Other transportation options are available, as well. You can ride the train around the perimeter of the village. Don't be surprised if you have to stop somewhere along the way to let off steam and reduce pressure; this is a real steam-powered train. You can ride in a horse-drawn carriage along shady streets. All told, you can get a pretty good idea of how America moved.

But then, you'll want to explore on foot. Greenfield Village is divided into seven different districts, and each offers the sights, sounds and sensations of America's past.

In Henry Ford's Model T district, for example, you can see where it all started — the house where Henry was born in 1861. It is a modest, white farmhouse originally located several miles to the north of the village, where Ford grew up with his five younger brothers and sisters. He left the farm at age 16 — more interested in machines that agriculture. But he always loved the house and in 1919 restored it to the way it looked when his mother died in 1876.

Across the way is a reproduction of the Bagley Avenue shop where Ford built his first automobile — the Quadricycle. A small space for big ideas, Ford's machine turned out to be too wide for the door, and in order to take it out for a spin, he had to widen the opening with an ax.

Next up might be Main Street, filled with the homes, public buildings and workshops that graced a typical 19th-century town, and a place where you will surely identify with Sinclair Lewis, who said "Main Street is the climax of civilization."

There's a Town Hall, where you might be in time for a musical review. The Mary-Martha Chapel was built in honor of Ford's mother and mother-in-law; it's now used mostly for weddings. At the Liberty Tavern, originally a stop on the Detroit-to-Chicago road, you can get a meal based on authentic 1850 recipes that might include such things as noodles and peas, pickled eggs and cauliflower and rhubarb pie.

There's a Scotch Settlement School. Mrs. Cohen's Millinery Shop offers a look at the latest ladies' wear. Sir John Bennett's clock shop actually came from London and features Gog and Magog, mythical giants who tolled the Westminster Chimes each quarter hour from 1846 to 1929. The H.J. Heinz house pays tribute to innovation in food.

You can also see the house where Wilbur and Orville Wright grew up, perhaps even talk to them or their sister, who might be on the porch discussing their recent return from Kittyhawk. Across the street is their cycle shop, where they built and repaired bicycles when they weren't tinkering with airplanes.

And don't miss the Logan County Courthouse. One of the circuit-riding lawyers who tried cases in this courthouse around 1850 was Abraham Lincoln. Sit quietly and see if you can hear the echoes of those days.