The Stories That Built Farmington with Brian Golden – The Local Loop | Ep. 13

What if every road, cemetery, and historic building in Farmington had a story to tell? Local historian Brian Golden joins us to uncover how Farmington began, the people who built it, Native American trails, Quaker roots, forgotten landmarks, and the history hiding in plain sight. This conversation will make you see the community in a completely different way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the local loop. Myself Trevor Medima and Deion Di Janeiro. Boy, do we have an episode for you guys today. We get fully into, I would say just the first history of Farmington, but it feels like we hop all over the whole region. Yeah, just a little tad bit regional, but a lot of exciting things. We left with some homework, uh, some some adventures with Dion and I have to go on. So uh enjoy.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Brian, it is great to have you here in the studio. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Hey, it's great to be here.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Awesome. Yeah, so um we're here at Colette's place on the CARES campus. And um, as usual, you know, we we normally it's just Trevor and I, but we got a guest today. We got a guest today, and so we wanted to get you in. Why don't you introduce yourself, tell us you know what you do, why you're here, all of that.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Oh, I'll be happy to.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

The name is Brian, the last name is Golden, and uh I am the president of the Farmington Historical Society. I'm also deeply rooted in other historical organizations, past president of the Oakland County Pioneer in Historical Society. Um I also sit on the Farmington Hills Historical Commission.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Great.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Um, I sit on the Governor Warner Mansion Committee. Great.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

Yeah, it's not going on with that right now. Yeah, there is. We've talked, we've actually talked about it over the course of a couple episodes. Um, with it's funny, like a lot of our um hook is of of our show is kind of like what the city's doing and and forward looking and and development and and zoning and and new things, and and we do touch on some of the old stuff. One of our episodes actually, we did cover the history of uh some some history of Farmington, Farmington Hills, but like very specific things. Yeah, very specific. We we stay within our our lanes. We kind of stay within our lane a little bit, so it's it's gonna be nice to kind of take a broader look at the history of the area. Um, and it's kind of funny because it's like, yeah, we're doing the opposite. We're we're looking back instead of looking forward. Um, so tell us about um the the organizations that you're currently with. You said it was the Farmington Historical Society. Yes. Um tell us what that's about.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Well, the Farmington Historical Society is a is basically an organization nonprofit that is centered around uh people within a community that have the same passion, and the passion usually is history. Got an interesting question for you, too.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Um, why don't historians make any money?

SPEAKER_04 2:50

Go ahead. Uh, why is that?

SPEAKER_03 2:52

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

There's no future in it.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Oh, that's true. Well, depending on how you look at it, I I look at it. Well, I had this teacher, I I'm lifelong Farmington Hills resident, so I went through all the Farmington public schools. So I had this teacher at what was then Dunkel, who was a seventh grade history teacher, and she always like stressed that history repeats itself, and so it is uh prescient in a way, right? Like that you can look back at history and also can predict the future based on kind of what's already happened. So good joke, but I don't know if I necessarily agree because I think the history is really important to the future, too.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Oh, absolutely, and yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

So is there um like something that you would say is prescient in the history of Farmington that we can look to today? I guess since you're on the governor's Warner Mansion Commission or that, like how what can we look back to at like with the governor's mansion in the past that will help us with deciding what the future of it looks like?

SPEAKER_01 3:59

You know, uh what's interesting, uh I find this um uh very um it's kind of a passionate thing about both communities, both the cities of Farmington and Farmington Hills, is their love of historic buildings uh and trying to maintain that that kind of history. So um Farmington Hills has a historic district commission. Now this is a a group of men and women that are dedicated to maintaining the historic districts that are within Farmington Hills. Now Farmington Hills actually has over 40 different historic district districts, and that's because if there's a historic home sitting right next to a gas station, or you can't make the whole area a district, so they're individual districts, so each structure is a district within itself.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

I did not know that. Yeah, because we actually my dad owned a historic home at 11 in Orchard Lake that was there was a farmhouse, and then there was a white little barn house kind of across the street from it, across 11 mile.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

And um the farmhouse has one of those placards, those green placards, the historic, I think that's at a state level, if I recall correctly. But um the the house that we had was technically the servants' quarters for the farm across the street.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yeah, the farm across the street is the Royal Aldrich House. Yes, right, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Right. Um, what do you know about that house? I guess I'm curious because I never I know they had goats when we lived there, and I was always surprised.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

No, they still have goats.

SPEAKER_03 5:57

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

The owner is a friend of mine. Okay, he all also happens to be involved in the historic district commission.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

Very good. Okay, so we're tying it in.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

So he uses goats to keep the lawn mowed. Yeah, yeah, that's what I sign up.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Yeah, if you can for sure. Right. Um, so that's interesting. I did not know that because I know um like even within certain neighborhoods, there are like historically designated homes, like Wood Creek's a good example. Sure. Where there was like some underground railroad homes that were in there, but of course then the Wood Creek development happened and houses were put next to it. So you what you're saying is even within that subdivision, there could be multiple districts.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Okay, that's super interesting.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yeah, it is. This is um there's a excuse me, there's a deep and rich history contained within our communities.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Where I look at at uh Farmington and Farmington Hills as one community, even though it's two seats.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

We do make the distinction, but the history is intertwined for sure. Definitely. Yeah. Um, do you want to I guess is there anything else? Is there anything else that you wanted to say about yourself or organizations you're involved in before we dive into history? Like going back to even pre-settlement times, I want to I want to go back further than the Quakers, even too.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Um, other other than the fact that um I've lived in the community now 38 years. I have adult uh twin sons that also went through uh uh Farmington schools.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

And um yeah, I've I've authored five local history books.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Oh, no way. Okay, so we'll definitely link those in the description for sure, too.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Um all of them can be found in uh in the local library.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Uh some some of the books actually can be found elsewhere.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Okay, but locally it's uh that's the best place to find it, is checking out the library school. Okay, good to know. Um I also I we I did a little background on you, and so you can tell me if it's accurate or out of date or anything like that. But um, do you still run the magical history tour?

SPEAKER_01 8:23

I do.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Cool. Tell us about that really quick.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

That's actually one of my published works.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

Oh, is it? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

I decided to uh actually commit it to a public, yeah, public get it published. And it's it's published through the uh Farmington Hills Historical Commission. Great that I sit on. And uh basically it takes you, it's a guide self-guided tour that you can uh take advantage of by driving. It's a drive so it's a driving tour.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

And it takes you from the beginnings of Farmington, where Farmington actually began, and then it you drive all or all around the the community and learn about uh the structures that are still there uh that you can uh appreciate. And also it it uh you go to sites where the structure no longer exists, but the stories are told behind um the location, the area. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:33

How many different sites are there? Like for a few years.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

In the magical history tour, there's 20 sites. Nice, cool. So if you were to drive it and take your time driving, it takes about an hour.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

I was gonna say that's a it's that's a good day, especially if you want to like yeah, I feel like I messed feel messed up for not having done this yet.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Well, you know, I I would invite um I I could I could give the two of you or and or your family significant others, yeah. Uh huh. Uh on a uh brief tour. Uh I would definitely take you on the tour.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

Yeah, we should we should already do something like that. I would definitely definitely be a lot of fun. That would be a lot of fun. I I did a I mean when you go through the public schools here, you do get some of the some of the background, some of the history, but it's well back around uh 2000. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Uh is when I developed the tour.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

And then because I'm a the director of a nonprofit, local nonprofit, it's called Pastways.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

I got that too, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

So um Past Ways goes after grants. And uh back around uh around 2000, yeah, mid-2000s, there was um a state mandate to learn about local history in the third grade.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

So I thought this would be a great opportunity to expose young people to uh the history of the area. So I developed the tour, uh, received a few grants and provided the tours to the third graders, mainly because um a lot of the third grade teachers uh want the students to learn about this, but they don't live in the community.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Right. So they're kind of yeah, it's hard to teach something that you're not as intimate. It's really familiar with, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, it's really tough. There some one of the teacher one of the social studies uh teachers in the district put together a guide, and it was the size of a phone book. It was, you know, but this this big and so a lot of the teachers weren't going to go through that.

