Ronald Ahrens

Bob-Lo Island operated longer than any Detroit-area amusement park, but high costs, red tape, and changing tastes led to its demise.

Lincoln Motor Co.’s factory complex was many things – a unique real estate deal, a hurry-up construction project, and an albatross –before Ford Motor Co. rescued the operation.

Gibson started out solo in his home workshop, but found financial backing to launch Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in 1902. His financial partners purchased rights to his patent for $2,500, while Gibson — taking 60 shares of stock — evidently became a salaried employee.

The Detroit Industrial Vehicle Co. started building milk trucks in 1926, a dozen years before its Model U became a cultural icon.

Like Hudson’s and Kern’s, Crowley, Milner and Co. was a major retailing force in downtown Detroit until suburban migration took hold.

Mike and Marian Ilitch stretched pizza dough into an empire, then initiated Detroit’s comeback. But even some Little Caesars employees don’t know their story.

An investor group bought a derelict railroad from the state of Michigan in 1847 and turned it into one of America’s most important regional lines.

Detroit’s must-see sensation on June 7, 1908, was Oscar V. Babcock’s act at Electric Park, the amusement grounds at the foot of the Belle Isle Bridge. Billed as “The World’s Greatest Cyclist,” the sequined Babcock, an early day Evel Knievel, plunged down a ramp on his nickel-plated bicycle, building up enough blurry speed to loop-the-loop.

Starting in 1835, the Michigan Exchange Hotel served as the epicenter of important social and business activities in Detroit, before changing tides brought about its end.

A customer service training program at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor is making a mark throughout the auto industry.