Michigan shelved its state fair because of declining attendance and revenues after 160 years in 2009. I originally planned this as a post about how much I missed the Michigan State Fair, but it turned out quite differently.
The loss of our state fair makes Michigan the only Midwestern state without a state fair, and one of only a few states in the nation without a state fair.
It's been sad enough to drive by the deteriorating fairgrounds these past couple of summers, but the recent loss of a Detroit landmark at the fairgrounds makes the site seem even more forlorn.
On Saturday August 13, 2011, the "World's Largest Stove" turned into ashes after an apparent lightning strike.
Firefighters arrived around 8 p.m. that evening and secured the scene around 10 p.m. after the stove burned down to its frame.
The wooden replica of the 1890s stove was a reminder that Detroit's industrial history and might pre-dates the automotive industry.
In 1860, brothers Jeremiah and James Dwyer established Detroit's first stove factory.
The Michigan Stove Company, founded by Jeremiah Dwyer in 1872, was one of the most prominent Detroit stove manufacturer during the late 1800s. The company mounted a huge display for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago with a 15-ton wooden replica of its Garland kitchen range sitting atop a platform with a display of the company's stoves.
The company dismantled the 25-foot-tall, 30-foot-long and 20-foot-wide stove it after the fair and reassembled it next to its factory in Detroit on Jefferson Avenue near Adair Street and Elmwood Cemetery.
The stove's new home was at "Bloody Run", the site of a fierce battle between Chief Pontiac's Native American forces and British soldiers in 1763.
Long-time Detroit News writer and city historian, George Stark, remembered a tree standing at the site before the stove arrived there. The tree met its end, ironically enough, due to a lightning strike, and the stove replaced it as an attraction near the old battle site.
In 1926, the refurbished stove moved up Jefferson to a site just west of the Belle Isle Bridge, close to the Detroit-Michigan Stove Company.
By 1955, Welbilt Corporation became the city's last surviving stove company and inherited the landmark.
Schafer Bakeries leased the stove to advertise their bread from 1957 to 1965.
By 1965, the then-deteriorated stove moved to the Michigan State Fair ground on Woodward at Eight Mile (yes, that Eight Mile).
The year 1974 saw the stove disassembled and put into storage at Detroit's Fort Wayne Military Museum.
A fundraising drive by Michigan residents, businesses and unions funded the stove's rehabilitation and placement back at the fairgrounds with a state historical marker in 1998.
After the Michigan State Fair shut down, stove sat behind a high fence that bore a sign warning people that trespassing on the site was a felony.
I'm guessing chances are low that the community will rally to rebuild the stove, given the state's economic woes and deterioration of other fairground landmarks I glimpsed through the fence the other day.
Want to learn more? Check out Michigan State Fair (Images of America) by John Minnis and Lauren Beaver, which has a short chapter about the "World's Largest Stove".
© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved
Now that is odd about both the stove and tree being struck by lightning. And they say lightning can't strike twice...
Here's hoping that the Michigan State Fair will reopen at some point. It's a shame to lose such fun traditions.
Posted by: gypsyscarlett | August 28, 2011 at 06:25 AM
I'd love to see it reopen, too...but I'm not too hopeful at this point. I'm glad I had that nice photo of the stove to share, though.
Posted by: Dominique King | August 28, 2011 at 06:20 PM