Road crews in Wayne County discover photographs from the 1940s in the freeway
Wayne County Road Commission finds old family photos
It was Tuesday when a Wayne County road crew was clearing debris along I-275, near Ford Road. With cars flying by, crews noticed a plastic bag on the interstate with old black-and-white photos inside.
WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - Old photographs from the 1940s were found on the freeway where a road crew was working. Now they’ve reached out to FOX 2 to try to return the family heirlooms to the relatives of the people in the pictures.
Wayne County road crew discovers family photos
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It was Tuesday when a Wayne County road crew was clearing debris along I-275, near Ford Road. With cars flying by, crews noticed a plastic bag on the interstate with old black-and-white photos inside.
"Getting ready to be thrown away, and I said, hold on, wait a minute, we can’t do this," said maintenance worker Ivan Williams. "1945 and ’47, you can’t just throw these out."
Williams showed FOX 2 the photos. They appear to be a family in September 1945, and a young man pictured in 1945 and again in 1946. Then a photo of pallbearers carrying a casket in a cemetery, a mother has written, "My son, July 9, 1947." She’s written his name. We can’t make out what it says.
Other photos show the family at the grave site appearing to plant flowers and post flags.
Then a picture of the headstone but part of the name is obscured by flags.
Dig deeper:
Ivan and his supervisor, Mia Anderson, reached out to FOX 2 for help.
"When he brought them to me, I said, the only thing I know how to do is social media or the news, so that’s what I did. I told him I’d try to help him," said Wayne County Road Commission supervisor Mia Anderson. "For them to end up on the freeway and for you guys to actually see them, that seems almost rare because those could have been flying and going anywhere. Oh yeah, even in the ditches, there’s ditches right there with water, water lines along the freeway, and somehow this little flimsy paper didn’t make it in that water. So it was meant for someone to get these pictures back."
Ivan says, as a public service maintenance worker for the Wayne County Road Commission, it’s not just about filling potholes; they consider this a public service as well.
So if you know who these photos belong to, please contact FOX 2.
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The Source: FOX 2 used information from maintenance worker Ivan Williams for details in this report.