Oakman Boulevard...
It had always been a mystery to me, until one
day when I was gazing at a Detroit map for no reason at all, I
suddenly realized--or decoded, if you will--the secret of Oakman Blvd.
Sure, the road zig-zags all over the west side,
breaking all boundaries and geometric patterns in a seemingly schizophrenic
path, and you yourself may have wondered just WTF the point of this
nonsensical road ever was, other than to look fancy and confuse
tourists. The purpose of the average road is to take you from one city to
another, or to allow traffic flow from one end of a major city to
another. Oakman on the other hand begins in the middle
of the city, darts around for a bit, and ends in the middle of
the city. But there is no mistaking the purpose of this boulevard.
Even though they weren't shown on my map, it
slowly dawned on me...the boulevard connected the Ford Rouge plant in
Dearborn with the Ford Model-T plant in Highland Park. That can't be
a coincidence. I later found out that it was also lined with the grand
houses of many higher-up Ford employees. No doubt this stately avenue was
once the preferred route for escorting distinguished guests of the Ford Motor
Co. while touring them through the Ford Empire. Probably was also a path
to work for many affluent white collars who owned their own automobiles as
opposed to riding the streetcars.
It was named after Robert W. Oakman, the man who
Mayor Hazen Pingree retained to reform tax structure in Detroit, when the
paving of streets and removal of traffic bottlenecks became a huge
issue. He was also making a decent living as a real estate agent in the
rapidly expanding city. One day in 1906, Oakman was eating downtown at a
restaurant on Woodward Avenue. At a table across from him was none other
than Henry Ford. Mr. Oakman overheard Ford's conversation that he was in
need of land to build a new plant for his company, and suggested to him a
site in what would become Highland Park. When Ford built his plant
there, he also turned the stretch of Woodward Avenue in front of it into the
first mile of paved concrete highway in the world.
Discovering this revelation about Oakman
Blvd., I took to studying my map closer.
Another road, Fordson Highway, which is actually no
more than an inconsequential sidestreet that due to its angled course dead-ends
in several places and doesn't really go anywhere, is similar to Oakman in this
respect. Of course, wherever you see the name "Fordson," this
refers to Edsel, Henry's only son and namesake of the Fordson Tractor division
of Ford Motor Co. If you grew up in Redford you were probably likewise
confused as to the purpose of this slanting, out of place street, and why
on earth it would ever be referred to as a "highway."
Well, out of curiosity, I searched for any
possible ulterior purpose behind Fordson Highway's nearly pointless,
diagonally-slashing path. A moment later, I held up a
straight-edge, and traced a line along Fordson Highway out of the heart of
Redford where it starts, past where it dead-ends at Telegraph Rd. in Dearborn
Heights, and...directly through the center of the Fair Lane Estate--Henry
Ford's personal residence. Not only that, but it crosses a street
named Henry. Coincidence? Perhaps. Check it on a map! I
swear, Henry left a secret treasure behind somewhere--and I am gonna find
it....
If you think that stuff's interesting, check out
Henry's involvement in why there is no road going through the Huron Mountains region of the Yoopee.