Why Michigan became the center of the automobile industry
The Upper Peninsula played a big part
There’s one city that you (yes you, reading this right now) that will jump into your head the moment you read: automobile industry. Or even some variation of it. To be honest, even saying “car” or “truck” will probably lead you to it pretty quickly. That city, of course, is none other that Detroit, Michigan. For a century, it was the undisputed heart of the global automobile industry, a place so synonymous with car manufacturing that it earned the nickname "Motor City."
But here’s the question: why Detroit? Why did this industry coalesce in southeastern Michigan and not in the established industrial centers of the northeast (Massachusetts led the industrial revolution in the United States), or even in other burgeoning Midwestern hubs like Chicago or Cleveland? Which, by the turn of the century, had hundreds of thousands more people than Detroit.
Of course, this story is rooted in the geography of the state which is also the subject of my video this week:
A combo of super important resources
Long before the first car rolled off a factory floor, Detroit's greatest asset was its position on the Detroit River which happened to be a strategic waterway and critical chokepoint in the Great Lakes. In connects Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair to the north with Lake Erie to the south. So, ostensibly, Detroit was placed perfectly at the center of a massive highway (just not a road highway).
But a highway that leads to nowhere isn’t very valuable so there had to be something connecting to connect to Detroit to make its physical location valuable. And this turned out to be exactly the case after Michigan secured the rights to what is now known as the Upper Peninsula.
You see, from the Mesabi Range in Minnesota and Michigan's own Upper Peninsula, enormous ships could cheaply and easily transport iron ore (very much needed for steel production) directly to the region's foundries. And the thick forests of Michigan’s northern reaches (including the Upper Peninsula) provided abundant high-quality hardwood, which was essential for the bodies of early cars, which were constructed much like horse-drawn carriages. Also, the Keweenaw Peninsula was rich with copper, yet another vital component for radiators and the complex electrical systems of early vehicles.
During this time, transporting these heavy, bulky materials by rail from the coast would have been astronomically expensive. The Great Lakes, however, allowed for the efficient movement of immense quantities of raw materials at a fraction of the cost. Detroit, and the surrounding region, could access the fundamental building blocks of the automobile more easily and cheaply than almost any other place on the continent or even the world.
Detroit was primed for this
Of course, Michigan’s physical geography laid the foundation, but it was the city's human geography that really revved things up. By the late 19th century, Detroit was not an industrial backwater. It was a thriving manufacturing center, but one with a very specific set of skills perfectly suited for what was to come.
This is perhaps not as well known today because of the automobile industry but Detroit was originally a hub for building marine engines. Its location on the Great Lakes meant there was a constant demand for powerful and reliable engines for ships. This industry created a deep pool of talented machinists, engineers, and mechanics who intimately understood the internal combustion engine. When business leaders like Henry Ford and Ransom E. Olds started tinkering with "horseless carriages," they didn't have to create the workforce; it was already there, possessing the precise skills needed to build and perfect the automobile engine.
Also, the city had a robust carriage and wagon-making industry already. This provided generations of expertise in building vehicle frames, crafting wooden bodies, upholstering interiors, and constructing wheels. Early cars were, in essence, motorized buggies. Detroit's carriage makers had already mastered the art of vehicle construction; swapping the horse for an engine was the next logical step.
This unique combination of engine-building know-how and carriage-making expertise created the perfect industrial ecosystem. An upstart automaker in Detroit had access to a local network of foundries, machine shops, and parts suppliers already baked into the city. And it was this exact supply chain that dramatically lowered the barrier to entry and fostered the growth of what was then a brand new industry.
But why not Chicago or Cleveland?
Other Midwestern cities certainly seemed like contenders. Cleveland was a powerhouse in steel production, and Chicago was the nation's unrivaled rail hub. Both had access to the Great Lakes. Yet neither possessed Detroit's specific synergistic blend. Cleveland could make the steel, and Chicago could ship the final product, but Detroit was the one place that had mastered the two most critical components: the engine and the body. It was this fusion of expertise, built upon a foundation of unparalleled access to natural resources, that gave the Motor City its decisive, long-lasting edge. The automobile industry didn't just happen in Detroit; it grew out of the physical and human geography that had combined to be exactly what the automobile industry needed.
Karma's Ducks had nothing to do with Northern USA getting the auto industry hub, but prospect of easy early transportation of finished goods to foreign market, through Saint Lawrence River system.
I didn't realize that Detroit had a pool of talented machinists due to prior marine engine production. It does seem like all of the ducks lined up in a row for Detroit's rise as a center for automobile production.