Will the Real Bay City Please Stand Up: It's Time for the Future

Are Fame and Prosperity or Fading Obscurity in the Crystal Ball?

August 15, 2004
By: Dave Rogers

      Bay City: Is it a great place? Or just another garden variety town destined to decline because of globalization, contraction of manufacturing and technological change?



           The need to prepare for our economic future recalls the past, and the story that Henry Ford knocked on the door of Bay City and was turned away has never been verified.

            You won't find it in any history books or in Ford Motor Company press releases.

      There's plenty of news that when one of our natives, a Madonna Ciccone, was on the verge of fame as a singer and actress, we refused to give her the key to the city. (By the way, she was born in Mercy Hospital here Aug. 16, 1958 at 7:05 a.m. and she's one of the most famous people in the world, whatever you think of her.)

      The rumor persists that in the 1920s ol' Henry wanted to open a big factory in Bay City. After all, Willie Durant had purchased the bicycle factory from the Smith family the previous decade and began making parts for the new General Motors Corporation right here in River City.

      But the power brokers of Bay City supposedly decided that a branch of the Ford Motor Company here would raise salaries too much for their liking. And Henry's blandishments were rejected. There would be no Ford factories here.

      Thus, in our 167 year history, we in Bay City apparently have given the cold shoulder to one of the greatest industrial innovators in the history of the world, Henry Ford, as well as one of the entertainment world's greatest innovators, Madonna, who is no doubt the most famous person ever born here.

      Let's look at the results when we did welcome new ideas, when we joined together for progress. The GM connection brought thousands of jobs for about 90 years already to Bay City, peaking at more than 4,000 within the past two decades. Who knows how many jobs Ford would have brought, and for how long?

      In 1927 William Clements and James E. Davidson teamed up to run a campaign through the Chamber of Commerce, raising more than a million dollars to buy the Brown Hoisting Company of Cleveland and bring its jobs here to merge with the Industrial Works, thus forming the Industrial Brownhoist. As the story goes, there was more money here than Cleveland could come up with at the time.

      That little deal brought about 1,000 jobs a year for about 50 years. Not too bad for a little former lumbering burg trying to find its way in the industrial age.The huge cranes built by I-B helped dig the Panama Canal and made the city famous.

      Then in 1936 a similar campaign raised the hard cash to give the old Wildman Rubber Company plant here to the Electric Autolite Company of Toledo. Success was repeated. We got another 1,000 jobs for about half a century.

      Those companies, GM, I-B and Autolite, later Prestolite, brought here through the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce, have been the soul of our economy for nearly a century. But the world is changing and Bay City is seeking new economic vistas in a different direction. We need to look to the future with inspired vision.

      What brings up all this reminiscent meandering is the fact that this town has risen to theheights through the "can do" attitude. But we struggle with it, fight over it, nearly mangle an idea to death before we embrace it. It took us 15 years to replace a bridge that had fallen in the river; nearly 30 to build another big hotel after the Wenonah burned in 1976.

      What we're talkin' 'bout here is baseball, folks. Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. Get the connection?

      The Chamber of Commerce through President Mike Seward is giving us another deal. Baseball. A minor league team in the largest TV market in the U.S. without one. Maybe it will be just like the GM, I-B and Autolite plants, all Chamber promotions. A thousand jobs a year for 50 years, or more.

      But we've got to step up to the plate and take the big swing. It's not that tough. Isn't it worth a chance?

      By the way, a little 'ol key for Madonna wouldn't hurt at this point. Can't cost that much. Just a slight change in attitude. Just like the baseball idea. It's time for thereal Bay City to stand up and hit a home run! We've done it before.###