s grounds. As mayor of , ing a rivet was made from Pearl Street, memorializes the U.S. Postal Service Museum, 202 Hanka Homestead on 906-475-7857; michigan.gov governor of Michigan, over 3,000 tools donated by the Furniture Strike of Michigan Avenue, in the basement of Otter Lake, near Askel, and attorney general 5. Tahquamenon Logging Museum, ironworkers. Five workers were 1911, when several thou- the Marshall post office. (269-979-2719; where you can visit and Supreme Court Newberry killed and many others injured sand workers in the city’s michigan.org) Also in Marshall, a plaque the Hanka family home, justice of the U.S., Newberry was one of in the construction of the “Mighty Mac,” furniture factories walked out at 633 W. Hanover Street marks the site barns, hen house, grainery, Frank Murphy was a the centers of the 1937 the longest suspension bridge in the to protest low wages and poor working of the founding of the Brotherhood of blacksmith shop, sauna, root cellar, and defender of labor and civil lumberjacks’ strike. At western hemisphere. The monument is conditions. The strikers, demanding a Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen in milk house to see what life was like for rights. Murphy’s first home this museum, located on North Huron Avenue, and the bridge nine-hour workday and a 10 percent April 1863. 216-241-2630; ble-t.org many of the immigrants who settled in in Harbor Beach was both home and law on M-123 a mile north of museum is at 231 E. Central Avenue, raise, kept their walkout going this area. 906-337-3168; nps.gov office. Later a larger home was built next 19. Monroe County Labor History Newberry, you will find exhib- 231-436-5351; walkofiron.com for 17 weeks despite the door for the family. The home is now a Museum/Steel Strike Memorial, 2. Iron County Historical its on Michigan’s early days of lumbering company’s refusal to bar- 9. Walter P. Reuther Eternal museum, located at 142 South Huron Monroe Museum & Mine, Iron River and visit an authentic cook shack, a gain and its hiring of scabs. Flame, Onaway/Black Lake Avenue. 989-479-6477; harborbeach.com/ Iron miners and loggers helped develop C.C.C. building, and more. 906-293- While the strike ended The only labor museum in Michigan is An eternal flame memori- parksrecreation/museums.aspx major industries in the western Upper 3700; Tahquamenonloggingmuseum.org without an immediate built around the theme “for the good of alizes Walter P. Reuther, victory, the sacrifices of the all” and includes a timeline of labor his- Peninsula. Visit the Iron County 14. Sit-Down Strike Memorial, 6. Great Lakes Shipwreck workers, who were supported by tory, the story of the 1937 Newton Steel Historical Museum, 100 Brady Ave- Flint nue, Caspian, to see exhibits related to Museum, Paradise/ president from 1945-1970 the mayor and the local Catholic bishop, Strike, and special exhibits in a historic For 44 days in 1936-37, iron mining, logging, and life in Native Whitefish Point at the UAW’s large and were a catalyst to eventually winning union building at 41 West Front Street. auto workers occu- American and immigrant communities. The men and impressive Black Lake con- higher wages in both the furniture and A memorial marker to the Newton “Little pied plants in General The museum is built on the site of an old women who lost ference center, 2000 Maxon Rd. other industries. Steel” strike of 1937 is located at the River Motors’ vast Flint iron mine. Forty miles northwest is the their lives on Lake 989-733-8521; uawblacklake.com 616-456-3000; historygrandrapids.org Raisin Battlefield Center, 1403 East Elm network, while Wom- town of Marinesco, where lumberjacks Superior’s stormy Avenue. 734-693-0446; monroelabor.org 10. Lumbermen’s Monument, en’s Emergency Brigade 17. Michigan Highway Workers at the Bonifas 2 Camp in 1937 kicked off waters, and those Oscoda members supplied them with food and Memorial, Clare 20. MotorCities National a 16-week-long timber-workers strike that who sought to rescue them, are honored The Lumbermen’s Monument is a built community support. Workers ended Workers who have Heritage Area spread across the Upper Peninsula. at this museum, 18335 North Whitefish 906- their occupation Feb. 11, 1937, once lost their lives while Encompassing over 10,000 square miles in Point Rd., Paradise. 