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this is Michigan Moments rediscovering
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the pioneering moments of the Great
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Lakes State in the northern woods of
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Prescy County there once stood a town
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that made the world turn or at least
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it on Away Michigan a place stitched
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together by sawdust steam and second
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chances rose from the deep woods as men
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with crosscut saws and grit turned
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virgin hardwoods into wealth at the turn
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of the century the clamor of steam
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whistles echoed through the hills as
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logs rolled into the yards of the
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American Wood Rim Company within its
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walls workers shaped hickory and ash
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into steering wheels used in automobiles
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across the globe at its peak Onaway
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produced more wooden steering wheels
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than any other place in the world local
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slogans weren't exaggeration they called
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it the town that steered the world but
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the town wasn't just mills and machines
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trains pulled into the depot daily women
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in long dresses stepped off alongside
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men in denim lunch buckets in hand
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children chased each other across First
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Street past Little Frank's Place in the
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Opera House in the woods beyond town
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teams of horses pulled timber carts as
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tall as a man while snow packed tightly
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around the boots of lumberjacks who
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necessary life was demanding winters
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were brutal but for every load hauled
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out something was built in return
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schools churches homes onaway was
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booming there were hotels nine churches
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and 17 saloons people came here to work
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belong then came January 14th
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1926 a spark inside the sanding room of
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the American wood rim factory caught in
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the dry dust fire swept through the
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plant with stunning speed by nightfall
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the town's industrial heart lay in ashes
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ej Lobdel the company founder didn't
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rebuild jobs vanished families left
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property values crashed onway once a
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city of 4,000 began to hollow out yet it
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didn't vanish in the years that followed
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towns people picked up what they could
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mayor Fred Vinegart cut city services to
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the bone but kept the lights on vacant
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homes were sold back to residents for
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pennies with grit and stubborn pride
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they refused to quit by 1940 the town
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had stabilized smaller yes but still
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standing and so Onaway remains a place
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where smoke once marked prosperity where
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failure didn't mean the end and where
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steering wheels weren't just tools they
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were symbols of motion of progress of
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driving forward even after the road
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disappeared this has been Michigan
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Moments offering bite-sized morsels of
