Lincoln Motor Company
The Lincoln Motor Company Plant, built in Detroit, Michigan, by Henry Leland in 1917, was closed after 1952; subsequent Lincolns were produced alongside Mercury Montereys and Mercury Montclairs. For the 1957 model year, Ford opened Wixom Assembly in Wixom, Michigan, as a facility to specialize in Lincoln production. From 1957 to 2007, the facility produced Lincoln vehicles nearly exclusively, along with the Ford GT and several generations of the Ford Thunderbird.
For the 1956 model year, Ford Motor Company created the Continental Division, slotted above Lincoln as the flagship marque of Ford Motor Company. At its launch, Continental introduced the Continental Mark II as its model line, intended as a successor to the 1940-1948 Lincoln Continental personal luxury car. Offered as a two-door hardtop coupe, the Mark II broke from a number of American styling precedents of the time. While fitted with whitewall tires, the exterior was fitted with minimal chrome trim on the body sides; tailfins were left off of the body completely. In place of the bumper-mounted spare tire of the original Lincoln Continental, the trunklid of the Mark II showcased the design element, with a large imitation spare tire bulge (which fit over the actual spare tire inside the trunk). The Mark II was largely hand-built, with extensive quality testing done to each engine and transmission before leaving the factory.
Lincoln City, Indiana
Lincoln City was laid out in 1872 when the railroad was extended to that point. The community was named for the Lincoln family. Nearby is the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Memorial, as well as the site of the Lincoln log cabin, built in 1816. President Abraham Lincoln spent much of his childhood (from the ages of 7 to 21) on this farm, and as a young man he practiced law at the nearby Spencer County courthouse. Also located in Lincoln City is the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, a national park managed by the National Park Service that includes a Living Historical Farm that attempts to recreate the early nineteenth-century period during which the Lincoln family lived in the area. The living-history farm is a working pioneer-style homestead with a cabin, outbuildings, split rail fences, animals, gardens, and field crops. NPS interpreters in period clothing perform a variety of activities typical of the 1820s, and the farm's grounds are open year-round. The farm is staffed from mid-April through September full-time, and intermittently in October. The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is located on Highway 162 across from Lincoln State Park.