[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> by eighteen, ninety, the lumber boom was over.

sagging all remained michigan's third-largest city and sad at the heart of rich farmland.

but jobs were disappearing and people were starting to move away.

the community still had lots of resources, railroads, skilled workers and most important the saginaw river with the city's future was uncertain with sagging, all reinvent itself or strength to mere memories of the glory days of the lumber move.

it took more than twenty years for the city to reinvent itself.

it was a time of experimentation with some failures and some successes.

when the first car arrived in saginaw, it sparked imagination about what saginaw could be.

there were several car companies that made complete vehicles in the area.

but with little success, what really took off was car parts manufacturing.

in eighteen, eighty john l jackson started a foundry and machine shop to make and repair equipment for the lumber mills in eighteen, ninety-four edgar church joined the business and help the transition from lumbering equipment.

the new products jackson and church then became partners with melvin wilcox.

they decided to focus on making auto parts.

the jackson church in wilcox company learned that buick motor company was having trouble finding a suitable steering mechanism for its cars.

during that time, wilcox had been working on a prototype steering gear and his double threat and half not gear known as the j cox year was an immediate success.

so successful.

in fact, that buick bought the entire company in nineteen oh, nine to increase production.

a year later, general motors bought buick and ramped up the saginaw plant's production even more.

and the saginaw plant became known as j. cox later, this division would be the first general motors unit set up exclusively for parts manufacturing [MUSIC] in order to make all these parts.

saginaw needed foundries.

a foundry pours hot liquid metal into molds to make car parts.

saginaw, malleable iron foundry was started in nineteen seventeen.

the foundry was so important to general motors that they bought saginaw malleable in nineteen, ninety that same year, another found recalled great iron began car parts production.

they provided parts for cadillac oldsmobile, gm trucks, buick, pontiac and chevrolet demand grew in the nineteen twenties and great iron was dubbed the queen of the foundry industry.

the foundries grew rapidly because the demand for car parts was great.

second, i became known as a place that provided steady and good paying jobs.

sue in saginaw did not have enough workers and the companies needed to recruit workers from all over, which included many african-american and hispanic people.

this new diversity was not always welcomed by the community and neighborhoods became segregated.

often the least desirable jobs were left to non-white workers.

women also worked in the plant and not just during world war two.

they, too, were only allowed to do certain tasks, but women work in the plants right from the start [MUSIC] by the nineteen seventies, the nineteen eighties, the us began to produce fewer car parts and so they needed fewer employees.

once again, saginaw found itself in a decline.

the steering gear that put saginaw on the automotive map to still manufactured here by a company called next year.

they now make several kinds of steering gears and other parts for the company is not as big as the automotive production once was saginaw, a reinvented itself before.

so perhaps it can do it again.

what ideas do you have for saginaw?

his future?

[MUSIC] this program was made possible by a grant from cta community telecommunications network,