List of company towns in the United States
This is a list of company towns in the United States.
Towns listed in bold are still considered company towns today; other entries are former company towns. See the Category:Company towns in the United States for an unannotated list of articles.
Listed by state
Alabama
- Acipco, Alabama, formerly owned by American Cast Iron Pipe Company
- Aldrich, Alabama, formerly owned by Montevallo Coal Mining Company
- Bayview, Alabama, formerly owned by Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co.
- Chickasaw, Alabama, formerly owned by Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation[1]
- Docena, Alabama, formerly owned by Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co.
- Edgewater, Alabama, formerly owned by Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co.
- Fairfield, Alabama, (1910) originally "Corey", formerly owned by Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co.
- Kaulton, Alabama, owned by Kaul Lumber Co.
- West Blocton, Alabama, formerly owned by Cahaba Coal Mining Company
Arizona
California
- Chester, California
- Crannell, California, built by Little River Redwood Company[2]
- Fort Bragg, California, was a former United States Army post with residential development and California Western Railroad service overseen by the Union Lumber Company[3]
- Irvine, California, built by The Irvine Company and incorporated in 1971; the largest planned community in the world, but technically not a company town.
- Korbel, Humboldt County, California, built by Humboldt Lumber Mill Company[4]
- Metropolitan, California, built by Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company[5]
- Rockport, California, built by Cottoneva Lumber Company[3]
- Samoa, California, built by Vance Lumber Company[6]
- Scotia, California, largely owned by the Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO)
- Selby, California, owned by American Smelting and Refining Company. See also Selby Smelter
- Spreckels, California, formerly owned by Spreckels Sugar Company
- Tormey, California, owned by American Smelting and Refining Company. See also Selby Smelter
- Weed, California, named for sawmill owner Abner Weed
- Westwood, California, built by the Red River Lumber Company, sold in 1944 to Fruit Growers Supply Company, part of Sunkist
- Wheeler, California, built by lumber company
Colorado
Florida
Idaho
Illinois
- Naplate, built and formerly owned by the National Plate Glass Co.
Iowa
- Buxton, a camp of the Consolidation Coal Company, abandoned.
- Cleveland, a camp of the Whitebreast Coal and Mining Company, outside Lucas, abandoned.
- Muchakinock, a coal camp of the Consolidation Coal Company, abandoned.
- Newton, where the well-known Maytag company closed down in 2006.
- Numa and its abandoned suburb Martinstown, former home of the Numa Block Coal Company.
- Severs, south of Colfax camp of the Colfax Consolidated Coal Company, abandoned.
- Stone City, a town built by local limestone quarry businesses. Today an unincorporated community.
Indiana
Kentucky
- Barthell, built by the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company in 1902.
- Benham, built and formerly owned by International Harvester.
- Blackey, built and formerly owned by Blackey Coal Company.
- Blue Heron, ghost town built by Stearns Coal and Lumber Company.
- David, built and formerly owned by Princess Elkhorn Coal Company.
- Fleming-Neon, built and formerly owned by Elkhorn Coal Corporation.
- Highsplint, built and formerly owned by High Splint Coal Company.
- Jenkins, built and formerly owned by Consolidation Coal Company.
- Lynch, built and formerly owned by U.S. Steel.
- Seco, built and formerly owned by South Eastern Coal Company.
- Stone, built and formerly owned by Pond Creek Coal Company. It was also owned by Fordson Coal Company and Eastern Coal Company.
- Thealka, built and formerly owned by North East Coal Company.
- Van Lear, built and formerly owned by Consolidation Coal Company.
- Wayland, built and formerly owned by Elk Horn Coal Company.
- Wheelwright, built and formerly owned by Elk Horn Coal Company.
Maine
- Chisholm, Maine, built by the Otis Falls Pulp & Paper Company
- Hastings, Maine, built by the Hastings Lumber Company[8]
- Katahdin Iron Works, built by Piscataquis Iron Works Company[9]
- Millinocket, Maine, 20th century residential development for the Great Northern Paper mill[10]
- Milo, Maine, includes residential developments for employees of Bangor and Aroostook Railroad's Derby shops[11]
- Newhall, Maine, residences for employees of Oriental Powder Company[12]
- Rumford, Maine, includes residential developments by paper mill owner Hugh J. Chisholm[13]
- Westbrook, Maine, 20th century economy dominated by S. D. Warren Paper Mill
Massachusetts
Michigan
- Gwinn, Michigan, owned by Cleveland Cliffs Iron, nicknamed the "Model Town", because CCI intended its layout to be a model for all of their other company towns
- Hermansville, Michigan, started by the Wisconsin Land & Lumber Company
Missouri
Minnesota
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oregon
- Algoma, Oregon, supported by the Algoma Lumber Company
- Brookings, Oregon, built by John E. Brookings and sold to California & Oregon Lumber Company
- Dee, Oregon
- Gilchrist, Oregon
- Grand Ronde, Oregon
- Hines, Oregon
- Kinzua, Oregon
- Mowich, Oregon
- Neverstill, Oregon
- Olney, Oregon
- Perry, Oregon
- Pine Ridge, Oregon
- Pondosa, Oregon
- Powers, Oregon
- Shevlin, Oregon
- Starkey, Oregon
- Valsetz, Oregon
- Vanport, Oregon
- Vaughn, Oregon
- Wauna, Oregon
- Wendling, Oregon
- Westfir, Oregon
- Wheeler, Oregon
- Wilark, Oregon
Pennsylvania
Vandergrift, Pennsylvannia, established by George McCurtry, President of Apollo Iron and Steel Company
- Ambridge, Pennsylvania, former home of the American Bridge Company
- Braddock, Pennsylvania, dominated by Carnegie Steel Company and later by U.S. Steel
- Ford City, Pennsylvania, organized in 1887 by PPG Industries
- Hershey, Pennsylvania, built by Hershey Chocolate Corporation [7][15]</ref>
- Kistler, Pennsylvania, built by the Mount Union Refractories Company in 1918, designed by John Nolen
- Lake Trade, Pennsylvania, a now defunct coal mining town in Venango Township, Northern Butler County
- Lawrence Park Township, Pennsylvania, built by General Electric Company in 1919
- Natrona, Pennsylvania, built by the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company in the 1850s with later additions
- Peale, Pennsylvania (1883–1912)
- Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, founded by John A. Roebling and other German immigrants it was the site of his first wire works in the United States (see also Roebling, New Jersey)
- Claghorn, Vintondale, and Wehrum, Pennsylvania, built by the Lackawanna Coal Company
- Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, a borough formed by the Westinghouse Air Brake Company
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
West Virginia
- Cass, West Virginia, founded in 1901 for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company logging the nearby mountains
- Coalwood, West Virginia, formerly owned by the Olga Coal Company
- Gary, West Virginia, formerly owned by U.S. Steel
- Grant Town, West Virginia, built by the Federal Coal and Coke Company, which built and operated the Federal No. 1 Mine.
