Great American Factory Tours

Tailgate

Tailgate

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Latest Popular Mechanics has an article suggesting you skip the crowded amusement parks and tourist traps and take the kids or grandkids or just yourself to an American Factory. Many tours are free... article detailed tours of:
U.S Mint
John Deere
Airstream
Hatch Show Print (makes event/concert posters since 1879)
Bourbon Barrel Foods
Woolrich- fabric since 1830..including blankets for Civil War soldiers
Coors
Golden Flake Potato Chips
Boeing
Chevrolet Corvette
Harley Davidson
Fender GuitarsLodge
Lodge Cast Iron
Wood-Mizer Saw Mill
Nokona Boots
Jelly Belly
Tabasco Pepper Sauce
Kohler
R.L. Winston Fly Rods
Filson Outfitters (started 1897 to outfit gold rush prospectors)

I'm sure there are many other more regional factories that do tours. I'm making my list....
 

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Great idea.

I've been to a few of those, and many others. As a "should have been" engineer, I thoroughly enjoy that sort of thing.

One of the most fascinating examples I've ever toured was a candy factory in Cambridge Mass, where Necco Wafers were made, back in the 90s. New England Confectionery Company (their initials spelled Necco) was (maybe still are) making them on 19th century equipment, all cast iron, brass, etc. Just amazing.

Others that had a huge impact on me included the Pratt & Whitney plant in Connecticut where they make some truly awesome jet engines, Goodyear Tire in Akron OH, Celestial Seasonings tea in Boulder Co, and quite a few more.
 
You can add Cabot Cheese to the list... they have a nice factory tour... and lots of free samples in the gift shop.
 
I took a tour of the Toyota Nummi plant in Fremont, CA about a couple of years before it closed. Fascinating car plant tour.

An then there are all the wineries in the CA wine country.

It is not generally open to the public but I took a tour of Tyson chicken factory in Texas once. Best tour ever.
 
The Yuengling Brewery, Pottsville PA. America's oldest! Family owned and free samples too.;-))
 
In grade school we were taken on trips to the GM assembly plant in Baltimore (long since closed) and a Wonder Bread bakery. I still remember the free cupcakes, a rare luxury for me at the time.

At the GM plant I marveled at a machine that could lift an ENTIRE CAR and move it to another location. To a second or third grade kid that was about the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.
 
I love factory tours. I've seen foundries, steel mills, and the Jeep assembly plant back in the late 70's (excellent high school teacher set these up for us).

Then got a tour of a Blaupunkt factory in German in the 80's. It was very automated (for it's day) and the project I was working on was going to use some of the same systems.

Also in Germany, you can tour the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen. Anyone can go, but it's also part of their european delivery package.
 
One of my fondest memories is visiting the Corning Glass Works with my Dad when I was about 14. In addition to beautiful glass objects, there were fascinating glassblowing demonstrations and all kinds of information about the uses to which glass has been put over the ages. I remember there was a big exhibit on the Latest New Thing - fiber optic glass!

I loved it so much that I went back with my new husband 16 years later, when I was finally able to afford something in the gift shop :)
 
Thanks for the heads up!

Just signed up for three grandsons and I to tour the local Toyota Truck plant. I was going to do it a couple of years ago but totally forgot about it until this thread.
 
REWahoo said:
Thanks for the heads up!

Just signed up for three grandsons and I to tour the local Toyota Truck plant. I was going to do it a couple of years ago but totally forgot about it until this thread.
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IIRC you are also in central Tx? If so, Collings guitars are made a few miles SW of Austin... One of the top guitars made and there is a free tour.. Grandkids might also enjoy.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
Unfortunately most food and beer factory tours keep you behind glass and far away from machinery and the fork lifts running around. We used to spend Fridays at the old Schlitz Bell drinking beer in their hospitality room (while in college.)
I always wanted to take the FedEx hub tour in Memphis, but they were in the middle of the night. Now it's too large for tourists--too fast moving.
The Corvette factory is another good tour in Bowling Green, KY--an hour north of Nashville.
I do make it to Jack Daniels Distillery every couple of years. They've quit letting tourists into their barrel warehouses due to the potential of fire. I don't think they even have electricity in them--on purpose. One warehouse might cost'em a year's production. George Dickel Distillery also has a tour 15 miles East outside Tullahoma.
 
The Martin guitar factory in Nazareth PA is on my list since I have four of their product.
 
As a metallurgical engr, I encourage if you can get a tour of a steel mill, that is really impressive. Especially the hot side operations from casting to hot rolling. Cold rolling and finishing operations are nice, but not nearly as impressive raw energy in the form of the heat. Standing 200 ft or more away and the radiant heating is like standing right in front of your oven door with it open.

A real nice tour is the Maker's Mark distillery in KY. Other bourbon distilleries also have tours, but MM is nice because it is more traditional and less automation.
 
Tillamook Cheese in Oregon also has a good tour.

I've been to quite a few of the ones mentioned here as my dad was a big factory tour fan. His favorite was the Mercedes tour in Sindelfingen - he was so excited for that one when they visited us during our time living near Frankfurt. Nice memories.
 
Any auto factory is likely a good bet. We enjoyed the BMW in Spartanburg a lot.

Got a chuckle out of Coors being on the list. At one time worked in breweries as consultant but then as employee of Coors in Golden. At the time it was one of the few remaining breweries where employees could drink on the job; they were trying to get it out of the union contracts elsewhere for safety reasons (ever see bottles zip by at 2,000 a minute?). I remember once arranging a VIP tour for my DF and DW when parents were visiting; DM stayed at house with the two kids. I remember driving by seeing DW's car at the plant about 11 am and thought, cool, they're on the tour! About 2:00 I went by again and the car was STILL THERE! Let's just say DW and DF thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality suite that day! And IIRC you could sample the actual beer as it comes off the filters, before it gets diluted to retail %.
 
When I taught school in Ann Arbor - light years away-, I use to take my class on the Ford tour. What was really neat was the tour of the Rouge Foundry. They had catwalks running all along the top of the ingot soaking pits and you followed that process all the way through rolling out the steel to go to the stamping plant. Then we would go on to the Assembly Plant. I don't think Ford even has a foundry anymore and for liability purposes, I can't imagine letting grade-school children up on the catwalks these days. It was always THE field trip for which my class desired.
 
38Chevy454 said:
As a metallurgical engr, I encourage if you can get a tour of a steel mill, that is really impressive. Especially the hot side operations from casting to hot rolling. Cold rolling and finishing operations are nice, but not nearly as impressive raw energy in the form of the heat. Standing 200 ft or more away and the radiant heating is like standing right in front of your oven door with it open.
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+1 - During my career I was lucky enough to tour a variety of manufacturing plants, with the steel mills being the most impressive.
 
Rummy said:
The Yuengling Brewery, Pottsville PA. America's oldest! Family owned and free samples too.;-))
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The Straub Brewery tour in St Marys, PA is also good. They take you by the "endless tap" several times during the tour. Did a couple of Strohs beer tours back in the day.

Other notable tours were the US Steel plant and the Wonder Bread plant. Free samples are very important.

You get some interesting tours when you belong to technical / industry organizations. Job interviews can yield some interesting tours. Getting a look at the B1 bomber insides back in the day was a real hoot for me.
 
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