(MH) – Michigan State Fairgrounds Traditional Cache

In 1908, fairgoers could attend the fair by riding the city cars of the Detroit United Railway for five cents.  The railway carried passengers from all railroad stations and all points of the city.

Famous performers at the Fairgrounds include: Bob Hope, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Chubby Checker, the Jackson Five, Ella Fitzgerald, Les Paul, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, The Platters, Bill Haley & His Comets, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Loretta Lynn, STYX, The Beach Boys, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Joan Jett, Def Leppard, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, and Twisted Sister.

Another feature of the grounds was the Michigan State Fairgrounds Race Track/Speedway.  This dirt oval racing track had a 5,000 seat capacity grandstand and was host to horse racing, harness racing and several NASCAR events.  Seabiscuit won his very first race (the Governor’s Handicap) here.  A bronze statue of Seabiscuit is on site.

The State Fairgrounds is host to 5 buildings listed on the National Historic Registry including the home of the 18^th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant.  Grant is the only POTUS to have lived in the Detroit area.

The State Fairground was the home of the world’s largest stove.  Detroit was known for its stoves before it became the auto capital.  Making its appearance at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, this stove measured 25 feet high, 30 feet long, and 20 feet wide.  After a brief stint on Belle Isle and then a storage facility, the stove found its final home on the fairgrounds in 1965.  Unfortunately, the stove was destroyed by lightning in 2011.  Only the shell stands.