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You'd have to pay me $1.5 million to live in a big city downtown.
I sleep at night with my bedroom window open and all I hear are nature sounds plus an occasional distant barking dog. It's amazingly quiet considering how close I am to main suburbia. I value my peace and quiet.
Okay, send me a cashier's check and I'll try Manhattan...
I also live in a quiet area. I once thought I would like to live in the city, at least for a year, but at this point in my life it's no longer something I want. I've got the ocean five miles in one direction, horse farms five miles in the other, deer in the park across the street, and everything I need in the adjacent towns.
"Downtown" New York means something different than what you are thinking of as far as a city downtown goes. Midtown New York is where the action is at night. Lower, or downtown Manhattan is bustling during the day because it is the financial capital, but at night, it's nearly deserted except for the high-priced residential areas. Not exactly country, but next to a beautifully landscaped park system along a magnificent river front.
Just noting pine is a very soft wood and it comes to mind that making covered wagons our of oak or other hard woods makes a lot more sense.
Pine is a soft wood and makes very good although short lasting camp fires. Maybe the Native Americans liked that for broiled European settlers...
Um, yeah, I'm aware. It was a joke, dude.
But since you want everybody to know how smart you are, I'll give you some more information so you can be even smarter. Hickory was the hard-yet-lightweight wood of choice for wagons in the 19th century, and American-made hickory wagons were in great demand in Englad and other parts of Europe.
The greatest source of hickory was in the forests of Michigan, so the wagon-manufacturing industry was centered there, near the hickory source.
In time, the horseless carriage replaced the wagon, and as it did, the same factories that had previously produced the old vehicles began to produce the new.
And that, my friend, is why Detroit was the center of the automobile-manufacturing industry. Hickory.
I had a chance conversation while visiting a friend in the DC area with an author who wrote a book on the auto industry, its history, and politics. He did his research at the Library of Congress, and he said the things he learned were amazing. He also said the people who work there are very helpful, in case any writers here need to do research.
The greatest source of hickory was in the forests of Michigan, so the wagon-manufacturing industry was centered there, near the hickory source.
You are correct, but I have to add the factoid that the premier builder of wagons in the 19th and early 20th Centuries was Studebaker, which was located in South Bend, Indiana.
If one wanted the absolute best-quality wagon or carriage, Studebaker was the go-to company. And, of course, Studebaker later transitioned from wagons to automobiles, along with most of the other wagon makers. Their first cars were electrics, and then they became a major builder of gas-powered automobiles--all made in the same factory in South Bend, Indiana.
You are correct, but I have to add the factoid that the premier builder of wagons in the 19th and early 20th Centuries was Studebaker, which was located in South Bend, Indiana.
If one wanted the absolute best-quality wagon or carriage, Studebaker was the go-to company. And, of course, Studebaker later transitioned from wagons to automobiles, along with most of the other wagon makers. Their first cars were electrics, and then they became a major builder of gas-powered automobiles--all made in the same factory in South Bend, Indiana.
Yah, & the Studebaker Museum is there. & the old factories, part of which were the SB School Corporation's HQ up until recently. Studebaker (& South Bend, & the Midwest in general) was also famous in labor circles - the theft of the Studebaker union's pension monies was a direct cause of the formation of the Federal Pension Guarantee Fund (hazy on the title, it's been a long time). There was a lot of labor history there - Singer, Bendix, AM General. The Avanti, a Studebaker-related car, is still in production, I believe, although TMK, not in South Bend.
You are correct, but I have to add the factoid that the premier builder of wagons in the 19th and early 20th Centuries was Studebaker, which was located in South Bend, Indiana.
If one wanted the absolute best-quality wagon or carriage, Studebaker was the go-to company. And, of course, Studebaker later transitioned from wagons to automobiles, along with most of the other wagon makers. Their first cars were electrics, and then they became a major builder of gas-powered automobiles--all made in the same factory in South Bend, Indiana.
The Avanti, a Studebaker-related car, is still in production, I believe, although TMK, not in South Bend.
After Studebaker went belly-up, Nate Altman--who had been the most prominent Studebaker dealer--re-started production of the Avanti. After Nate died, the company went through 4 successive ownerships--mostly unsuccessful--and all Avanti production ceased as of (IIRC) 2006.
And, a little-known fact about the demise of Studebaker is that the company WAS making a profit--albeit a small one--after they moved all of their production to their Canadian factory. However, the bankers who essentially controlled the company at that point had no interest in remaining in the auto business, and they pulled the plug--while stating the erroneous claim that the company was losing money.
The bankers then sold-off all of the remaining subsidiaries--Worthington Pump, STP products, Paxton superchargers, Clark floor equipment, Gravely mowers and tractors, Franklin appliances, and Trans International Airlines--for a very nice profit.
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Ah, to sleep, perchance to dream, ay there's ...