SPEAKER_04 11:53

Right. It was like state level history, really, really tough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

So I came along and provided the uh the tour. So I met with uh Bob Bob Maxfield, he was superintendent of schools at that time, and he loved the idea. Yeah, and so what would happen is at the beginning of the school year, um they would send out a mass email to all third grade teachers and uh telling them about the availability of this tour, and this the district didn't have to pay any money to have it to have the tour. Right. Uh in fact, the grants that I received I gave back to the school district because I used a school bus.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

I was gonna say we got it was a field trip, like it was we were lost around.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

I remember going to the Warner Mansion. That's all I remember, though, is the Warner Mansion, I feel like.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

We we went to cemeteries, like we learned about the individuals.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

You know, I do, yeah, because the the Quaker cemetery. Yeah, when we went to Quaker Cemetery, you would do the the rubbing, the rubbing on the gravestones and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

And I would and I would do that with with the uh these third graders as well. Yeah. Um, I would kind of tailor the uh the tour to whatever the teachers wanted to touch on. Yeah. Most and most of the schools, the most of the elementary schools had multiple third grade classes.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

Yeah, yeah. There'd be like three or four different teachers teaching third grade. Exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

So we would all pile into us one school bus.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

One school bus, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

And I would dress up sometimes. I would dress up like this. Yeah, yeah. Like a I'm a Quaker.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Um, sometimes I have uh like an alter ego. His name is Inspector Pastways, kind of dresses up like uh Sherlock Holmes, yeah, speaks with uh investigating history, yeah, yeah. Right. It's a lot of fun. The kids love it. Kids find it a lot, a lot of fun. That's so awesome. I try to make it fun. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

So I have I had Pastways on here, and then the only other thing I had on here was like you have um some like you do other architectural tours as well, but that might just be under the magical history tour umbrella. Yes, I'm assuming.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Yeah, okay. So um several times a year I'll give a um uh uh I give a cemetery walk, and usually I go to the Quaker Cemetery because there's ample parking, on street parking there.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

And uh or or I'll go to the Oakwood Cemetery, which which is the one on Grand River and where Shiwassee. Uh I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Uh no, that's Shiwwood. No, Shaywasi.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Shiwassee where they come together.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah. That's a that's the actually that's the older of the two cemeteries. Oh, really? Not the Quakewood. Is the is older. I did not know that either.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah, the the Oakwood was established. The first person that died and is buried there. Yeah is uh he was buried there like in 1825.

SPEAKER_03 15:13

Wow, that's early.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Very that's early.

SPEAKER_03 15:16

It's like the 1880s is kind of more when stuff was like blowing up around Farmington.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

Well, Farmington got settled in 18 or no, I'm I'm wow, way off. 17, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

No, no. No, I'll I'll help you. We'll get into it. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, if if you want, uh we can we can dive right into this.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Yeah, uh this is a good jumping off.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Farmington was founded in 1824, making us uh the oldest community on this side of the county.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Okay, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

No, we're not the oldest in the county. That's Avon Township was founded in 1817. Avon Township is Rochester.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

So that side of the county is older than this side of the county.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

Okay. However, is that proximity?

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Is that the only reason why Rochester was founded, or was it definitely that and there were Native that and Native American trails.

unknown 16:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Uh Native American trails crisscrossed this area and it it gave uh opportunities for early settlers or pioneers to come into the area and they would follow the Native American trails.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Easier to navigate.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Well, we're kind of fortunate in in this area, there were three major Native American trails. The first trail is the Shiawassee Trail, which follows Chiawassee Road. Uh and it went from the Detroit River uh the Rouge system, and then it kind of uh it went west, but then it curved north um around uh north of Lansing. So it kind of curved north and went up to the through the middle of the state. Uh then there's an another uh major uh Native American tour, uh I'm sorry, trail called the Grand River Trail. Now the Grand River Trail actually follows the um the Grand River, the river, Grand River, which you'll find uh you run into the side of the state. Yes, it does. It goes all the way all the way to Lake Michigan. Yep. The third trail actually came up from what is today Ohio, uh called the Orchard Lake Trail, and it actually meandered up and ended at Orchard Lake. So because of these three major Native American trails, it gave um pioneers an opportunity to get into where their land was.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Right. Uh by following because back then it was fully grown and yeah, and there were there were no roads.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Yep. Yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Um, we actually did discuss briefly the the Native American trails um that ran through Farmington in one of our episodes because we talked about how uh Grand River Road at one point was planks, wood planks. It was and they had the toll house at the Botsford Inn to use the woodplanked road. And uh so we touched a little bit on those, but yeah, that's um I'm actually uh Anishanabe, so um most of my family lives up north in Potoski, but early pre-settlement uh history I'm really passionate about because of that. And so yeah, so learning about all the different um hunting trails and how they used the water systems to to really navigate and transport goods and transport people and help the pioneers navigate into like even the flint uh like Flint Glint Grand Blanc area. Uh, there's some interesting history there about how like malaria and mosquitoes beat the settlers at the time and uh like more than even the indigenous people could. Uh, but they got there. Like, how did people even get there if it was so bad?

SPEAKER_01 19:21

And it was because of the waterways and the trail and the trail system, and some yeah, and in many cases, just like the Grand River Trail, followed the Grand River, exactly. So it paralleled the Grand River, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

And I think the um the Shiwassee Trail did too, um, and it would have like followed the rivers there had they not developed Detroit and put the rivers underground. Sure. Uh that was my understanding at least. Or like the Rouge. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 19:50

Yeah, I'm you know, I I am curious, like to paint the picture a little bit. Let's just Farmington's about to be settled. Um, you have all these different tribes. What is because these were mostly peaceful tribes, yeah, right? They work together. Yeah, they work together.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Oh, Chippeway, three fires, yeah. Chippewa, then then uh towards the river. You had the Wyandotte uh tribes were there, so and the Pottawamine too. That's what was here. Don't forget about the Pottawame.

SPEAKER_03 20:19

Yeah, Pottawamine was was um a lot more around Detroit and southern Michigan and kind of stayed more down here. Okay, and into they would go into Ohio and around Lake Erie and stuff like that as well, to my understanding. Right. And uh if I'm wrong, tell me I'm wrong. No, no, no. But um and then like the Chippo and Ottawa would migrate down here during the colder months, but then they would go back north in the warmer months.

SPEAKER_04 20:44

Because like the thumb, like so let's say the thumb area, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:47

So Bay City, yeah, Case up to Caseville, that was all that was Ottawa and Chippewa, mainly uh in the summers, the Pottawatomi would head up that way as well. Okay, but they would kind of stay more in the Detroit area.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

Because I'm curious. We were we took a trip up, did like we did like a tour of the thumb, yeah, and I had no clue until we started looking into what to what we should do. And one of the things that came up were there is petroglyphs in the thumb.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_04 21:15

And it was and it was because this was all uncovered because of a massive fire that happened in the area. Like a forest fire that unru unveiled this rock.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

And it was ended up being a meeting place for all these tribes. And I was curious, you talked about Rochester being settled first. Um, and then because of the trails, and obviously there are other other factors. I was just curious how all those things tied in.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

It was very well, you know, road conditions. Um same same problem as now really led to uh you were mentioning about the um the plank road. The plank road. Yeah. Um there's a cute story that I uh I heard many years ago about uh three travelers. They were in this Springtime. So road the trails were really m muddy, really messy.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

