Ground breaks for Woodhaven Stamping
Ford Motor Company ended up choosing the village of Woodhaven as the site for its fourth stamping plant construction project since World War II. Within a month, groundbreaking took place and the 400-plus acre plot, the former Trombley soybean farm, began to take shape.
The Trombley family (Alice, and brothers William & Lawrence) had sold their land to Ford a couple years prior.
In an astonishingly short amount of time for a 400-acre project, the new Woodhaven Stamping Plant started partial activation in January of 1965. The first press, weighing 272 tons, was unveiled and activated on April 7. The first approved stamp for shipment, a 1965 Mustang quarter panel, was produced on June 17, 1965.
Fully staffed with an initial workforce of 1,880 under plant manager Willis G. Hummel, Ford Chairman Henry Ford II would address a crowd at the plant’s dedication April 15, 1966, with the following from his remarks:
“Operating our plant in a community of about one thousand people is bound to cause some dislocations in its way of life. We recognize that. But Woodhaven has already anticipated change by moving from the village to the Mayor/Council form of government.”
– HENRY FORD II
President : Ford Motor Company (1966)
Bacon Library says “Shhh!” … and means it
The up-and-coming generation of teenagers in the 1960s were more rebellious in nature, owing much to the strife occurring in the country as well as the increasing situation in Vietnam. Combined with funding problems, it would put Bacon Memorial Public Library in the national crosshairs early in 1965.
The funding issues resulted in the library being open just three days a week and, when the facility was open, up to 120 teenagers were known to congregate outside and inside at one time, since there was little of recreational value for them, and they had no other place to visit. They would crowd the entrance, according to Library director Louise Naughton, to the point patrons could not get into the front door.
Up until this point, the Wyandotte Police had been called to quell any unrest or suspicious activity. But by January 1965, a private officer from a Detroit Police agency ended up taking over during the evening. Mrs. Naughton believed it was for the best, even though the initial thought of an arrangement was a little disheartening. It may have simply ended there if the Detroit Free Press had not seized on the story and headlined it with the wording shown above.
In the article, which was likely overkill on the situation, a photo of the evening shift officer was shown, as well as an editorial cartoon showing a caricature of authority springing from a library shelving unit, shoving the teenagers aside as the library director looked on, horrified. Their coverage would end up being picked up by the Associated Press, making headlines in newspapers from Kalamazoo to McKeesport, Pennsylvania (“Teenage Romance Ends At Library,” “Private Police Hired To Stop Necking”), and even earning “Page 2” space on Paul Harvey’s nationally syndicated radio show.