Wood Products Capital

Wood Products Capital. . , Between 1920 and 1927, Helena-West Helena was the second largest hardwood manufacturing center in the United States. Chicago Mill and Pekin Cooperage were the two largest operations in West Helena. , Hardwood Manufacturing Leader , Abundant local timber, available labor, and favorable shipping rates made Helena-West Helena the second largest hardwood manufacturing center in the nation between 1920 and 1927. The city boasted a Southern Hardwood Traffic Association office and a National Hardwood Lumber Association Chief Inspector and two deputies. It seemed that West Helena had a bright and prosperous future as a lumber capital. , Changing Times, Changing Technology , Unforeseen events led to a decline in the hardwood industry here and nationwide. The rise of trucks and automobiles put wagon makers out of business. Metal buckets replaced wooden ones. Prohibition (1920-1933) greatly reduced the market for barrels , five companies in West Helena closed. Other businesses failed during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The disastrous floods of 1927 and 1937 destroyed infrastructure and forced several mills in Helena to close. After World War II (1939-1945) the forest products industry in the Delta declined. In spite of setbacks, lumber remained West Helena's most important industry into the late-twentieth century and remnants of the once vast facilities are still evident. , Chicago Mill and Lumber Company , Chicago Mill and Lumber Company's mammoth mill was one of this city's most prominent industries. The firm moved into Helena in 1908 and expanded into West Helena in 1914, buying 125 acres here. , In 1915, Chicago Mill employed 600 men. They operated a hardwood mill able to process 90,000 feet of logs per day, a box factory with a capacity of 70,000 feet per day, and a veneer mill that made boxes and box shooks. Generations of West Helena families worked at Chicago Mill, which closed in the 1990s.