Springtime especially, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

So yeah, so they would travel along the uh edge of the um or margin of the trail. Um and they as they were they were heading up what was called the Saginaw Trail.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Today the Saginaw Trail would be called Woodward Avenue. That was the Saginaw Trail, went all the way up to Sag Saginaw Bay. So here they are traveling along, and one of the travelers notices a hat in the middle of the road. So he thinks to himself, well, I could always use a hat.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

So he tiptoes over to the hat and picks up the hat. Oh, and there's a guy under the hat.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

It's like quicksand.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

The guy under the hat looks up and says, Hey, where are you going with my hat? I said, Well, I could always use a hat. I mean, here's this. Well, give me, that's my hat. Give me back my hat. He said, Well, you know, I'm traveling with two other guys, and we could come over here and pull you out of this mud. He said, Are you kidding? I got a horse under me. That's how bad the road conditions were.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

It was like quicksand. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

So you're right. Uh road conditions were so poor that in 1850, the state of Michigan passed what they called the Plank Road Act, which allowed uh private industries to lay boards over the roads. Yeah, and you would charge a fee a toll. So if you were on foot, you'd pay a penny a mile. If you were on horseback, it was two cents a mile.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

And if you were being pulled by horses in a wagon, it was three cents a mile.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

So that was people didn't realize it was pay pay scale. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yeah. So and those were called tollways. So what's the opposite of a tollway?

SPEAKER_03 24:05

A freeway.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

A freeway. That's right. And the road conditions of the freeways back then were much like the road conditions of our freeways today.

SPEAKER_04 24:14

Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah. Was this the did we say was this the first toll road? The one that ran through Farmington was not the first. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

No, there were there were there were others. Yeah. In fact, just north of us in West Bloomfield Township, Orchard Lake Road, especially up around uh Pontiac Trail, around that area, that was a toll road, also. It was called the Orchard Lake Gravel Road. And so they laid gravel on the road instead of logs.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

Smart. Um, and they would charge a toll better than planks and less maintenance.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Right there at Orchard Lake and uh Pontiac Trail, yeah, where that intersection is. There was a toll. There was a toll house there. Yeah, interesting. And a toll gate.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

And there was also, I feel like old Orchard Trail was something too that ran along along along the lake.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

Um interesting. Because I went to I went to West Bloomfield for high school. So they did. They teach a little bit of the history at the high school level, but a lot of it is also done in more like the elementary school and middle school times. But I have had a chance to go on to Apple Island on a tour and stuff too. And that's there's some really cool history with Chief Pontiac and stuff on Apple Island. What is Apple Island? So Apple Island is the island in the middle of Orchard Lake, and it was historically like a very important um like communal uh Indian or Native American. I sorry, I say Indian because I am one and that's what we say, but it's yeah, I know it's like indigenous people, Native American. I try to be I say Indian, so I I'm sorry to anyone listening, but that's a really hard habit for me to break because that's what I've said for 36 years. Yeah, it's like it's our it's a hard word, so you know, whatever. Use it as you will. Anyway, it's where the Native Americans met. It was very important ceremonially. Um, it was also you know harder to get to, so it was easier to defend in times of conflict as well. And then um, once the land was like sequestered or partitioned off or whatever, there was a family that lived on it for quite a while, like multiple generations, and had a farm on there and and lived on there until I want to say like the 60s or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Yeah, you're talking about the uh Ward family.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

That sounds right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Yeah, and in fact, I've uh I was a docent on the island. Nice. I've got friends of mine that are are uh uh connected to the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society. Yeah, nice. And uh so they are the ones who typically conduct the tours. Yeah, interesting fact about that island. Um I don't mean to kind of all relates, yeah. Um that island is the only island in the state of Michigan that is owned by the school district.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

Yep, really, yeah. School's island is owned by West Bloomfield School, schools, yes, yeah. That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

So they used to have a couple of uh pontoon boats and they would take people over there. Yeah, because of liability insurance and so on, they kind of COVID, they kind of stopped. So now what they stopped, yeah. Now what? Now what's the stuff? So now they hire uh the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society will hire a company to come out and uh use a uh a float boat of some sort. They'll do a couple tours a year, yes, okay and shuttle people over to the island.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

The ones this year actually were just supposed to happen and they got canceled due to bad weather. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Dang.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

That's so I I've I've done some doseners. Yeah, that's awesome. Docent stuff work uh on the island. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

And there's also some, I know that there's some um, I don't know if it's still going on, but they were doing a partnership with an MSU extension because there were some native plants that were endangered and found on the island. Um, I don't remember which ones off the top of my head, but there it was like because it was undeveloped for so long that these plants were still on the test study.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

And not only that, but uh even before that, uh there was a group of uh paleontology uh students from U of M.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 28:31

That went onto the island to hunt for uh the possibilities of uh burial mounds.

SPEAKER_03 28:36

Yeah, I don't think they found it. They didn't find it, yeah. Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

I think because it was more important ceremonially that they didn't put burial mounds on there, and probably it was in the surrounding around the lake that there were some, but rumor rumor had it that even Chief Pontiac buried there, and that's I think that was that's not true, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

So we still don't know where Chief Pontiac's buried.

SPEAKER_03 29:01

Uh they don't. My guess would be near Lake St.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Clair, to be honest. You think he could be buried somewhere? Uh Chief Pontiac could be buried somewhere near um Chief Oldsmobile. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

I was like, I knew we're gonna go idea.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

I would guess near Lake St. Clair, or honestly, I I would not be surprised if it was near even Fort Wayne in Detroit. And the reason why I say that is because there is there, it was kind of like a trophy. Yeah. Uh they had in when the settlement, like when forts were first being developed along the Detroit River and Lake Erie and stuff like that, there was a armed resistance that Chief Pontiac led, and he took Fort Detroit, and he was like the first indigenous guy took one of the forts, and it led, I think it was called the the up uh rebellion or an uprising. I forgot what word they use, but after he took that fort, it inspired all the other tribes to start rebelling against the colonizers. And with even before like statehood, it was a thing, it was like very early on, and so like I could imagine that he would ask to be buried near where he won that battle of Fort Detroit. Um, because that's very prideful. Like knowing knowing our culture, it would be like, yeah, they would want to be near where they had their best victory kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 30:26

And what a good opportunity to talk about something that I wish was more to it. Is it is it Fort Detroit or Fort Wayne?

SPEAKER_03 30:32

It was called Fort Detroit.

SPEAKER_04 30:34

Was it Fort Detroit? And then but it's this I feel like it's sitting there and just decay.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

But there was uh the the original fort was actually in what is today downtown Detroit.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Whereas Fort Wayne is a little downriver. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 30:51

Yeah. So that was like an afterthought. Detroit was well established.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

It was a separate, it's actually two separate things, to my understanding. Is Fort Detroit was more like an outpost kind of thing. Okay. And then once it was more developed, and then we got into the revolutionary times, they put it near the water to be able to scope out British ships and that kind of thing. And then after makes sense, the star shapes and exactly, and then and then post uh Revolutionary War, and now we're a country, it became um like the arsenal of democracy, so we stored a lot of uh like our tanks and stuff at Fort Wayne, and it became like an armory. Became the armory and support, right?

SPEAKER_04 31:34

Yeah, and then I'm sure there's some sort of enlistment aspect to it too during the wars.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Yeah, yeah, they had they had barracks there and stuff as well.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

Well, but still, that'd be so cool. I mean, you drive by it and it's like have you ever been there? I have never been in there.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

It's cool, you should go in. It's worth taking it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:53

Oh, is it? Yeah, oh yeah. I mean, yeah, you can go. I didn't even know. It's cool.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

All right. When you when was the last time you guys have gone to it? Uh less than 10 years ago, I've been there.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

No, I was there probably three, maybe four years ago. I um I'm a percussionist and I play in a civil war band. Cool, nice. And we played in uh in Fort Wayne.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

Yeah, they there was also Civil War regiments uh came out of Fort Wayne too. Yeah, yeah. There's I I didn't even touch on that history, but yeah, there was a lot of that at Fort Wayne too. Yeah, I didn't even know it was open. Yeah. Oh, it is, yeah. All right, I'll check it out. Yeah. So since we're talking Civil War and we were talking native indigenous population, and then we should get to more farming and stuff, but I am curious because I just learned this this winter. Are you familiar with K Company in the Civil War? Do you know what that is? K Company? Yeah, Michigan's K Company. It was a rifle company.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

The only one I'm familiar with is the uh the 22nd Michigan was the only one mustered out of Pontiac.