888-492-3747; 14-foot bronze statue of three lumber- 265-2617; Facebook: Iron County Museum GM agreed to recognize the United Auto constructing and main- southern and central Michigan, MCNHA, shipwreckmuseum.com men. You’ll find interesting interactive 3. Alberta Sawmill, Alberta exhibits about Michigan’s logging indus- Workers. The victory inspired a wave of taining highways are affiliated with the U.S. National Park Workers in this sawmill 7. Soo Locks Visitor Center, try in the adjacent log cabin, which serves sit-downs throughout Michigan as thou- honored in seven larg- Service, identifies and marks locations processed the lumber Sault Ste. Marie as the U.S. Forest Service visitor’s center, sands of workers joined unions, sparking er-than-life silhouette important in auto and labor history, from used in Ford station Skilled crew members have been navigat- 5401 Monument Rd. on the River Road the growth of the industrial union move- statues in a landscaped Monroe to Saginaw, from Detroit to wagons (“woodies”). ing the giant freighters carrying goods on national scenic byway west of Oscoda. ment. An impressive monument honors highway rest center located off US-127 Kalamazoo. Information, maps, and tour Visit the historical saw- the Great Lakes for more than a century, 989-362-8961; www.michigan.org/property/ the workers and tells their story at 1940 W. near the intersection of US-10. suggestions are available at its website. mill and restored village using the Soo Locks to get through the lumberman-s-monument-visitor-center Atherton Rd. 810-767-0910; uaw.org 517-373-2090; michigan.gov/mdot 313-249-3425; motorcities.org

The Underground Railroad Monument on the Detroit Riverfront in downtown Detroit.

METRO DETROIT 21. Labor Legacy Landmark, Detroit Photo: BarbaraBarefield North America’s largest work of public art honoring working women and men rises above Hart Plaza on the Detroit River- front, and is ringed by bronze sculptures telling the story of labor events. Tiles on the central platform and along a spiral walkway contain quotations by labor, 32. Ford Highland Park Plant, marchers are in Woodmere Cemetery, civil rights, and community leaders, and Highland Park 9400 West Fort Street, Block 18 of the achievements of labor through the Photo: Walter P. Reuther Library The moving assembly line was born here the Fernwood section. 313-842-5350; decades. Location: West Jefferson Avenue in 1913, producing Ford Model-T cars, local600UAW.org at the foot of Griswold Street. 313-577- Photo: Shawn D. Ellis cutting production time from 728 to 4003; mlhs.wayne.edu 35. , 93 minutes per vehicle. Thousands of Dearborn 22. Underground Railroad job-seekers lined up outside the plant When United Auto Work- Monument, Detroit after Ford announced a $5-a-day wage ers organizers attempted This is an imposing memo- (with strings) that year, and where young to pass out union rial to the thousands of union organizer Matilda Rabinowitz leaflets on a Miller Transcending, the Labor Legacy gave lunchtime speeches from a soap- escaped slaves who made Landmark in downtown Detroit. leads sit-down strikers out of a Detroit auto plant in 1937. Road overpass to Ford their way to Detroit box outside the plant. The factory, now workers on May 26, 1937, before and during the in disrepair, was designed by renowned company security guards attacked them, 25. Woolworth’s Five and the city’s earliest progressive political 5401 Woodward, Detroit. Civil War, and then 313-833-1805; architect Albert Kahn. Location: 91 Man- sending several to the hospital. Photos Dime, Detroit leaders who helped streetcar strikers win crossed the Detroit River detroithistorical.org chester at Woodward, Highland Park. of the bloody attack appeared in media Over 100 women as their fight for justice. Nearby is Central to freedom in Canada. Location: Detroit 30. Walter P. Reuther Library, 33. UAW Local 600 Hall, around the world, helping turn public young as 16 years old United Methodist Church; its stained- Riverfront in Hart Plaza on West Jef- Detroit Dearborn opinion against Ford, which four years locked the doors of glass windows include a portrait of UAW ferson Avenue. at the foot of Griswold Local 600 represents workers at the Ford later signed a contract with the UAW. A this popular downtown leader Walter Reuther and scenes of social Housing the archives of many of Amer- Street, Detroit. detroit1701.org Rouge plant. Its hall has an extensive photo display near the site of the over- five-and-ten store on a action. Location: Woodward and Adams, ica’s unions and civic organizations, the collection of historical photographs on pass is mounted outside the Rouge plant; 23. Solidarity House, Detroit busy Saturday shopping Detroit. CentralUMChurchDetroit.org library holds an extensive collection of The international head- day in February 1937. They documents and artwork connected to display. Location: 10550 Dix, Dearborn. access via a horseshoe drive on Miller Rd. quarters of the United occupied the store for six days, winning 28. Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry labor, including a restored WPA mural 313-842-5350; local600UAW.org between Oakman and Dix, Dearborn. Murals, Detroit 313-842-5350; local600UAW.org Auto Workers houses the raises and shorter hours. Location: 1253 depicting labor struggles of the 1930s 34. , Dearborn Mexican artist Diego and 1940s. Location: 5401 Cass at Kirby, union’s administrative Woodward, Detroit. 313-577-4003; Unemployed workers 36. Museum, Rivera created 27 Detroit. 313-577-4024; reuther.wayne.edu departments responsible mlhs.wayne.edu gathered at several Greenfield Village, Ford Rouge frescoes surrounding for organizing, education, 31. Model T-Plex, Detroit locations in metro Plant Tour, Dearborn 26. Workers Row House, Detroit a court in the Detroit and servicing the union’s members and Ford workers built the first Model T cars Detroit on March 7, The Museum Built in 1849, this is the oldest surviv- Institute of Arts. The retirees. In front of the building is a by hand at this factory before production 1932, and marched to houses extensive ing house in the city. It housed Irish murals depict workers bronze statue “The Builder.” Location: was moved to an assembly line in High- the Ford River Rouge exhibits on indus- immigrant workers in the Corktown in the Ford Rouge auto 8000 E. Jefferson. 313-926-5000; uaw.org land Park. Later, the factory was one of plant in Dearborn to seek trial development neighborhood. Location: 1430 Sixth plant as well as advances in various sci- 24. Cadillac Square, Detroit three owned by the Studebaker company jobs and relief. Ford security guards with sections Street, south of Labrosse Street, Detroit. entific areas. Location: 5200 Woodward, Close to 100,000 union supporters gath- and was the site of the first auto strike fired bullets into the crowd, killing four devoted to labor, Facebook: workers row house Detroit Detroit. 313-833-7900; dia.org ered in this downtown plaza in 1937 to in U.S. history, in 1913, workers that day and wounding a fifth, civil rights, and other topics, and the support workers engaged in a wave of sit- 27. Grand Circus Park, Detroit 29. Detroit Historical Museum, led by IWW organizer who died later. Photos of the march are Village contains early Ford and Edison down strikes in factories, shops, hotels, One of Detroit’s earliest green spaces, Detroit Matilda Rabinowitz. displayed at the Rouge plant horseshoe workshops and other historic buildings. and restaurants. Labor Day rallies were this half-circle park has been the site The “Motor City” section of this museum Colorful panels across turn-in on Miller Road, and a memorial Daily tours of the Ford Rouge assembly held here for many years from the 1940s of many events — from Depression-era includes displays on labor in the auto the street show the park is under construction just west of the plant, which include movies depicting through the 1970s. Cadillac Square is on demonstrations by unemployed workers to industry as well as exhibits on the making history of this area. Fort Street Bridge, where the marchers early union organizing efforts, leave from the east side of Woodward just north of the 2011 Occupy movement. The iconic of the automobile, including a body drop Location: 461 Piquette gathered before proceeding to the Rouge the Museum. Location: 20900 Oakwood Monroe Street, Detroit. 313-577-4003; statue of former mayor Hazen Pingree, from the assembly line at the old General at Beaubien, Detroit. 313-872-8759; plant. (Park location: Fort, Oakwood, and Street, Dearborn. 313-982-6001; mlhs.wayne.edu the “Idol of the People,” honors one of Motors Clark Street plant. Location: fordpiquetteavenueplant.org Denmark Streets). Graves of the hunger thehenryford.org

————— Michigan Labor History Society Special Edition 2019 ~ Plan Your Michigan Road Trip! —————