Were going to see the bottom of the palm today. Exactly. Where are you taking us. Think well hit the downtown area of the State Capitol and then old town lansing, which is very popular, and then out east to Michigan State university. Perfect. Should we get going . You bet. On the left youll see tall lawyer called the bo itemperature but was originally the olds tower. Ransom eli olds came to lansing with his family and founded oldmobile and youll find his name and the car industry in a lot of things you talk but in lansing. A lot of people associate the car industry with detroit bit made its way here as well. It actually began here. Olds was kind of a friend of henry ford but he actually was the first built the First Assembly line, and henry ford perfected it. So olds had a lot of great inventions. He sold the Oldsmobile Company and then founds a Company Called reo car company and they were both in lansing. Does lansing have an always to presence. We do. We are home of gm, general motor
He was one of the founders of the Automobile Industry in the United States. He moved here with his family when he was about 16 and his father had a machine temporary. They repaired machines and built small steam engines. Thats where he became familiar with the manufacturing process. We are talking about the late 1800s. Frankly, he hated horses. He said theres got to be a better way to get around than a horse. He was tinkering in his fathers shop trying to build something that would be selfpropelled. Behind me is a three wheel car he built. It was a Steam Powered car and did not work very well. They rebuilt engine three or four times and finally scrapped the whole project. He built a bigger, four wheel steam car and it worked pretty well. You have to remember there were no selfpropelled vehicles. The only selfpropelled things were maybe a steam engine, train, or ship or Something Like that. There were no selfpropelled cars or automobiles. They didnt even have a name at the time. They ha
Michigan to learn more about its unique history and literary life. For eight years, we have traveled to u. S. Cities, bringing the book seen to our viewers scene to our viewers. You can see more on cspan. Org citiestour. A pioneer. S it wasnt until the state legislature designated this area camee new capital that he with these other folks and helped build the capital. More states had a slightly sensible approach. We did not do that here. There was no transportation. Was the interesting and unique story of lansings beginning. Established the 1836, a year before it became a state. They designated detroit as the capital, but they were fearful detroit could easily be attacked by lake erie, and they should move the capital inward, but they could not decide where. They put in the constitution that the first session of the legislature of 1848 should be held in the new capital, which should be inland. So, they had 10 years to decide. They waited until they had 10 months left. Statelittle town
All the way west to lansing and east lansing and Michigan State university and the state capital. Our biggest economic driver is both our gm plants, but also the State Government, because we have lansing, a lot of state workers. There is a big relationship between the federal government and our district. First of all, lets remember that in michigan, 43 of the state budget is federal dollars. So, that means every single day we should be working together. Michigan State University takes in a ton of federal grant money for all the research, Scientific Research in particular, that we do here. We have our local communities, Fire Departments that have federal grants. We have block grants here, we have an incredible amount of folks competing for and winning federal dollars. So theres a big overlap. We have a lot of interaction between the State Government and the federal government, and its wonderful to have the State Government here in the district because it means you can work problems as a
Weekend, American History tv is joining our Comcast Cable partners to showcase the history of lansing, michigan. To watch more video from cities on our current tour, visit cspan. Org citiestour. We continue now with a look at the history of lansing. Elissa my district goes from the northern suburbs of detroit all the way west to lansing and east lansing and Michigan State university and the state capital. Our biggest economic driver is both our gm plants, but also the State Government, because we have lansing, a lot of state workers. There is a big relationship between the federal government and our district. First of all, lets remember that in michigan, 43 of the state budget is federal dollars. So, that means every single day we should be working together. Michigan State University takes in a ton of federal grant money for all the research, Scientific Research in particular, that we do here. We have our local communities, Fire Departments that have federal grants. We have block grant