In the 1950s, cruising swept the nation. American street became impromptu racetracks as soon as the police turned their backs. Young people piled into friends cars and cruised their main streets with a new sense of freedom. Pent-up desires after the hardships of World War II plus a booming economy fueled a car-buying frenzy. To lure buyers to their particular makes and models, automobile companies targeted the youth market by focusing on design and performance. No place was that more relevant than on metro Detroits Woodward Avenue, the citys number-one cruising destination and home of the worlds automobile industry. Barely 50 years earlier, Henry Ford rolled his first Model T off the assembly line at Piquette and Woodward, just south of where cruisers, dragsters, and automobile engineers ignited each others excitement over cars. This unique relationship extended into the muscle car era of the 1960s, as Woodward Avenue continued to reflect the triumphs and downturns of the industry that made Detroit known throughout the world.

Woodward Avenue: Cruising the Legendary Strip is filled with stories from the people who cruised and raced Woodward in the wonderful era of the 50s and 60s. Featured are the clandestine and not so clandestine efforts by the factories to build cars that the Woodward crowd would buy and race. Woodward Avenue includes everything that surrounded Woodwards action including Detroits legendary DJs who provided the cruisers musical soundtrack, the hang-outs and drive-ins, the high-performance new car dealerships that provided the cars, and the legendary speed shops that provided the hot rod parts.

Catalog of art work by JeeYeun Lee about Detroit made 2016-2018

The Saginaw Trail led from the frontier town of Detroit into the wilderness, weaving through towering trees and swamps to distant Native American villages. Presenting a forbidding landscape that was also a settlers' paradise, the road promised great riches in natural resources like lumber and agriculture, and a future of wheeled vehicles that would make Michigan the center of a global industry. Leslie Pielack tells the story of the ancient path that transformed early Michigan and of the people whose lives intertwined with the iconic road.

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