- Kay Moor or Kaymoor, West Virginia, owned by the Low Moor Iron Company
Washington
- Alpine, Washington, owned by Alpine Lumber Company
- Barneton, Washington, owned by Kent Lumber Company, bought in 1911 by Seattle City Light, razed in 1924
- Bodie, Washington, and its related Bodie Mine controlled by the Northern Gold Company
- Coulee Dam, Washington was originally two adjacent company towns created in 1933 to support the construction of Grand Coulee Dam — Mason City, owned by lead construction contractor Consolidated Bullders Inc., and Engineers' Town, owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. CBI transferred control of Mason City to Reclamation in 1942. Reclamation then combined Engineers' Town and Mason City into Coulee Dam in 1948, began selling the town to its inhabitants in 1957, and completed the divestiture in 1959, when Coulee Dam officially incorporated as a town.
- Holden, Washington, built by the Howe Sound Mining Company, which also owned Britannia Beach; once the most productive copper mine in the U.S., the mine closed in 1957 and it and the townsite were sold to a unit of the Lutheran church for $1 in the 1950s; now run as a Christian retreat center
- Hooper, Washington, owned by the McGregor Land and Livestock Company
- Newhalem, Washington, owned by Seattle City Light, as is nearby Diablo
- Port Gamble, Washington, still owned by Pope & Talbot but the lumber mill has not operated since the mid-1990s
- Roche Harbor, Washington, formerly supporting lime kilns owned by Tacoma and Roche Harbor Lime Company
- Ruston, Washington, established by industrialist William Rust; the town's primary industry was an ASARCO copper smelting plant
Wisconsin
- Fosterville, Wisconsin, was built by John J. Foster of the Vilas County Lumber Company. Now it is named Presque Isle, Wisconsin
- Goodman, Wisconsin, built by Goodman Lumber Co.
- Kohler, Wisconsin, built by the Kohler Company
- Laona, Wisconsin, built by the William D. Connor's Connor Company
- Winegar, Wisconsin, Fosterville renamed by William S. Winegar of the Vilas County Lumber Company in 1910. Now named Presque Isle, Wisconsin
References
- ^ Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501 (1946).
- ^ Carranco, Redwood Lumber, pp. 163, 166 & 202
- ^ a b Carranco, Lynwood (1982). Redwood Lumber Industry. San Marino, California: Golden West Books. p. 207. ISBN 0-87095-084-3.
- ^ Carranco, Redwood Lumber, pp. 200-203
- ^ Carranco, Redwood Lumber, p. 203
- ^ Carranco, Redwood Lumber, p. 145
- ^ a b Hardy Green (2010). The Company Town: The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills That Shaped the American Economy. Basic Books. ISBN 0465018262. http://books.google.com/books?id=giMMRAAACAAJ&dq.
- ^ Wight, D.B. (1971). The Wild River Wilderness. Courier Printing Company.
- ^ Angier, Jerry; Cleaves, Herb (1986). Bangor and Aroostook. Flying Yankee Enterprises. pp. 4&5. ISBN 0-9615574-2-7.
- ^ Bangor and Aroostook p. 24
- ^ Melvin, George F. (2010). Bangor and Aroostook in Color, Volume Two. Morning Sun Books. p. 29. ISBN 1-58248-285-3.
- ^ Dole, Samuel Thomas Windham in the Past (1916)
- ^ Jennifer Stowell-Norris, The History of Strathglass Park
- ^ Myrick, David F. (1970). New Mexico's Railroads. Colorado Railroad Museum. pp. 138–9.
- ^ "Monuments to power". The Economist. http://www.economist.com/node/17249000?story_id=17249000&fsrc=rss. Retrieved 2010-10-19. "But many other towns were monuments to the Utopian spirit. Benevolent bosses such as Milton Hershey, a chocolate king, and Henry Kaiser, a shipping magnate, went out of their way to provide their workers not just with decent houses but with schools, libraries and hospitals. ... Gary, Indiana, one of US Steel’s proudest creations, now suffers from one of the highest murder rates in the country."
Further reading