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THE MIDDLE WEST: One of a handful of the region's communities that date from the 18th century, Detroit will re-enact on July 24 the 1701 landing of its founder, French Explorer Antoine Laumet la Mothe Cadillac. But many Midwestern communities that want to emphasize regional history in their Bicentennial celebrations have had to draw on the events of a century after the Revolution. In Indianapolis, the state museum is constructing a diorama portraying the exploits of Frontiersman George Rogers Clark. A group in Chicago is restoring several turn-of-the-century mansions that were once owned by such business giants as Merchant Marshall Field and Railroad Car Manufacturer George Pullman. Downstate Illinois is threatened with a surfeit of Lincolnania. About 25 communities plan to commemorate Lincoln, including Springfield, where the state is setting up a lavish $600,000 sound-and-light show in the Old State Capitol Building that will recount key events in his life.
Other Midwesterners have found ways to give a local twist to Revolutionary themes. Bedford, Ind., has commissioned a 21-ft.-long statue, to be made from its famed limestone, of George Washington crossing the Delaware. Explorer Scouts in Topeka plan to pilot an airplane along the perimeter of the U.S., ending in Philadelphia on July 4, 1976. Civic groups in Libertyville, Ill., are painting about 50 fireplugs to represent Revolutionary War heroes.
Nebraska has commissioned a dozen American artists to create pieces of outdoor sculpture at rest stops along an interstate highway. About 1,000 elementary schoolchildren from suburban Kettering, Ohio, will dress in red, white and blue clothing on July 4,1976, to re-create the human flag that welcomed the Wright brothers home in 1909.
THE WEST: Washington State plans to buy a private collector's life mask of George Washington, one of three in existence, for about $375,000 and display it in the state capital, Olympia, by July 4, 1976. But most Bicentennial projects in the West are drawn from the region's own history and heritage. Alaskans are rebuilding the Tlingit and Haida tribal houses in Angoon and restoring a log headquarters built in 1793 by Russian fur traders in Kodiak. Hawaiians are constructing a 60-ft., double-hulled sailing canoe in which a crew of 24 will leave on April 1, 1976, for a month-long voyage to Tahiti and back to demonstrate how the Polynesians discovered the Hawaiian Islands.
Some mainland projects are based on the West's Spanish heritage. Sponsored by Arizona and California, some 240 men, women and children will leave Horcasitas, Mexico, on Sept. 25 for a nine-month trek by horse and wagon to re-enact the 1775-76 expedition that settled the San Francisco Bay area and established Mission Dolores and the Presidio. Along the way, the wagons will stop for Bicentennial celebrations in several Southwestern cities. San Jose is recreating a 19th century ambience in six square blocks and twelve buildings, including a firehouse, hardware store and bank. Los Angeles has lined up Comedians Dick and Tom Smothers, former Astronaut Scott Carpenter, former Professional Football Star Roosevelt Grier and a dozen others to design and sew a Bicentennial Celebrity Quilt.