Human Geography
There are many factors that make up the human geography for Dearborn. The population for the city of Dearborn is 97,775. It is almost a dead even split between males and females. Dearborn has a less diverse ethnicity that most other cities in the Metropolitan Detroit area. The main ethnicity in Dearborn is Arabic. The culture is very different than the traditional American culture. They tend to follow more towards the man of the house type of culture. The two main religions present in Dearborn are Catholic and Muslim.
The reason for the strong Arabic presence in Dearborn is due to the business boom of the early 1900’s. When Henry Ford first opened his plant he needed a mass amount of workers in order to get started. When word got out what he was offering many Middle Eastern families saw the life they could have in the United States and decided to pick up their lives and move halfway across the globe in search of something better. Dearborn offers a lot of activities and attractions available to residents and tourists to the city. Some of these activities are Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, Rouge Factory Tour, Arab American National Museum, Automotive Hall of Fame, Dearborn Historical Museum and Ford Wyoming Drive-In. Henry Ford Museum is a museum that has artifacts from every area of American history some of these artifacts John F. Kennedy's presidential limousine, Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theatre, Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop, and the Rosa Parks bus. Greenfield Village is an outdoor historical village made up of homes and buildings that belonged to or were involved in the history of one of many great Americans. Rouge Factory Tour is a self-guided five-part experience that includes: Legacy Theater, Art of Manufacturing Theater, Observation Deck, Dearborn Truck Plant and the Legacy Gallery. These first three attractions are provided by the late Henry Ford and all three together are combined together and are called The Henry Ford named for its founder, the noted automobile industrialist Henry Ford, and based on his desire to preserve items of historical significance and portray the Industrial Revolution. When asked about his museum this is what Henry Ford had to say: “I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used.... When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition...” The Arab American National Museum is a museum in Dearborn that opened in 2005 it is the first museum devoted to Arab American history and culture. The Museum’s mission is to erase all misconceptions about Arab Americans and other minorities. The Automotive Hall of Fame is a museum built to preserve and honor the history of automobiles. The museum was originally located in New York until it was moved to Dearborn in 1997. The Automotive Hall of Fame has honor many industry greats from all over the world. The Dearborn Historical Museum consists of three buildings in Dearborn, MI. The three buildings are The Commandant's Quarters at the Dearborn Arsenal, the 1831 Richard Gardner House and the McFadden-Ross House. Ford Wyoming Drive-In first opened in 1950. The Ford-Wyoming could originally accommodate hundreds of cars. In 1981 the drive-in was acquired by a company called Wayne Amusements and in the 1990’s they added four more screens and made it a five screen drive-in. Today, the drive-in is the largest in the United States, parking-wise, with space for over several thousand cars. The one thing that stands out about Ford-Wyoming drive in is that it is open year-round, a rarity for drive-ins, and supplies car heaters along with speakers during the winter season. In May 2010 Screens 6-9 were closed and demolished, and it was renamed Ford Drive-In in June 2010. |