Fun with Maps ISSUE 2025-149

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (September 16, 2025) – In today’s edition of Fun with Maps, we drive back into some motor city history beginning in Flint, Michigan.             

Cars

The classic business school case study about marketing myopia is about the horse drawn carriage companies many of whom didn’t keep up with the shifting tides to automobiles. 

Well, that almost happened to William Durant who had a successful carriage company and then reluctantly purchased upstart Buick Motor Company in 1904.  He formed a holding company in Flint, Michigan on September 16, 1908 – General Motors, or GM.

Durant borrowed the ‘General’ portion of the name from General Electric.

He grew GM through acquisition of Cadillac, Welch, Cartercar, Oakland (predecessor to Pontiac), Reliance Motor (predecessor to GMC) and a few others.

The banks wouldn’t lend him the downpayment for his attempted acquisition of Ford in 1909 though.

Now GM sells about 6 million cars yearly and has an annual revenue of nearly $190 billion.

White’s pictorial map of Michigan is presented here from 1938.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.