That Giant Tire on I-94 Used to Be a Ferris Wheel
Originally built for the 1964 World's Fair, it was plopped next to the interstate— but only after the Kennedys had taken a ride
Allen Park — Aside from the Mackinac Bridge, the giant Uniroyal tire on I-94 is probably the most recognizable landmark in Michigan. Most of us have driven past it, but few know the story of how it got there.
The massive tire stands 80 feet tall and 80 feet wide alongside eastbound I-94 in Allen Park, between the Southfield Freeway interchange and Outer Drive. More than 100,000 people drive past it every day, and if you live in Michigan, chances are you’ve seen it.
Beyond being a familiar sight for locals, the landmark has made its way into Michigan pop culture, too. You can spot it in Kid Rock’s 2008 music video for “Roll On” and in Aretha Franklin’s 1985 video for “Freeway of Love,” which is all about the Motor City and gives a glimpse into 1980s Detroit.
In 2022, former President Joe Biden’s motorcade was photographed passing the tire on its way to the Detroit Auto Show, and Paul McCartney and Wings even stopped for a picture in front of it while they were in Detroit for concerts in 1976.
But for something that’s been a staple of Metro Detroit for decades, very few people seem to know the story behind it. Where did it come from? How did it get here? And is it actually made of rubber?
In 1974, the Detroit Free Press famously started the rumor that the tire had broken loose and rolled across I-94 (rest easy, it did not). The story joked that the tire grew jealous of the Goodyear Blimp and decided to take off. It was an April Fools’ joke, but the rumor has stuck around ever since.
The true story may not be as dramatic, but it’s just as fascinating and definitely not what you’d expect.
The giant tire’s story actually starts in New York City.
The year was 1964, and the World’s Fair was being held in Queens. U.S. Royal was already a major name in the industry at this point, and the company behind it, U.S. Rubber, wanted to make a huge splash at the fair.
Fair organizers came up with the idea for a giant tire-shaped Ferris wheel, and U.S. Rubber agreed to sponsor it as long as they were the only tire manufacturer represented at the fair.
The finished attraction stood 80 feet tall and weighed about 12 tons. It had 24 barrel-shaped gondolas, each with room for four people, so 96 passengers could ride at once. Despite what you’d expect, the tire wasn’t actually made of rubber. The U.S. Rubber Company made the outer shell from polyester resin reinforced with fiberglass and mounted it on a steel frame. The tread alone was 6 inches deep.
Between the fair’s two seasons in 1964 and 1965, more than two million people rode the giant tire, including Jackie Kennedy and her children, actor Telly Savalas and the Shah of Iran. Tickets were 25 cents the first year, and increased to 50 cents the following year.
And the company worked plenty of its other products into the attraction, too. The gondola seats were covered in its Naugahyde upholstery, and the floors used its nylon carpeting. People waiting in line could also look at displays and brochures explaining the products they were about to sit on and ride inside. Pretty smart marketing tactic, if you ask me.
When the fair closed in 1965 after its scheduled two-season run, U.S. Rubber was left with an obvious problem: What on earth are we supposed to do with this thing now?
I’d like to say they immediately had Michigan in mind as the perfect place for the new landmark, but that simply wasn’t the case. The company actually tried giving it away first. They offered it to New York City and basically anyone else who was willing to take it. Fortunately for us, though, those efforts fell through.
U.S. Rubber already had a Midwest sales office in Allen Park, so the company decided to bring the tire to Michigan and set it up alongside I-94 as a billboard. It was a great idea, but it brought up another obvious problem: How the heck do you move a tire that’s 80 feet tall and 80 feet wide to a new state?
Well, the answer is, you don’t. They had to take it completely apart. The Ferris wheel equipment itself went to an amusement park in New Jersey, and the pieces of the outer shell were loaded onto 22 trucks bound for Michigan.
Crews built a new steel frame on-site to hold the shell. It took about four months to put the tire back together, and by 1966, it was standing in the same spot you see it today.
Over the years, its appearance has changed a few times. In 1994, it got a new hubcap and neon lettering. In 1998, an 11-foot nail was stuck into its tread to advertise Uniroyal’s self-sealing NailGard tires.
And in 2003, the tire underwent a nearly $1 million renovation. Crews removed the nail, replaced 30 interior steel beams, repainted the outside and swapped the neon lettering for reflective letters.
The sales office eventually closed, but the tire has remained. And while you unfortunately can’t ride it anymore, it’s hard to imagine that stretch of I-94 without it. Sixty years after it first went up in Allen Park, the giant tire is still there, welcoming people to Metro Detroit.
Steven J. Frey, a lifelong metro Detroit resident, also noticed that nobody seemed to know the history behind the giant tire, so in 2019, he decided to write a book about it. The Giant Tire: From New York World’s Fair to Detroit Landmark covers everything about how the Ferris wheel was built to how it ended up in Allen Park and how some of the rumors about it got started. If you’re interested in learning more in depth about the tire’s history, the book is available online.
So while Michigan has some pretty spectacular landmarks like the Mackinac Bridge, Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Great Lakes, never forget that we also have one great big tire.
