AHC - Relocate the American auto industry

1901 - Henry Ford founds the Henry Ford Company (soon to become Cadillac after Ford leaves to found Ford Motor Company) in Detroit.

Your challenge is to either have Ford start his auto-making career somewhere other than Detroit, or have someone else do the same, with the end result that a different city (perhaps one of these) becomes the center of the American auto industry. I'll give you a cookie if you can make it Buffalo.

Have at it!

Added: Start of a possible TL. Anybody more familiar with Ford and auto history in general, feel free to tweak it!

1879 - Henry Ford moves to Buffalo, New York and works as an apprentice machinist at the George N. Pierce Company. He also begins to study bookkeeping at Bryant & Stratton College.

1900 - The Ford Automotive Company is established by Henry Ford and a handful of engineers and workers from Pierce. The investors include Buffalo businessman Seymour Knox I.

1901 - The Pan-American Expo is held in Buffalo and Ford's exhibit "Automobiles of the New Century" draws much attention, if being somewhat overshadowed by the assassination of President William McKinley.

1908 - FAC introduces the Model R (OTL Model T) and the first production model leaves the Abbott Road factory in Lackawanna.
 
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Bring him and Elwood Haynes together and have Ford HQ'd in Kokomo, IN. Thus sealing Kokomo's place as the First City in automotives.
 

FDW

Banned
Well, didn't Detroit arise an industrial center because of it's proximity to raw resources?
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Well, didn't Detroit arise an industrial center because of it's proximity to raw resources?

It is likely on the Great Lakes. The iron ore is in Minnesota, coal in Penn. Pittsburg is steel capitol, so easily could be there. Buffalo had a large industrial area including steel. Easy to be there. Cleveland is possible. Chicago is possible, nice rail hub there.
 

FDW

Banned
It is likely on the Great Lakes. The iron ore is in Minnesota, coal in Penn. Pittsburg is steel capitol, so easily could be there. Buffalo had a large industrial area including steel. Easy to be there. Cleveland is possible. Chicago is possible, nice rail hub there.

As could Toledo for that matter…
 

BlondieBC

Banned
As could Toledo for that matter…

True, or even another city not in the snow shadow of one of the Lakes. Some small town that most people never heard of outside the region. It even could be something more inland such as Rochester NY or Youngstown OH.
 
Would this lead another city to be like Detroit is now if/when things went like they did for the industry?

Possibly/probably, but maybe we can butterfly in a somewhat better outcome?

Does anybody want to have ago with the Buffalo variant? I'd love to see my hometown kep some of its early 20the century glory, or at least importance.
 

FDW

Banned
Would this lead another city to be like Detroit is now if/when things went like they did for the industry?

For one of the smaller cities, probably. For one of the larger cities that already have some industrial base of their own that's focused on other stuff? They might do better.
 
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