General Motors Corp.'s vast reach and influence over much of the last century produced 'company towns' across the United States -- drawing migrants and job seekers to Dayton, Ohio, Anderson, Ind., and Tarrytown, N.Y., among them. But no other city in America is more closely tied to and defined by GM than Flint, where the automaker was founded by a scrappy entrepreneur and went on to dominate the U.S. market. Before GM was formed here in 1908, the city was already moving beyond its lumber and agricultural roots to become a major industrial base. More than 30 carriage makers called the Flint area home in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But it was the fledgling automobile industry and GM that propelled Flint to new economic highs. 'It's been a rocky marriage at times,' said Charles K. Hyde, a history professor at Wayne State University. 'It's overused today, but as GM goes, so goes Flint.' Almost immediately after its founding, as its sales and holdings grew, management laid plans to relocate GM's headquarters to Detroit to be closer to big banks and other professional services. But Flint didn't suffer. The city's big Chevrolet and Buick plants, engineering talent and proximity to natural resources and transportation lines attracted investors and factories to build spark plugs, axles and electronics. 'Flint's ties to GM allowed the city to weather the Great Depression better than most industrialized cities at the time, though it set the stage for an epic moment in GM history,' Hyde said. During the Great Depression, the number of U.S. auto workers dropped from 470,000 to below 235,0000 and wages were cut from $40 per week to about $20. Remarkably, unlike many rivals, GM never lost money during the period. But in 1936, a year after its founding in the wake of the severe economic downturn, the United Auto Workers union staged a sit-strike at two GM plants in Flint -- securing the right to bargain for higher wages and benefits. Over the years, workers eventually acquired health insurance, seniority protection, a highly structured grievance procedure and a growing measure of control over the pace of work and plant conditions. 'The American automobile worker began to move solidly into the middle class after the Flint strike,' said Bob Casey, automotive historian and curator of transportation at The Henry Ford museum. 'For GM workers, the road to riches often began in Flint.' As GM's product and sales success grew after World War II, prosperity came to Flint as well. Plants cranked out record numbers of Chevrolets and Buicks, big engines and spark plugs, creating jobs and drawing migrants from all over. Museums, planetariums, and colleges sprung up. For years, Flint boasted the highest average household income level in the country. But global competition, recession, federal regulations and an energy crisis began to undermine GM in the 1960s and the city began to feel the repercussions. GM's Flint-area employment peaked at 82,000 in the late 1970s, and it's been a painful slide since. Buick City, an industrial linchpin of the local economy, closed in 1999. Last month GM stopped producing the venerable 3800 V-6 engine -- a manufacturing mainstay in Flint since 1962. The company still operates nine plants and facilities in Flint and Genesee County and plans to open a new factory in Flint to build small engines in the next few years. GM's continued market share losses pose a threat to Buick, another native icon. The unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at near 10 percent, straining government and social services. But like GM, Flint is battling to reinvent itself. City leaders are counting on higher education, alternative fuel research, cultural attractions, and medical research to sustain a recovery. Mary Duncan retired from GM in 1996 after 29 years and is one of those southern transplants that reveled in Flint's glory days. 'It was a good living here in Flint -- GM was like my second family,' said Duncan. 'But it's sad today -- jobs are vanishing again and we're becoming a college town.'