C&G News writes about our museum exhibit!

Family historian and author Ruth Ann Fruehauf stands in front of a Detroit Historical Museum showcase that looks at the Fruehauf Trailer Company, which revolutionized the transportation of goods through the creation of the semi-trailer and many other inventions. (Photo by K. Michelle Moran)

By Michelle Moran - DETROIT — Global trade is so normal now, we take it for granted, but the transportation and sale of goods over long distances might have never been a modern reality were it not for a couple of men with local ties.

When lumber industry leader Frederick M. Sibley needed a way to haul an 18-foot boat to his lakefront Michigan summer home with a Ford Model T in 1914, he turned to the inventive minds of blacksmith and wagon maker August “Gus” Fruehauf and his business partner, Otto Neumann. A horse-drawn wagon would take days to make the trip, but Fruehauf and Neumann were able to modify the Model T and attach a trailer that could handle this heavy load. Thus was born the semi-trailer, an invention that paved the way for interstate and international trade as we know it today.  Read more.......