SHREVEPORT, La. - There is once again a heartbeat at Shreveport’s old General Motors assembly plant.

The closing in August 2012 was a major blow to the local economy. Thousands of jobs – gone.

When KTBS turned back the pages of the plant's history, it was discovered that jobs at the Shreveport plant may have been a miracle from day one.

In February 1981, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation with a grim economic outlook.

“I regret to say that we're in the worst economic mess since the Great Depression,” Reagan said.

Just months later, General Motors was preparing to open a massive 3-million square-foot assembly plant in Shreveport.

“We were once the greatest producer of automobiles, producing more than all the rest of the world combined. That is no longer true,” Reagan warned,

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