SPEAKER_03 33:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Um, and the group that I played with was the 5th Michigan.

SPEAKER_03 33:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

And it was mustered out of Detroit.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

Okay, so they probably went out of Fort Wayne and Yeah, probably. Oh, probably. Yeah. So the reason um K Company was an all Indian rifleman corpse in the Civil War.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Oh, no kidding.

SPEAKER_03 33:24

And so they weren't citizens, they were tribe tribal affiliated, band, band affiliated. And they Michigan's really interesting in the indigenous history in that we're still here. We didn't get pushed west like a lot of the other tribes did in the Gulf uh states and through the Ohio River Valley, and even the Wyandotte got pushed out west because they were more like so in the Ohio River Valley. And when the settlement was happening, it was pre-Civil War. And so as Michigan was developing, and I'm sure you realize like once you align the dates, it was like Michigan was in the middle of becoming a state and developing and being settled right around the time that the Civil War broke out. And so the Indian expulsion kind of got put on the back burner, and Indians um decided to fight for the US government, even though they were citizens, as a way to show, like, hey, we're civilized, we're not like we'll take over farming, like we'll learn how to integrate into society. And they did that at the urging of the Catholic Church and the missionaries that were all in northern Michigan, saying, like, if you don't want to be expelled, like you should try to prove that you are able to integrate into society. So there was about 300 or so uh Native Americans that fought for Michigan in the Civil War.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

Amazing.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

And um that's good to know. It yeah, and I actually I found out that one of my I think it is four or five great grandpas was in K Company and fought at the the Battle of the Wilderness and lost his arm to a rifle shot or something like that. Really? And spent his whole life trying to get his uh what's it called when you get your payouts from pension? Yeah, his pension. So the Indians they had to fight till the day they died every year trying to get keep getting their pensions, even though like they served and fought, and yeah, so the typical, you know, breaking treaties, all that good stuff. Like they did it even with the veterans and stuff, too, that fought for the Civil War.

SPEAKER_04 35:27

So yeah. So um no, bringing us back to Farmington, what so the Potomac Pottawan and me were here, correct? Yeah. How come we don't see more involvement from local tribes? It's just because life was, I mean, lifestyles were separate, two different, I mean, ways of living, right? So is that why there wasn't any integration? I'll defer to you on this, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

No, uh you know what? Um, like um like the Quakers. Yeah. Uh Farmington was founded by Quakers. And um they had a huge presence in in Southeast Michigan starting in Farmington. You know, Farmington was the first Quaker community in the whole state.

SPEAKER_04 36:21

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Yeah. So um and and if you were to go today to search out what happened to the Quakers. Well, they got assimilated or they uh went into different uh Christian faith. Quakers are uh Quakers are Christians who didn't have churches, they had meeting houses. And um there was a meeting house here in Farmington, it was located uh adjacent to the Quaker Cemetery. And um Arthur Power was the founder of Farmington. He came here in 1824 with two of his sons and two hired men and they found their way to an area that had been surveyed. You know, you can you can't buy land unless you can describe it. And you can't describe it unless it's been surveyed. So in the early 1800s there was an act passed called the Northwest Ordinance. And the Northwest Ordinance was established so that all lands were surveyed in the same manner, so that all townships are the same size. A township is six miles square or thirty-six square miles. Think about uh Farmington Hills, which used to be Farmington Township, runs from eight mile to do you know the northern boundary of Farmington Hills?

SPEAKER_03 38:16

14 mile.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

That's six miles. Yeah, it runs from Inkster to Hagarty, which is six miles. Which is six miles.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Yeah, interesting. Yeah, so and then there they didn't that also uh that act um standardized the subdivision plates to 40 acres as well, or is that something that predates that?

SPEAKER_01 38:38

No. Um what how that how that developed is if you look at a uh section map.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

This is uh I'm sorry I didn't bring any maps with me on the map. Yeah, if if I had a section map, each township is separated into 36 one square mile sections.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

So section one is uh it at uh eight and in 14 mile interesting. It's on the north.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Yes. Uh so section one is at 14 mile and uh Inkster.

unknown 39:22

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:23

And then it it's counted north, south, east, west. Yeah. So section two is towards Orchard Lake Road, section three is towards Drake, section four, and so on. So it goes all the way across and each one mile section is six hundred and forty acres.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Now back when settlers or pioneers were coming into Michigan, they were doing that because they were leaving their home state, typically New York. New York, um Western New York was owned by a Dutch land company, and they were charging a lot, lots of money for land. And so word got out that Michigan, Southeast Michigan had been surveyed, and so uh you could go to Michigan and buy land for a dollar and a quarter an acre. So if you had a hundred dollars that buys you eighty acres.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

Which is that time is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

That's an eighth of a section.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

But eighty acres is enough land that you could grow crops so you could feed your family.

SPEAKER_03 40:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Plus, you would have a surplus and be able to sell off some of your produce and earn earn dollars. And that's that's how things kind of got started. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

So what that was early economies was producing food and agriculture. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 41:05

You said this was sold by a Dutch company, a land company. That was in New York.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

No, in New York.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

So that was not the same, uh, not different here in Michigan.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 41:14

Michigan you bought it from the government.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

You bought it from the government, that's right.

SPEAKER_04 41:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

So um our Arthur Power uh was a Quaker. Now it's because he was a Quaker and his family were was were Quakers that he made it to here. He made it to Farmington, Farmington, what would become Farmington Hills. He actually um got his start because his mother gave him money to invest in land. Quakers believe that all peoples are equal. Doesn't matter what sex you were, men and women were equal.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Um radical idea at the time. Oh, absolutely. If you were white Anglo-Saxon, oh no, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

In fact, uh many many Christian uh sects were um dead set against the Quaker ideal. They were ostracized big time, big time, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:20

So um in an agrarian society Define agrarian for the listeners that might not know what that means. Yeah, farm farm society.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

A farm society. Yeah. So in an agrarian society, the eldest son gets the family farm. So if your son number two, or son number five, or son number seven, like Arthur Power was, you get I didn't realize that's why.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

So he got the short end of the stick.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

Well, he and his and all of his brothers, except for the his eldest brother. Uh so his mother, who was a businesswoman because Quakers believed that women should be educated, women should could own land, women could own businesses. His mother had uh had a great deal of wealth, and they were from uh Boston or the Boston in the Massachusetts, yeah, is where they were from. She gave her son Arthur and two of his brothers money, and they went to Farmington, New York.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

I knew that there was a connection here.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

There is. In fact, Farmington, New York was also a hotbed of Quakerism. Um by chance? No, I I think uh the Quakers took that name with them everywhere they went.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

Including New Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

So you'll find you'll find what's really cool is you'll find that. Um if you let's say for instance, if you were a Quaker and you were traveling across country and you came upon a community called Farmington, chances are you'd be amongst friends. That's really interesting. Because there's one in like Utah thing. There is a farmers in Utah. Wait a minute. That's a joke. Is it a joke? I was so believed. It's a joke. Because uh uh Quakers are referred to as the Society of Friends. So you'd be amongst friends.

SPEAKER_03 44:36

Oh, wait, so the Farmington thing is true though. Oh yeah. Yeah. So okay. I missed the deeper level joke of you'd be among friends. I I gotta pay closer attention here.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

It's actually a time joke. You'll get up tomorrow morning and start laughing.

