In the 1850s Helena businessmen dreamed of a railroad connecting the city with Little Rock. They drew up plans, but powerbrokers diverted money from the Helena project to a line connecting Memphis and Little Rock. Arkansas's First Railroad . . . — — Map (db m262841) HM
After decades of effort, Helena won the bid for a major railroad in 1907. The city of West Helena was platted two years later. The new city's industrial center quickly filled with mills, lumberyards, cooperages and woodenware manufacturers turning . . . — — Map (db m262794) HM
The lumber industry and railroads were inter-dependent. The first could not have developed without the second. The railroads would not have come if not for the industry. Together they made West Helena a boom town. Boom Town Work was abundant . . . — — Map (db m262795) HM
Imagine unbroken forests of huge hardwoods — white oak, red gum, sap gum, cottonwood, beech, cypress, hickory, black walnut, poplar, sycamore, catalpa, ash, hackberry, elm — many as much as ten feet in diameter. This was the Arkansas Delta before . . . — — Map (db m262796) HM
The ink was barely dry on the plan of West Helena before the sounds of construction rang through the new town site. Helena Veneer Company, Ong Chair Company, Upham & Agler, Southwestern Wagon Company, and Dennison Sawmill were all building . . . — — Map (db m262797) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m262798) HM
