Wood And Metal

Wood And Metal. The Roots of Flint's Industry. It began with the pine forests. Like many other Michigan communities, Flint built its economy in the 1800s on thriving lumber mills, to supply a growing nation. When demand for wood exhausted the region's forests, Flint turned to other ventures with the skilled workforce that had worked in the lumber industry., Carriages and wagons became the area's primary industry. By the 1890s Flint had become one of the world's most productive carriage and wagon manufacturing centers. Flint had all the tools to add the motor to the "horseless carriage" when it arrived after 1900, and the city rolled into the production of automobiles., You Auto Know , Henry H. Crapo, owner of FLint's largest lumber mill, was the grandfather of General Motors founder William Crapo Durant., "The boundless pineries of the Flint and its tributary streams have formed a basis for trade, till the fertile country lying around us, North, South, East, and West, has been developed, creating, fostering and encouraging the growth of the city." , Flint City Directory, 1870-71