SPEAKER_04 44:52

Okay. That's good enough. So so Farmington, Utah, Farmington, New Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

There's 40 Farmingtons across the country. 40.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

In fact.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

40.

SPEAKER_03 45:06

That's crazy. All quick or settled. Most of them. Most? A good chunk?

SPEAKER_01 45:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

Yeah, good a good chunk.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

Yeah, but not all of them. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 45:14

Some of them were just copycats. Well, I mean, honestly, you see Utica, Michigan, Utica, New York. I mean, it's not uncommon to name your settling from where you came from. From where you came from.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 45:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

And that also holds true. Rochester and Troy and Utica, Lavonia, Bloomfield, all these were communities in New York. But when uh when Arthur Power uh settled in Farmington, New York, he learned a very important lesson. And that there's television shows around people that flip houses. Well, he learned that lesson in the early 1800s.

SPEAKER_03 45:57

He made a bad investment.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

No, he made a good investment. He bought a piece of property and made small improvements. He uh cleared the land, or he put a house on the land, or he put a barn on the land. Um, and then he sold that land at a profit.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

And he had done that so many times he accumulated a great deal of wealth. So when he came to Michigan at a dollar and a quarter an acre, he bought enough land that he actually divvied the land out to his adult children.

SPEAKER_03 46:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:32

So they would move here and settle there. Start the land.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

Yeah, start the process.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

He got them started.

SPEAKER_03 46:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

He also donated land to the community. So, for instance, the Oakwood Cemetery, which was a community burial ground, he donated that land. That was his, but he donated to the community.

SPEAKER_03 46:55

He's like, Yeah, I got some spot in the just outside of the woods over here. Go ahead. Yeah, you could bury your mom over there, kind of thing, or whatever it was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Well, the and the meeting house, he donated that land too for the meeting house. And uh who how the Quaker cemetery got started is because his daughter-in-law and his granddaughter died in 1836.

SPEAKER_03 47:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

And because uh from cholera. There was a cholera ep epidemic happening in the 1830s. Yeah. And they died, they died together, uh huh, and they're buried together, and they uh because of them, the Quaker burial ground was established.

SPEAKER_03 47:46

In the spot that it was. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Right. So they those two were the first two to be buried of his settlement?

SPEAKER_03 47:54

That's right. Okay, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

If you go to the Quaker Cemetery, you're gonna find his grave site and you'll find his other adult children are also buried there.

SPEAKER_03 48:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

So very very cool.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

So my my question is when he was donating this land, yes, was he doing it with the intention of community building? Or okay. So he was very mindful of what he was doing at the time he was doing it.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 48:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

Now his the first place that he he went to, the first piece of property that he purchased, yeah, uh, was at Power Road. No, no mistake.

SPEAKER_03 48:37

Right, yeah, named.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Yeah, right. It was at Power Road just south of 11 mile.

SPEAKER_03 48:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

On the east side of Power Road, you'll find one of those green metal, what I call green metal history books.

SPEAKER_04 48:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

There's a marker, yeah, and it says where Farmington began.

SPEAKER_04 49:00

Yes, I think I've seen that. Yeah, right by the early childhood development.

SPEAKER_01 49:03

Yeah, exactly, right next door. So he built his the first log cabin was built on that property again because it's it was the high side or high part of the of his purchase. Right.

SPEAKER_03 49:22

Um because like you have heritage and it's all downhill and ravines and everything. Well, it was typical.

SPEAKER_01 49:28

Any kind of settler um who's building a house will build on the high part of their property because when it rains, if you're on the top of the hill, the rainwater uh washes away. If you're at the bottom of the hill, the rainwater comes in to your home. So it's not not a good thing. But unfortunately, his log cabin is no longer with us. Um but we are fortunate that one of his sons, Nathan Power, kept uh a diary and told us exactly where his father went and what land they settled and where it's located, and so on. So we know exactly where Arthur Power came with two of his sons and two hired men.

SPEAKER_04 50:20

So it started there. It started there. Well, why did it move south? Because of the Grand River Trail?

SPEAKER_01 50:26

No. Um, although the Grand River Trail had something to do, it had more to do with getting farmers or settlers into their property. They they thought the center of town was going to be 11 mile and power road. But it's today 11 mile and power road.

SPEAKER_04 50:44

In fact, there was a hotel up there too, right? That's right. It was a hotel.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

The uh the um Philbrick Tavern.

SPEAKER_04 50:52

Yes, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

And that and that was established right after Arthur came there. The um Philbricks were also Quakers, and they established a place for people to stay while they were establishing their new homestead. Right, right. So they thought that was going to be the center of town, but that's not really what happened. Because people gravitate to water, and the Rouge River was just south of his settlement.

SPEAKER_03 51:25

Access to fresh water. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:27

That that and the establishment of grist and sawmills. You know, if your community was lucky enough to have a grist mill and a sawmill, you're a lot. You had food and you had lumber. Yeah, so you had shelter. That's right. That's right. So they establ they first and the sawmill needed water. Well, both needed water. It used a uh I don't know what I mean. Water water power grist is uh flour mill.

SPEAKER_03 52:00

Ah, okay. I didn't have heard it called that.

SPEAKER_01 52:02

Grist is uh is is wheat that you grind to uh pulverize to. Got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:10

So yeah, both require power. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:13

Uh interesting fact, Shiawassee Park sits in a bowl. And it's surrounded by the Rouge River. Right. Travels right through it.

SPEAKER_02 52:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

And because of the topography, the fact that it was a bowl, there was a there were two mill sites in the park.

SPEAKER_04 52:35

Wow. Really?

SPEAKER_01 52:35

So for instance, on on Power Road, uh, where there's a little parking lot near the tennis courts, or what used to be tennis courts, now it's probably pickable. It's pickable, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:47

It's pickleball, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:48

That was where the mill was located.

SPEAKER_03 52:51

Really?

SPEAKER_01 52:52

Where the parking lot is. Interesting. They dammed up the Rouge River so all of Shiawassee Park that we know of today was flooded. Was flooded.

SPEAKER_03 53:03

Really?

SPEAKER_01 53:03

It was a mill pond.

SPEAKER_03 53:05

They wanted control of the power. So that's so that's why okay. I was wondering about mill pond. So, okay, that's makes a lot of sense. So that's where the mill ponds. There's like minnow pond and mill pond, and those are kind of the two are notable ponds in the that is so true.

SPEAKER_04 53:23

So, where was so was the dam in line with like where the court tennis courts were went that went from that parking lot to the other side of the ravine?

SPEAKER_01 53:30

It actually um there is a paved uh curved path that leads from the parking lot around to the um fitness to the Rouge River? Yeah, that's where the dam was.

SPEAKER_04 53:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 53:48

Interesting. Yeah, and they have like that.

SPEAKER_04 53:52

I did not know that. Where was the other one that was in Shiawasi Park?

SPEAKER_01 53:56

It was right next to it. It was a sawmill.

SPEAKER_04 53:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 53:59

So when I say it there were two mills, it was a flower and a tip typically if the if you dammed up uh a river and you could take advantage of take advantage of the of the water source. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:11

That's so fascinating. Very cool. I did not know that. We uh my grandparents used to live on Drake Road, and they had was that also the Shiwassee River running through? Drake and where? Drake and just off of the highway. And it was they had a pond in the front of their house.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

Oh, sure. Now that's still the Rouge.

SPEAKER_04 54:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 54:31

In fact, uh Farmington Hills, or what was Farmington Township, is really the headwaters of the Rouge River because of all the uh spring-fed ponds. Right. The Minnow Pond is a great example of that.

SPEAKER_04 54:46

Spring-fed pond.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

It's a spring-fed pond, right?

