Witness how it’s really made, in-person
From ice cream to baseball bats, these guided tours take you onto the production lines
In the era of mass production, many people don’t know where or how their stuff is made.
Author and blogger Karen Axelrod says she has always been curious about the origins of everything from toothpaste to tea bags. After visiting hundreds of American factories, she co-wrote a guide entitled Watch It Made in the U.S.A.: A Visitor’s Guide to the Best Factory Tours and Company Museums. Before the last weeks of summer slip away, The Star asked Axelrod about some of the best factory guided tours. Harley Davidson: York, Penn. Harley enthusiasts can get as close to the assembly line as employees on a tour of the company’s vehicle operations centre. On the paid “Steel Toe” tour, tourists are allowed to enter parts of the paint and polish section normally reserved for workers.
“There’s a good energy, good camaraderie and a good feeling — people are proud to work there,” Axelrod said. “There’s a certain culture of Harley owners that just transcends the whole place.”
Free tours offered Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; paid tours twice a day, Monday to Friday. The Steel Toe tour costs $35. Visitors must wear lowheeled, fully enclosed shoes. Children under 12 aren’t allowed on the factory tour. Ben & Jerry’s Factory and Ice Cream Shop: Waterbury, Vt. The Ben & Jerry’s factory opened in 1985 and is the most popular tourist attraction in the state according to Vermont’s Tourism Office. Each year, the plant welcomes more than 300,000 ice cream lovers, said spokeswoman Lindsay Bumps. Guides explain how Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Cherry Garcia and other favourite flavours are made and bring visitors to a mezzanine above the factory floor where they can see the process. The cherry on top of the tour is a tasting of the flavour of the day. Afterward, visitors can pay their respects to “dearly de- pinted” ice creams in the Flavour Graveyard. Tours offered seven days a week year round (except holidays). Manufacturing in operation Monday to Friday. Adults $4, seniors $3. Admission for kids 12 and under is free. Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory: Louisville, Ky. Ted Williams and Babe Ruth are among the many baseball demigods whose signatures have been engraved on a Louisville Slugger. Today, the company says 60 per cent of Major League Baseball players use one of their bats.
Hillerich & Bradsby, which made the iconic wooden bats for more than130 years, sold the brand to Wilson last year. As Wilson’s exclusive manufacturing partner, H&B continues to fashion sluggers out of hardwood trees from Pennsylvania, New York and other northeastern states.
Visitors are greeted at the entrance by the “world’s largest bat,” made of carbon steel and weighing 68,000 pounds. After seeing how the bats are made, each visitor is sent home with a mini slugger as a souvenir.
“If there’s no production, you get the benefit of the museum, where you learn a lot and see a lot,” said Axelrod. “There are interactives like a batting cage and you can get an engraved bat if you want.”
Tours offered Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Adults $14, seniors $13. Admission for kids between six and 12 is $8. Free for kids age 5 and under. Gibson Factory: Memphis, Tenn. Orville Gibson, a former shoe store clerk in Kalamazoo, Mich., crafted the first Gibson instruments in the late 1890s. In the following decades, the likes of Eric Clapton, Slash and Jimmy Page have wielded a Gibson axe.
Visitors to the factory can see many different steps in production: binding, neck-fitting, painting, buffing and tuning. “You get to see the Wizard of Oz situation, what’s behind the veil,” said Richard Zahumensky, a salesperson at Steve’s Music Store on Queen St. W., who has toured the factory. “It’s good to know there are still artisans involved in this sort of thing. Guitar is their life.”
Reservations recommended. Tickets are $10 per person (only people age 5 and over are admitted). Huy Fong Foods Inc.: Irwindale, Calif. Some like it hot, and those who do might like to see the factory where the popular hot sauce with the rooster label, Sriracha, is made. Huy Fong Foods began making the spicy sauce in 1980 and moved production to its current 650,000-square-foot facility several years ago. During the chili season, the factory receives 30 to 40 truckloads of hybrid red jalapeno peppers daily to be ground into paste, according to a tour brochure. In rave reviews on Yelp and Trip Advisor, visitors have said they tasted samples of Sriracha popcorn, chocolate and ice cream on the free, halfhour tour.
Tours offered Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. No charge, but must book a reservation online or over the phone. Washougal Weaving Mill: Washougal, Wash. This doesn’t sound like a run-of-themill factory tour. Thousands of people visit Pendleton’s plant in Washougal each year to see how raw wool is spun, carded and weaved into the heritage brand’s clothes.
“What’s great about that is the tradition. There’s a lot of history and loyalty to that brand,” Axelrod said.
The public is also welcome at the company’s original mill in Pendleton, Ore., founded in 1909. However, that tour displays less of the production process, said spokeswoman Linda Parker.
No charge. Tours offered Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The mill is closed Aug. 9 to 12.