Young Gerald Ford (archive photo)

What’s in the water in Ohio that it is the home of eight U.S. Presidents? Michigan claims just one Commander in Chief: Gerald R. Ford, The Accidental President. And no, I am not referring to his being accident-prone, with well-documented stumbles and bumbles, including at least one errant golf shot.

The 38th President of the United States started life as Leslie Lynch King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1913. Within weeks of his birth his mother fled her abusive husband and landed in Grand Rapids, where she met, and in 1916 married, a paint salesman named Gerald R. Ford. They renamed her son after the stepdad.

Ford, a 13-term U.S. Congressman from Michigan, was elevated to vice president under Richard Nixon, when Veep Spiro Agnew resigned the office in 1973. Less than a year later Richard Nixon resigned and Ford assumed the office of President. Two years later Ford lost his election bid to Jimmy Carter.

Gerald Ford’s Oval Office at his Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids.

At the Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids you can learn about his life and the professional and personal challenges he and his wife Betty Ford faced. The museum is worth another visit if you haven’t been there since it was renovated in 2016.

“Ford at 50: Decisions that Defined a Presidency” is a special exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of his time in office; it runs through August 19, 2025.

The Ford Presidential Library is located in Ann Arbor; check out its series of speaker programs.

President Lincoln was seated in this rocker at Ford’s Theatre when he was shot on April 11, 1865

In the Detroit area, the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation in Dearborn displays several artifacts with Presidential connections, including the chair in which Abraham Lincoln was shot and a camp bed and chest used by George Washington.

Washington slept here: this was his folding camp bed when he toured Revolutionary War battlefields

You can’t miss the museum’s collection of presidential wheels: a horse drawn carriage used by Theodore Roosevelt and limos that carried Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. You can also take an online tour of presidential vehicles.

Presidential Big Heads

Metal artist Tom Moran of Onaway, in the northeast corner of Michigan’s Mitten, has crafted giant, 12- to 14-foot busts of Presidents Ford, Lincoln and Washington, now assembled in a sculpture park in town. The big heads are joined by the Statue of Liberty, an eagle and other symbols that he makes for his hometown’s July 4th parade.

Did you know…

…that on October 14, 1960, just weeks before the election that would make him president, Senator John F. Kennedy spoke to University of Michigan students on the steps of the Michigan Union? It’s recognized as the place where the idea for the Peace Corps was hatched.

…that Ronald Reagan was named the GOP candidate for the 40th president of the U.S. at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit?

…that Thomas Dewey, who did NOT defeat Truman in the 1948 presidential race, was born in Owosso?

…that when President Theodore Roosevelt visited Lansing on May 31, 1907, he specified that he ride in two different cars, one from each of the rival companies REO and Oldsmobile.

…that only four incumbent presidents have visited the Upper Peninsula: William Howard Taft in 1911; George Bush in 2004; Barack Obama in 2011; and in 1992 President George H.W. Bush led the Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Walk between St. Ignace and Mackinac City. (It didn’t help his cause.)

President Ford was a fudgie on Mackinac Island in 1975.

…that in 1929 Eagle Scout Gerald Ford served in the Governor’s Honor Guard at Fort Mackinac? Check out the Mackinac State Historic Parks story about Presidents at Mackinac for more about the Commanders in Chief who visited or came close to Mackinac Island and the Straits.

Fun fact related to the 1992 Bridge Walk: TJ, Graham and I were staying at the Ojibway Hotel in Sault Ste. Marie, and were booted out a day early by the Secret Service due to a last minute visit scheduled by President Bush. Graham, at age of almost-four, was a big fan of H.W., so he was excited (though we never saw the Prez).

Presidential Places in Michigan

The following Michigan locations share names with U.S. Presidents.  Those marked with * were named for that president, although some were military heroes or U.S. legislators and had yet to attain the highest office when they were honored with the namesake place. Which presidential names are missing? (Answer below):

President and Mrs. Ford are buried on the grounds of the Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids.

Adams
Arthur
*Buchanen
Bush
Cleveland Mine
Clinton
*Fillmore
Ford
*Garfield
*Grant
*Harrison
*Hayes
*Jackson
*Jefferson
Johnson
*Lincoln
*McKinley
*Madison
*Monroe
Nixon
*Roosevelt
Taft
*Taylor
*Tyler
*Van Buren
*Washington
Wilson

Nothing says presidential like the amazing Mold-A-Rama plastic factory

According to the book Michigan Place Names, Michigan has no place for Biden, Carter, Coolidge, Eisenhower, Harding, Hoover, Obama, Pierce, Polk, Reagan, Truman or Trump.