SPEAKER_04 54:49

So this is it's over right by Sleepy Hollow, is where I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah. So there's like there's like a Howard Road. Howard Road, yeah. Yes. And so they and on the river right there, there was, I remember there being like, it was must have been a mill. There was. It was like in cr it was like crumbled walls.

SPEAKER_01 55:06

There were two, there were two mills there. Okay. Uh today, um, again, there were two mills, a grist mill and a and a sawmill. Um, today there is a historical marker that's a photograph. And you can, if you drive by there, pull off the road on Howard Road. Pull on to Howard. Yes. And um you'll you'll see the marker, and you'll see the photograph, and it shows you what the what the mill looked like.

SPEAKER_04 55:36

Cool. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

Fascinating.

SPEAKER_03 55:39

That is fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 55:40

Yeah, good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 55:41

Um I had a couple other things getting back to um the Quakers in general. Um, I want to get it moving to the probably 60s, 70s, 80s when the new towns were forming kind of thing. But an interesting piece of history that I feel like pip people should know about the Quakers is that they were abolitionists.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

Oh, big time.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

And and that that abolitionist history has a big footprint in Farmington, Farmington Hills, and I did want to touch on that. Underground Railroad. Yeah, so what can you tell us about the Quakers and abolitions?

SPEAKER_01 56:17

Oh, absolutely. Uh in fact, um uh free freedom seekers. That's what the PC version of uh enslaved people. Right, enslaved people are freedom seekers would come to uh communities such as Farmington because they were assisted by the the Quakers that lived here. Um Arthur Power's son, who kept the diary Nathan Power, was so involved, and his brother Abram were so involved in the Underground Railroad that uh Nathan was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. House people and uh he he did even more than that. Did he really he invested his own personal money in um a freedom farm in Canada? Wow. So the freedom seekers that found their way into Canada would have somewhere to go and something to do so they would could be continue to support themselves, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So he used his own personal uh finances and he would he would go to uh Canada every now and again to check out and make sure that things were running as he intended.

SPEAKER_03 57:47

Right, make sure that they weren't taking advantage of people getting over once they got there.

SPEAKER_01 57:52

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 57:52

And this was unique, right? Like this wasn't a common thing to come across and during the time for a community, right? Like someone investing all of their a lot of their wealth into this. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 58:03

Yeah, absolutely. It was uh it's something to to really admire. The fact that he felt so strongly about the abolitionist movement and the Quakers that uh he he actually invested in their their freedom.

SPEAKER_03 58:21

Right. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 58:23

Very good. So so when do when does the dairy and the cheese come into play here? Because I know that was a big I don't know anything about this. Dairy, yeah, dairy and cheese production in Farmington, right?

SPEAKER_01 58:35

Well, a lot of that had to do with uh uh Governor Warner. Okay. Governor Warner owned 13 cheese factories in the area.

SPEAKER_03 58:44

I did not know this. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 58:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 58:47

So in this one, how much did we just speed up the timeline here by going to Warner from From the Quakers early? Was Warner a Quaker?

SPEAKER_01 58:56

No. Okay, he was adopted by P. D. Warner. Um and so he um he learned about um banking, he learned a lot about um governing. Um and he bought bought and sold real estate. Uh there was a lot of money to be made. And all of that was taught to him by his by his father, P. D. Warner.

SPEAKER_04 59:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:35

Uh P. D. Warner uh built what we know of today as the Warner Mansion. He built that just after the Civil War. Okay. 1867. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 59:45

So we're fast-forwarding like 40 years here.

SPEAKER_01 59:48

Yeah, at least.

SPEAKER_04 59:49

So So Quakers are still around.

SPEAKER_01 59:51

Like they're they're still they are, but now they're starting to get assimilated into other religions.

SPEAKER_03 59:58

How developed is Farmington at this time?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:01

In 1867.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:03

So we got the mills, the mills go in, they're able to build structures quicker, they're able to support more people in a smaller area because of food availability. Everything's still wood built at this point. Everything's still wood built, maybe some stone if you're lucky.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:15

No, if you if you had some money, right, if you had brick, yeah. If if you could afford it, you could you had a brick home. So let's let let's talk about the movement of what we know of as the central business district of downtown Farmington.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:32

This is Grand River and Farmington Road.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

Originally, the downtown or the central business district was Shiawassee and Farmington Road. It was not Grand River.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:45

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

Yeah. It was not Grand River.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

Because, well, that's where the mills were.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:50

Okay, that makes sense. That's where the water was. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:52

So there were structures. There are still a few structures left on Shiawassee. The florist, nursery, east and west. Some of the houses, right? Yes. Okay. East and west of uh Farmington Road, um, and including the Baptist Church, which is at the end of Farmington Road.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:13

Um that's original?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:15

That's cool. I know that.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:17

So um that's where the down what we'll call downtown Farmington was when it was originally. The post office was there too. So that's the first time. Yes, the first post office that was.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:31

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

So there were this is where the uh commerce was taking place. Now remember, I told you in 1850 the Plank Road Act was passed. And Grand River became the Detroit and Howell Plank Road.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:50

And so that's Grand River is one block south of the downtown at the time. Yeah. So the business owners started seeing commerce going right by.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:03

Yeah. Were there other families that had invested along that corridor that benefited from it? Well, there were still they did they lobby for the change or was it did they just get lucky?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:14

No, what they what they actually did was to help conform to where the money was going down the street, right? They picked up their structures and moved them to Grand River.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:31

They didn't want to be left out, so they're like, we gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:34

So the downtown central business district shifted from the 1830s, where where this little node of structures at Shiawassee and Farmington Road, and it moved to Grand River. And by the way, uh back then it wasn't referred to as Farmington Road. It was called Division Street. So that was Division Street that we today know of as Farmington Road.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:07

So then Was it Division North of Shiwassee as well?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:12

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:13

There wasn't a road there, I'm assuming.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:15

Well, yes, there was. Okay. In fact, there is a house right next to the Baptist Church.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:21

And right next to that house, there is a service drive that goes down the hill. That goes down the hill? Yeah. That was that was the original road.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:32

I've always wanted to go down there. Me too. Walk it. Okay. Is it is it publicly accessible?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:37

No, yeah. Interesting. In fact, it'll take you down, and when you get to the bottom, you'll get that hill is referred to as McGee Hill.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:48

Because at the bottom of the hill was the McGee Farm.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:53

And when you get to the bottom of the hill, the road curves sharply to the west, and they put a bridge over the Rouge River.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:05

One of those old bridges. That bridge is still.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:07

No. No. Concrete. No way. That bridge is still there. Crazy. Really? Or you can walk across it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:13

Dude, we gotta go down there.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:14

We gotta go down there.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:16

That is so cool. When you walk over the bridge, then you'll find a paved easement that will take you out between two homes.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:29

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:30

And you'll it'll take you all the way to whatever that Valley Street is. Uh is that Twin Valley?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:37

Twin Valley, yeah. That street that runs along.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:40

It dumps you right out onto the street.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:42

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:44

So there's like a little path back there. Yeah. There is. Dude, we gotta check that out. That's crazy. I've never been back there. Explore. Dude, I'm down. We're going.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

Because parking is kind of limited at the top. The top of the hill. We'll probably park downtown or shiwassee. No, I I would park uh in that uh Twin Valley street.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:07

Oh, because it's connected.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:09

On street parking?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

So park there. And then walk you, you'll find the path between two houses, and you'll walk up the path. And there it opens up to a bridge.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:20

And then you'll walk across the bridge. That's great.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:22

That is great.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:23

And then you'll discover there's a um pumping station that is owned by the city of Farmington. Um, and that's that's why that road still exists, because it's a service road to there. So when you when you climb up.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:41

Do you want to pump them for water? What do they use the pumping station for?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:44

Uh no, it's used to pump up sewage.

unknown 1:05:49

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:50

I guess it does have to go up. Yeah, yeah, from the bottom of the hill. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:55

It's used it's a sanitary. It's a city sewer line.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:58

