I started my career off at Ford working at their Expedition/Navigator truck assembly plant called Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, MI. Anyways, around Christmas of 1997 I think, we had a plant luncheon where the plant manager and union President spoke to the workers like they did every Christmas. Well, they had this vehicle hidden under a tarp that they were going to unveil. I didn't know what the heck was under there. At the time we built 3 vehicles in the plant:Expedition, Navigator, and F-150 regular cab.

So they pull the tarp off the secret vehicle and there it is, the first Lincoln Blackwood so to speak. It was a modified red F-150 from what I remember, so I guess you could call it a "Redwood". Some hourly guys had taken a Ford F-150 regular cab and attached the Navigator hood, grill, cladding, interior, etc to it. It looked darn sharp. It just had the regular F-150 box though. The plant manager said they were going to show their idea to the guys at World Headquarters. And everyone at the plant thought we would be the ones to build it. Anyways, I read recently that Jay Mays claimed the Blackwood was his idea (which I don't think is true as you can see from this story) and he accepts responsibility for it's failure. Although I don't think it's a failure, I love the truck.

So there you have it, this is the true story of the real birth of the Lincoln Blackwood and I was there to see it unveiled. Plus now I own one. Cool, huh.