Genesee County Area

Discover Flint and Genesee County, you will be surprised what you find.

Come to downtown Flint for its many festivals and events throughout the spring, summer and fall. See thousands of vintage and classic cars in the annual Back to the Bricks in August and come back in the fall for the Bikes on the Bricks auto show competition. Don’t miss the annual Crim Festival of Races featuring some of the world’s top runners. Discover our world-class shows and performances at The Whiting. See a comedy, drama or musical by some of our numerous community theatre troupes. See world-renowned artists and exhibits at the Flint Institute of Arts, the Sloan Museum and Longway Planetarium.

In Genesee County you can also discover and enjoy the state’s largest county parks system with more than 2 - 1,000 acres of beautiful woods, wetlands and trails, including the historic Crossroads Village, Huckleberry Railroad and Genesee Belle Paddlewheel Riverboat. See how many of our community festivals you can attend – the Michigan Renaissance Festival, The Carry Nation Festival, the Flint Film Festival, the Flint Festival of Quilts, the Davison Festival of Flags – just to name a few.

Fun Facts

  • Jacob Smith, a fur trader from Quebec, founded the city of Flint in 1819.
  • In the late 1800’s, the Flint River was used to transport lumber.
  • On June 8, 1953, Flint experienced the 9th deadliest tornado, the Beecher Tornado, to hit the United States with 115 deaths and 844 injuries. It was the last single tornado to cause over 100 deaths in the U.S.
  • In 1908, William (Billy) Crapo Durant created a holding company for Buick and Oldsmobile, and called it General Motors. Durant also helped an up and coming businessman, Albert Champion; Champion made a spark plug for Buicks that was cheaper and better than any other on the market. Durant financed this new enterprise that became AC Spark Plug.
  • When the Buick Motor Factory was built in 1905, it was the largest auto factory in the world.
  • Flint’s nickname, “Vehicle City,” was earned by the production of horse-drawn road carts and carriages. Flint was a world leader in making carriages by the late 1880’s, and that industry helped spawn the “horseless carriage” trade that followed 25 years later.
  • Downtown Flint is undergoing a transformation with more than $450 million in development projects that were recently completed, under construction, or in the planning stage.
  • Davison is home to what is recognized as the oldest veterinary office in the country, preserved as a historical landmark: the 115-year-old office of former veterinarian F.E. Wooley.
  • The Fenton Community Center was designed by Bloomfield Hills architects, Elial and Eero Saarien (father and son) in 1938. Eero later designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis in 1947. The Saarien’s architechture firm also designed the Woodside Church in Flint.
  • The Flint Institute of Arts is the second largest art museum in the state of Michigan.
  • The world headquarters of the Coffee Beanery is located in Flushing, Michigan. Tours are available by appointment only. Joanne and Julius Shaw, the founders of Coffee Beanery, opened their first store in 1976 in Dearborn Michigan, and since then the company has grown into a multi-million dollar franchise business. Today, the Coffee Beanery has over 135 locations throughout the U.S., and 25 locations internationally.
  • Enos Miller, son of Swartz Creek founder Adam Miller, allegedly became the first white man to “fell” a tree in Clayton Township in 1836; he was 14. The Millers cleared a road on an American Indian trail that is now known as Miller Road.
  • The Longway Planetarium is the largest in Michigan and in the North-Central U.S.!
  • The Flint School of Performing Arts is Michigan’s largest community art school.
  • Flint and Genesee County are home to many automotive attractions that are part of the Motor Cities National Heritage Area, an affiliate of the National Park Service. These attractions include: Auto City Speedway, Buick Gallery, Crossroads Village, Flint Cultural Center, Scharchburg Archives at Kettering University, Sloan Museum, Whaley Historical House Museum, and the Durant- Dort Building, considered to be the birthplace of General Motors.