Yeah, it's a sanitary sewer line. Okay. Interesting. So take that path. Yeah, yeah. We were doing it.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:05

So when did the uh Warner family come in? So that was when the when that house was built, when the Warner family came into Farmington.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:13

No, no. The Warner family has deeper roots than that.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:17

There was uh the father of P. D. Warner, Seth Warner, came in the late 1830s. So a lot of people were coming into the area in the 1830s.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:31

Because it was like, why would you not want to live here? It's peaceful and it was cheap. Land is cheap.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:36

Relatively easy to get to. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:39

And it was water. Yeah. Fresh water.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:41

There's mills all over the place, apparently. Like nice land.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:45

All over. Nice land to grow crops. Yeah, I guess. And so you could you could be uh it could be a very lucrative uh opportunity.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:56

So the so the Warner family had, I mean, thousands of acres of farm, correct?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:03

I don't know about thousands of hundreds? Hundreds, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:07

So do they so the dairy and the cheese, what were they specifically?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:11

So let's get let's get back to that. That's that's more uh Fred Warner. Okay, who was governor.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:17

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:18

Only only uh three time, three consecutive term governor of the state of Michigan was Fred Warner. And he was adopted by the Warners. Um and he became uh a statesman. He kind of followed in his father's footsteps. His his father was also involved in government. Um his father built the uh Warner Mansion, what the we know of today is the Warner Mansion in 1867. That's the same day uh year that the village of Farmington was established, and it was established at Grand River and at the same two crossroads, Grand River and Division Street. That was the four crossroads. Um and um there was uh an appreciation because of the uh the dairy farms that were in existence all around this area. He found that it was profitable to open up uh cheese factories and um make uh create cheese uh out of the all the uh milk products. So uh there's a little joke that I tell usually about Governor Warner, he actually made his way in the world.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:49

That's hilarious. So is he purchasing he's purchasing milk from from uh dairy farmers right now? Oh yeah, all around the area. Yeah, he was a purchaser and then he's converted it into because it lasts longer cheese.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:01

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:02

It was easier to store and ship, yeah, that's right. And because they it's solid. Because it wasn't as easy to sell the milk until the the the United Detroit Railway came along and then they could ship it down to the eastern market.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:15

Well, that's true too. However, um uh if it's kind of an interesting uh concept to turn milk products uh into uh into something hard like cheese. Um I'll I'll give you another little tidbit. There was a um stove factory where the pavilion is. The Sunquist Pavilion is a very good thing. Really about this stove factory in farming. Yeah, there used to be a foundry right there.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:50

Right there on the on the main road.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:53

No, no, actually it was off it was off Grand River by a little bit. Yeah, and it it was a business that uh eventually failed, and the structure was still there. Warner bought the structure and turned it into a cheese factory. So his one of his 13 cheese factories, like the main one, was right smack dab in downtown park.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:18

Right in the middle. Yeah, at all. That's so fascinating. Yeah, really, yeah. Warner cheese. Warner cheese. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:24

Warner cheese. I did not know the whole cheese dairy farm background.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:29

It was like the second, it was like your first line of economy, and that was like kind of what came second, right? Was yeah, was really that interesting, and then I feel like a little bit of tourism, maybe, because it was like the easiest way to get out of the city, sure, and that's why people came up Grand River.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

It was this was like up north quiet life, yeah. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:49

There was a nickname for Farmington, wasn't it? Like the it was called like the like fresh air camp or something, they used to call it.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:55

I don't know, yeah, I've never heard that.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:57

I heard that from uh I feel like a teacher back in the like middle school teacher or something. I don't know. I was trying to dig something up from the the files, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:05

From back in there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:06

Um I knew I knew of a camp at 12 mile uh between Farmington and Drake. There you used to be a camp. Okay. Um, and it was nestled in the in the woods back there. Um but uh what was that camp?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:26

Yeah, because that's where I live. I'm curious. Is it really? Yeah, I'm in I'm in Canada.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:31

There's a historical marker and it talks about the camp. It was uh settled by I hate to say this, but it was settled by socialist Jews that that moved into the area uh and they so Farmington was always incredibly diverse, is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:54

Extremely yeah, that's so fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:56

Yeah. So what would be what's the name of it? I'm I'm drawing a blank. I always remember it. Kendallwood. Yeah, it's Kendallwood, but I don't know where it's like. That was where the camp was.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:06

Well, today, um think about the the intersection of 12 mile and uh I'm sorry, 12 mile and Halstead. Okay, a little bit. Think of that intersection. There's a cemetery right on the north next to like southeast corner chiropractor or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:24

Now, if you go w east on 12 mile from the cemetery, there's a series of office buildings.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:32

Yeah, and they're all yeah, the original like old buildings. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:36

There's office buildings, yeah. Okay. So if you drive down there slowly, you'll see one of the markers and it uh talks about the socialist camp. Interesting. I have to find it.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:48

Yeah, I'm so it was actually closer, so it's on the south side of 12 mile. It is okay, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:55

Are you in the north of 12? North, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:57

There was the airport in in Farmington Hills.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:00

Oh, now you're really more.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:01

Yeah, we jumped up, like we skipped over Quaker Town and Wood Creek and all of that stuff. We'll save that for another. We'll have to get you back on it. When was that? When was the airport incorporated?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:12

In the 1920s. Okay, there was a man whose last name was Christ, and he envisioned that everyone would own an airplane for the work, a visionary. So he established an airport. It was called Christport. And the the hangar and the tower is still there.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:43

Still there, yeah. It's a collision shop, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

Right. And so the the the biggest giveaway is if you drive as you drive by it, there is a tower on top of the office building, yeah, that's all glass all the way around. So it's a coop, it's like a cupola. Yeah. And that was the control tower. Right. And if you went behind the office building, you'll see that the hangar building is like a quantit hut.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:12

Okay, interesting. Behind it. I haven't driven behind it.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:15

I've only ever seen it. Take a look. You can even tell on Google Maps, you can you can see. Oh, yeah. You can just tell, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:21

So just so it was all an air today. It's it's a it's several subdivisions. Several subdivisions. But it was a a large um airport.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:31

And then as you know, as you may know, in 1929 came the big crash. Right. Right. So he made a bad investment. The depression. No one's getting planes anymore. No one's getting planes. And so the whole concept crashed. Died. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:49

So for for listeners, this area is gonna be on the west side of Orchard Lake Road just north of 12 mile. There's a collision shop, there's like a storage facility there. Um there's a lot there.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:03

There's a lot of place you would say there was an airport here ever. Right. Yeah. You'd be surprised. I remember I was surprised.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:08

Yeah, there was an airport. Was there another airfield at 14 in Orchard Lake Road, too, at one point?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:15

14 in Orchard?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:17

I'm not familiar.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:18

Okay. The reason why I asked that, because I remember as a kid, I've lived out here my whole life, from 36, so this would be like 33 years ago, probably. We used to go to a driving range at 14 in the 14 in orchard.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:33

In Orchard Lake. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:34

And I had always heard, even as a kid, that before it was a driving range, it was an airfield. But it could have been the one at 12 mile, and it was just lost in translation.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:44

But I yes, I remember when when uh Northwestern Highway ended.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:48

Yeah, yeah, and it was just like a driving range and nothing else. It was like literally nothing else. Like it was driving development. Yeah. Yeah, interesting. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, it was a while. It was yeah, a while ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:01

The driving range was where Jay Alexander's is like you'd shoot it at Whole Foods.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:07

Okay, okay, okay. I'm on the same page now.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:11

Holden one? Yeah, not too long ago. When I say not too long ago, in 1972.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:18

There's people alive who remember this.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:21

There is. There are people that are still live here that have lived here the 60s.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:26

