MISSOURI Visitors flock to factory tours

Motorcycles, greeting cards and beer are made in the 'Show Me State.'
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- It ain't Disneyland. There are no water slides nearby. The ocean's white, sandy beaches are a couple of time zones away. Security is tight and safety glasses are required.
No alcohol is served.
And yet, for those folks who treat their bike like a member of the family, there's no roadside attraction that's more of a vacation must-see than a factory where metal and motors go in one loading dock, and ready-to-ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles come out another.
"We had to come," said New Jersey resident Tom Mann, an owner -- you could tell by his leather vest and Harley Owner's Group patches -- of his visit to Harley-Davidson's Kansas City plant. "I had to see where the bikes were made.
"My bike came from this place."
Like most Harley-Davidson riders, so says the company that's among the latest to make Milwaukee famous, Mann is the ultimate brand loyalist. He even brought pictures of his heavily customized Super Glide Sport along, and his tour guide and other plant employees couldn't wait to see them.
Phil Swope, the Kansas City plant's security chief, helped develop the tour after the factory opened in 1998. He calls it a "cult." (He's a member, with a Road King on order.) That's probably a little strong -- passionate might be a better way to describe it.
"For some it's a companion on the road. For some it's family, even," said Lara Lee, director of Harley-Davidson Inc.'s museum and archives, who rides an Ultra Classic with sidecar. "So, to be able to see the birthplace of something with such great meaning to you is very compelling, very moving for a lot of people."
For people like Mann -- who have a passion for product -- the Harley plant is one of several spots in the state where factory doors are open to visitors. For everyone else, they're not a bad way to kill a lazy summer afternoon when family and friends come calling.
Hallmark Cards Inc. in Kansas City has its Crown Center mall and visitors center, and more than 200,000 people visit Nestle Purina PetCare Co.'s Purina Farms outside St. Louis each year. And for those who think every good tourist stop does, in fact, require a beer, Anheuser-Busch Cos. in St. Louis has got you covered.
For both Harley-Davidson and Anheuser-Busch, offering tours isn't the latest idea from the marketing department. It's not even an old idea -- it's historical. The first inside look at Budweiser's famed beechwood aging process came in 1865, not long after the company was founded in 1852, said Sue O'Leary, manager of the company's tours and gift shops.
Lee said documents found in Harley-Davidson's archives suggest tours of the company's original Milwaukee factory -- now home of the 100-year-old company's headquarters -- began as early as 1929.
A brochure from 1937 lures prospective visitors -- "Harley-Davidson motorcycles lead adventurous lives from the very beginning of their existence," it reads. It promises a look at the "thump-thump of giant presses" and "glowing red-hot furnaces" that are part of the "magic transformation of raw steel into Harley-Davidson motorcycles."
There's no thump-thumping inside the company's Vehicle and Powertrain Operations plant in north Kansas City: The press that now stamps out fenders and gas tanks from sheets of steel does so with the loud hiss of hydraulics. There are no furnaces glowing, but there is a laser booth where a robot trims scrap from those pressed steel parts.
The press and the laser booth are stops on the plant tour, which begins with a short video about Harley-Davidson. The Kansas City facility, which Swope said receives between 25,000 and 30,000 visitors a year, is one of three the company opens to the public; the others are in York, Pa., and Milwaukee.
"We don't do anything special by way of activity -- it's people making motorcycles," Lee said. "I imagine that's what you would have seen in 1929 or 1937 or 1954: people making motorcycles."
The Kansas City plant assembles Harley-Davidson's Sportster and Dyna models, and builds Harley's newest bike and its engine, the V-Rod and liquid-cooled Revolution, from the frame up. While staying in-between the yellow lines and dodging the occasional fork truck, visitors to the plant see these processes up close, often close enough to chat with employees working the line.
"What we try to do is give people a real sense of what goes on inside the factory," Lee said. "Who are these people that make these machines? How much are people involved? How much is done by machinery? How does it all come together?"
The company's hometown is Milwaukee, and it will celebrate its 100th birthday with a four-day bash there Thursday to next Sunday. Tens of thousands of motorcyclists are expected there to help the company mark its centennial.
The St. Louis brewery anchors the south end of the historical Soulard neighborhood. Visitors can get a look inside at bottling operations, sample free beer, stroll the landscaped grounds and see the horses at the Clydesdale stable.
"Other tours seem like they are all production. This had other things: the videos, the horses," said Jennifer Weinhandl, who was visiting the St. Louis brewery from Minnesota with her husband and six children.
But at Harley-Davidson, it's all about the bikes and their riders. Dozens stand watch like sentinels out front, and only after a closer look will a visitor see the sign admonishing "No touching." Those bikes all belong to proud employees.