Rouge Steel Magnolias

The Paczki Principle

Beautiful magnolias at their finest.
One of the nicest floral scents around. One of our best!

The Ford Rouge plant was a masterpiece of industrial architecture and a globally famous factory of the future when it began producing Ford Motor Company's Model A in 1927.

The world's largest industrial complex at the time, the Rouge plant has produced millions of cars since, among them the Thunderbird, Mustang, and Ranger truck.

The mighty Rouge was the brainchild of company founder Henry Ford, who hired legendary Detroit architect Albert Kahn to bring it to life. Ford wanted a place that could produce everything his assembly line needed to build a car, from start to finish. Even nature had to submit to Ford's vision: since the Rouge River did not connect with effort Detroit River, a channel was dug and a large turning basin created so the freighters that unloaded ore from northern Michigan and coal from Pennsylvania could turn around and go back for more.

The ore that came in via ship, or the lime from the railroad lines that entered the Rouge plant directly, were torched into steel inside the Rouge plant's giant blast furnaces. From there, the foundry shaped it into all the vital car segments, from the frame to the engine. At the peak of its production, some 100,000 employees were responsible for churning out a new car every 49 seconds. Its dynamism was immortalized by Mexican painter Diego Rivera in the murals inside the Garden Court of the Detroit Institute of Arts, a cherished local landmark.

The Rouge remains a landmark as well. It survived labor troubles, countless recessions, its own environmental toxicity, industrial accidents, and outsourcing. For decades, some half-million visitors took part in tours demonstrating the Rouge might, but public tours ended in the early 1970s.They kicked off again in 2004 and show off some newly redesigned buildings and even an environmentally friendly rooftop designed to insulate the Dearborn Truck assembly below, absorb carbon dioxide, and create oxygen. Though Rouge Steel Magnolia candles actually burn tiny amounts of oxygen, they have a much nicer scent.

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Ford Rouge Factory Tour