Flint, city in southeastern Michigan and seat of Genesee County, on the Flint River. The production of motor vehicles and automobile parts and accessories dominates the city's economy. The giant General Motors Corporation was founded in the city, and the company still provides the vast majority of the city's manufacturing jobs. The city also is noted for the Flint Cultural Center, established in 1958 under the sponsorship of prominent local citizens. The center includes an art center, planetarium, auditorium, music center, the main branch of the city's public library, and the Alfred P. Sloan Museum, home to an extensive display on the automobile history of Flint. The center also houses the Flint Symphony Orchestra. Nearby is Historical Crossroads Village, a restoration of a mid-19th-century community. Educational institutions in the city include Baker College of Flint (1911), Kettering University (1919), a campus (established in 1956) of the University of Michigan, Detroit College of Business-Flint (1974), a branch campus of Central Michigan University, and a community college.
In 1819 Jacob Smith, a prominent Detroit fur trader, founded the first European settlement of the area at a strategic crossing of the Flint River. In 1855 the settlement incorporated as a city. The river gives the city its name; Native Americans who lived here called it Pawanunling, or “River of Flint.” Flint flourished first as a fur-trading and then as a lumbering city. In addition, the availability of wood fostered Flint's growth, from the mid-19th century on, as a carriage-manufacturing center. Soon known as Vehicle City, Flint became the largest carriage-making center of the world. Motor-vehicle assembly expanded quickly after William C. Durant founded the General Motors Corporation in the city in 1908. The growth of the industry attracted European immigrants and blacks from the South seeking better economic opportunities.
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Flint Information info
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