Project Profiles – Greenfield Village - Dearborn, Michigan

“The Henry Ford” Has a Better Idea and Goes with Hunter as its Irrigation Solution

Roadside America, the on-line guide to attractions across the United States, once described the Henry Ford Museum as being “a rather humorless collection of memorabilia and artifacts put together by a rather humorless man.”

The Henry Ford Museum showcases American ideas and innovations.

Today, the Dearborn, Michigan landmark and its historic counterpart, Greenfield Village (a collection of actual historic buildings, highlighted by Thomas Edison’s workshop), have lightened their image and collectively become a more colorful and appealing attraction known simply as “The Henry Ford.”

In reinventing itself, The Henry Ford literally moved the place around, with buildings that were once in one area of the property relocated to other places that made more sense to the new master plan.

The project also included all new roads and sidewalks. New sewers and electrical. And – here’s where Hunter comes in – new landscaping and irrigation.

Welcome to the 21st Century

It had been years since any improvements had been made to the landmark’s grounds. The infrastructure was antiquated, a relic from a bygone era. In short, it was time for some new technology and new equipment.

Two long time fans of Hunter played a big role in the renovation, designer Geoffrey Graber of Graber and Associates in Eastpointe, Michigan, and contractor Marc Dutton of Dutton Irrigation in Waterford, Michigan. Graber drew up the plans and specified all the equipment that would be part of the massive project to modernize the irrigation infrastructure. Dutton was awarded the installation contract and chose Hunter over all the competitors.

Greenfield Village featured the bulk of the irrigation renovation at The Henry Ford and included 160 zones. As the heart of the new system, Dutton installed ten ICC-800-M controllers, each with the ideal number of modules needed to custom-tailor that particular controller to its portion of the landscape.

“The flexibility of the ICC is wonderful,” said Dutton. “Where we needed 15 stations, we configured the modules to handle that; where we needed 35 stations, we did likewise. And thanks to those modules, we can simply add another to expand the system as our needs grow.”

To round out the all-Hunter system, Dutton installed ICV valves, primarily the ICV-151 (1 1/2" plastic globe configuration), I-20 rotors and a mix of spray heads that included the Pro-Spray® and SRS.

Deadline, Soil…Hard to Move Either

“We’re creating an environment to make the visitor feel as if they’d stepped back in time to the 19th century,” said Graber. “Obviously, having a bunch of modern irrigation equipment in view simply wouldn’t be acceptable.”

Unfortunately, for those doing the renovating, the management of The Henry Ford set a tight timetable for the work to be done. During the summer of 2002, all designs for the renovation of the grounds were to be completed so that bids could be submitted and selected. Construction would begin in January 2003, with completion set for less than six months later, in June.

Museum grounds feature historic structures surrounded by landscapes kept lush with Hunter rotors.

The year 2003 was the 100th anniversary of Ford Motor Company and the grand opening of the renovation project was timed to coincide with a celebration to feature numerous dignitaries from around the world.

Of course, that meant that the majority of work to be done would take place during the dead of a Michigan winter.

With a huge chunk of excavating work needing to be done in ground frozen six inches deep, the decision was made to set up tents, with heaters. Trucks came in under the tent and crews dug out the frozen soil and replaced it with new.

“Crews had to handle a small area under the tent and then the tent would get moved around to another spot,” said Graber.

Today, this once humorless collection of memorabilia is now billed as “America’s Greatest History Attraction.” And its new irrigation system stands up favorably alongside the site that produced such innovations as the phonograph and the light bulb.