Yeah, prior to it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:28

Well, in 1972, they put it to a vote that everybody that lived in the township, because by the 1920s, Farmington, the city, the village of Farmington was established as a city. First mayor was Wells Butterfield. And so that was already established as a city. It's a very 1920s.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:55

It really is.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:56

So um the the township decided they no longer wanted to be a township.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:06

So the part that was not incorporated.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:09

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:10

But why why?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:12

Because when you when you have an incorporated or you have a city, designated city, then you you have um services uh that are usually not provided by a township. Um a lot of townships will rely on the county for police and fire.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:35

Um I think they they they want they wanted more.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:39

They wanted to be more organized. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:41

So remember earlier in in this podcast, I told you there are 40 farming tons. No, there's 40 Farmingtons all across the country, right? There of the 40, two of them are East Farmingtons, two of them are West Farmingtons, but there's only one Hills Farmington Hills in the whole world.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:11

And it's right here.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:12

That's interesting. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:14

Farmington Hills.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:15

Um I did not know that. I I would have thought there was another one. No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:21

So that was that was literally just because they wanted to up the services. But how come now when did Farmington so Farmington was established, remember?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:32

Yeah, it wasn't. 1926. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:35

So it was so it was established first. Yes. Was so was it the Hills residents that weren't receiving the services? The townships.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:43

Yes, technically, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:45

Okay. Yes. Because Farmington always had been. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:48

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:48

But it was just the people that were outside the town who weren't.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:51

Right. There was the township that my understanding was that there was township, which was just like a bunch of different landowners, but then there were also these other weird little villages, which was like Quaker Town and Wood Creek, where there was more density, but they were still kind of their own little islands, and they were like, Well, why don't we just interesting?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:12

Let me elaborate on that.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:14

So there was in the 1960s, there was a movement of three major subdivisions in the township that wanted to become their own village.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:28

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:29

And so they couldn't name it Farmington.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:32

So they uh so they decided, well, since we have a Quaker background, let's call it Quaker Town. Right. So it was established. And so they um they were relying on the township for police and fire. However, uh when in 1972, when Farmington Hills was established, they went, they said, Oh, well, it's no longer a township. Maybe we don't need to exist anymore.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:11

So they kind of folded right that that the whole concept of little villages called Quaker Town.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:19

Right. It didn't with the way development was happening, it didn't make sense to organize in that way. It didn't. And where was this Quakertown? This was at? Go ahead. I know where it's at, but yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:30

There are several, there are several. Um there at Farmington Road between 11 and 12. There are a couple of subdivision. One is called Quaker Town. Uh there was another one across the street, closer to uh Oakland Community College called Biddestone.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:51

That was also and Wood Creek.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:53

Which was completely separate from Quaker. But yeah. Kind of fun. Interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:58

But they they all wanted to be their own little kingdoms or whatever at that time.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:03

Feed them. And then I also, and and this may or may not be true, you can tell me, I'm it's actually a good time for me to ask it, but I I also heard that these landowners incorporated into villages to stop Farmington Township from annexing them. Is is that true to your knowledge?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:22

Well, when when farming yeah, yeah, yeah. Because when Farmington Hills was established, there was a land grab. Right. But it wasn't it wasn't as much for these little Quaker town villages. Right. Because they were kind of disappearing. Right, right. They were disappearing anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:43

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:43

Uh, but now there was a land grab with the uh city of Farmington.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:48

Right. They when Farmington Hills was being formed, Farmington wanted to like make sure that they tried to push their boundary as far into these defunct villages that they could, and there was dispute over where exactly the borders were gonna be.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:04

Which makes sense though, hence the reason Farmington follows Grand River down, right? But doesn't go very much north because they're like, we don't need to go north, but yeah, right. In reality, as we developed, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:14

Yeah. So they there there was a land grab, and and uh Farmington Hills ended up uh winning out uh more of the property, and that's why to this day Farmington is like an island surrounded by Farmington Hills, and it is wonky too.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:32

It's wonky and it's it has no shape, it was because the landowners wanted to be their own little thing and didn't want to be part of the Farmington Township, my understanding. It was like, well, we're not part of like your developed, you know, crazy bustling downtown. And they up, you know, there wasn't all the neighborhoods there are now in the hills, so they still wanted their quieter, more rural like Kendalwood was my house was built in 56, so it predates there being an incorporation, but like they were developing subdivisions and there were people living there, and like yeah, I I think I I think my house had air conditioning before Farmington was a city, or Farmington Hills was a city, right? Uh it was funny. It was funny.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:15

Um, yeah, it's definitely interesting to see. I feel like growing up in Farmington and now being an adult, like Farmington does feel different than a lot of the other surrounding downtowns.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:23

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:24

And understandably so, because it was different. Well, we were unique in our own way.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:28

Well, no, I I appreciate how um there is a definite connection between the two cities. And I I also appreciate how there are shared services. Like Farmington, Farmington Hills shares a school district and they share a library system. And um Farmington doesn't have technically doesn't have a parks and rec department. So Farmington pays into uh Farmington Hills so that uh Farmington residents can take advantage of the hawk.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:04

The hawk, exactly, and the other parks. Right. Um yeah, that's we do talk about that quite a bit, like how they're these are um you know technically different communities, but one shared like or two municipalities, one community, right kind of thing. I look at it that way. Yeah, um I agree with you. Yeah, we touch on that almost every episode, I feel like we talk about these things separate, but we are so intertwined that it makes sense to consider them kind of one entity, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:37

Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:38

Um, is there, you know, just as we're wrapping up here, is there anything that you you have the floor, anything you want to talk about coming up, or is there something that you wanted to touch on that we didn't get to? Like the Botsfords, the Halsteads, like all the episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:54

We do need another one. Maybe, maybe several. Yeah, maybe several.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:59

But if there's anything that you wanted to talk about or plug or do anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:03

No, at this point, um uh you might want to take advantage if if you're traveling, uh Farmington is a very walkable community, or people like to bicycle through Farmington. There was a program that uh the Farmington Historical Society put together. And if you go to those those metal uh history books in Farmington, you will find QR codes on them.

unknown 1:25:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:31

Uh take advantage of that, scan scan the QR codes, okay, and it'll take you into more information about where you're standing.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:41

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:42

Uh the things uh to give you a better appreciation for uh Farmington history. So take advantage of that. Otherwise, I'd love to come back and we can you name it.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:56

Yeah, that's awesome. Um we do have Founders Fest coming up, too, which is uh got a big event for if you're a Farmington resident. I'm assuming big for you too, considering your love of history. Is there do you have any plans for Founders Fest this year? Are you gonna head down? What what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 1:26:13

Well, I'll uh you'll you'll you'll see me in uh in and around the festival, especially the parade, um, because I'm responsible for all video media for the city of Farmington.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:26

So I record the uh the parade, and then uh I remember telling you earlier in the podcast, I'm a percussionist and I play the drums for a Civil War band. And uh my little band performs at the end of the parade. Nice. Uh we always set up on the lawn of uh Farmington City Hall.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:51

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:51

And so I'm looking forward to having people come out, come out to the uh Founders Festival and enjoy the festival this year. It's uh it's it's always been a wonderful family-oriented event.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:07

Absolutely. So if listeners, if you are going to Founders Fest next month, make sure you go check out uh the parade and go say hi to Brian at the end of it at the uh you said the city hall lawn. Yes, nice, right by the memorial there. Go say hi to the top.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excellent. Well, thank you, thank you, Brian, and thank you for all you do for our community. I know we know each other just because of the chamber and uh historically too. I think we're our paths of intertwined. So thank you. So wouldn't be the same without it.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:35

Pleasure's mine, guys. Thanks for for having me.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:38

Yeah, of course. Awesome. Yeah, thanks for coming. All right, cool. Good. Uh quick intro, really quick. Up to you. You're good. So you're done. Um but we it's we do this weird thing where we record the opening at the end. So that's fine. Yeah, it's nice flow. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead.