Having moved away from Michigan a few years before, I never went, but it does seem ill conceived. As one commenter said, for a fraction of that amount of money, they could have put together the world’s best auto museum, with many classic cars, to rival or even exceed the Ford museum in Dearborn, and it might still be there. Government in action.
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What’s interesting is that virtually everyone thought this would be a bad idea and, obviously, it was. It’s like a perfect storm of good intentions and bad results.
I remember visiting that place… once. The best thing I can say about it is that it wasn’t nearly as bad as the environmentalist’s nature park up near Gaylord from about the same timeframe.
I think the problem is that Americans have a “short view”, or weird view, of what is history. And it causes us to want and expect different things than most people in other countries, when we visit a place with history.
For instance.
Locally we had a Krispie Kreme partially torn down, for remodeling. It was THE Krispy Kreme, for many people, even though you can get the donuts in another location downtown. Many people thought THE KK should be made a local historical site and as such would be sacrosanct and not remodelable!
But in actuality, or according to whom you speak, this is either the 2nd or 3rd building KK has had here since the late 30’s or early 40’s. KK lovers can’t even decide how long the franchise has been here. How much history is there, when we don’t know when that history starts?
So the view of history in that case there, is way less than 70 years, in 2 or 3 locations.
How many Big Ben’s, Eiffel’s Tower’s, Cheop’s Pyramids, Greek’s Parthenons, Roman’s Coliseums or Ankor’s Wats are we up to?
For the aquarium in Japan, they took out hand hewn, hand framed, wooden houses, that were probably 100 or 200 years old. 7 or 8 generations of people lived there. In Japan they have castles that go back 800 or 1000 years. That’s history.
In England they visit pubs and hotels and restaurants that are older than the Japanese houses. They too have 1000 year old castles. But older still there are Roman Baths and Hadrian’s Wall and they’ve found Roman outpost ruins. That’s history.
And people from all over the world go there to stand in history!! To touch history. The natives go to see where they come from.
In America, history is 250, or 150, or less then 70 years old. It’s more about GM, KK, and roller coasters, than “real” history elsewhere.
People from all over the world come here to eat corn dogs and ride the “DRAGON SLAYER!!” , the fastest roller coaster west of Dayton and east of Kansas City!! People tour Colonial Williamsburg in the morning and hit Six Flags in the afternoon.
That ain’t history.
There were no rides at Flint. Obviously the 2-D engine cut away and the corn dogs weren’t historical enough for American tastes. And honestly, I think that’s why the Rock and Roll Museum in Cleveland is hurting. No “Dragon Slayer!!”
And I can’t find out what kind of donuts they had at Flint. Probably Tim Horton’s. And that’s totally CANADIAN history, eh!
And I can’t find out what kind of donuts they had at Flint.
Dawn Donuts.
(I was…uh…kinda poking at the fact that Canadian history is…uh…about like ours…short)
I think Americans like history. WIlliamsburg actually IS history. Not 1000-years old and mostly recreated history, but it is history nonetheless. Old cars are history, too, no less than suits of armor and weapons from long ago.
In America, history is 250, or 150, or less then 70 years old. It’s more about GM, KK, and roller coasters, than “real” history elsewhere.
I guess you’ve never been to a place like Mesa Verde National Park. History in America is a lot more than 250 years old.
Even European history in the US is a lot older than 250 years old.