Milford at Work

In the 1930s, Henry Ford chose Milford for one of seventeen rural "village industry" factories producing small parts for Ford vehicles. He found advantages here in the dams along Pettibone Creek for waterpower and a railroad track for transporting materials and products. The carburetor plant opened in 1938, and its jobs became a lifeblood for Milford until it closed in 1957. At peak production, about 500 workers in three shifts produced over 4,500 carburetors a day for shipment to engine assembly plants. The factory was torn down in 2002, leaving the Pettibone Creek Hydroelectric Station in Central Park as the last trace of Ford's "village industry" in Milford.

Milford, Michigan · United States