Editing Alma, Michigan (section)

==History==
Alma was founded in 1853 by Ralph Ely. Perhaps first known for the Alma Springs Sanitarium, built and promoted in the 1880s by millionaire lumberman and capitalist [[Ammi W. Wright]], it achieved its greatest prominence nationally in the 1910s and 1920s as home of the [[Republic Motor Truck Company]], briefly the largest exclusive truck manufacturer in the world.<ref>{{cite book|last=McMacken |first=David |author2=Louise Davenport |year=1976 |title=Down Twelve Decades: A Pictorial History of Alma, Michigan |publisher=Alma Bicentennial Committee |location=Alma, Michigan}}</ref>  At one point, Republic was the maker of one out of every nine trucks on the roads in the United States. It was one of the major suppliers of "Liberty trucks" used by American troops during World War I.

Alma was the home of Leonard Refineries which sold gasoline and other petroleum products throughout the lower peninsula of Michigan from its founding in 1936 until about 1966.<ref>{{cite web |title=Leonard Refineries, Inc. (Alma, Mich.) Photographic collection, 1957, 2005, and undated - Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library - University of Michigan Finding Aids |url=https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/ehll--leonardphoto}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Leonard Refineries, Inc. (Alma, Mich.) Historical Collection, 2011 |url=https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/438125240}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Leonard Refineries of Alma &#124; Clark Historical Library |url=https://www.cmich.edu/research/clarke-historical-library/explore-collection/explore-online/michigan-material/leonard-refineries-alma}}</ref>  In 1953 Alma became the first place that high-octane gas, 96 octane, was produced.<ref>{{cite web |title=Finding Aid for Leonard Refineries Inc. |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clarke/ehll--leonardphoto?view=text |work=Clarke Historical Library |access-date=30 September 2012}}</ref>