Michigan Memorial Park

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

Michigan Memorial Park is a big Downriver cemetery in Flat Rock, laid out in 1926 on about 290 acres along Huron River Drive at Willow Road. Its most famous grave is in the Masonic Gardens section: Preston Tucker, Michigan's great auto dreamer. Born in 1903 in Capac and raised in Lincoln Park, Tucker set out after World War II to build the car of the future. His 1948 Tucker sedan had a center headlight that turned with the steering wheel, a padded dashboard and a rear engine, but only about 50 cars were built before production stopped in 1949 amid a stock fraud case. A jury cleared him, yet the company never recovered. Tucker died of lung cancer in Ypsilanti on December 26, 1956, at just 53, and was buried here. Francis Ford Coppola's 1988 film Tucker: The Man and His Dream, starring Jeff Bridges, brought his story back to a wide audience, and fans still find their way to his grave.

1. Opened in 1926 on about 290 acres
2. Preston Tucker has been buried here since December 1956
3. His grave is in the Masonic Gardens section
4. Only about 50 Tucker sedans were built, in 1948–1949
5. Coppola's 1988 film brought Tucker's story to the big screen