810 Area Code – Flint, Michigan: Location, Time Zone & History

Southeastern Michigan's Flint and Port Huron region carries area code 810, split from area code 313 on December 1, 1993 to cover a broad swath running from Oakland and Macomb counties east to the Thumb. That footprint didn't last: Oakland County split away as area code 248 in 1997, and Macomb County followed as 586 in 2001, leaving 810 with its present Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, and Sanilac county territory anchored by Flint.

Flint's identity is inseparable from the automobile -- General Motors was founded there in 1908 by William C. Durant, and the city's Buick plants made it a company town for generations. That history has a harder edge too: the 1936-37 Flint sit-down strike against GM helped establish the United Auto Workers, and the Flint water crisis beginning in 2014 brought national scrutiny to lead contamination in the city's water supply. Kettering University, once the General Motors Institute, still trains the region's engineers.

Port Huron adds its own chapter, having hosted the 1962 drafting of the Port Huron Statement, and today links to Sarnia, Ontario across the Blue Water Bridge, one of the busiest US-Canada freight crossings. Eminem name-checks the 810 area code while freestyling in the 2002 film 8 Mile, cementing the number as part of Flint's cultural signature.