Meadow River

Company History: This line was built between 1906 and 1909 as the Sewell Valley Railroad to link the new sawmill in western Greenbrier County, West Virginia to the nearest rail head 20 miles away. The railroad was later re-christened Meadow River Railroad after the lumber company. The sawmill would become the largest hardwood mill in the world, cutting 31 million board feet in the peak year of 1928. The railroad brought in logs from Meadow River’s 100,000 acres of hardwood forests, delivered cut lumber, molding and shapes (hardwood shoe heels were a major business) to the connecting Class One’s and brought in heavy equipment. With the timber largely cut over, the company was sold to Georgia-Pacific in 1970 (who presumably wanted it for a future harvest of second growth trees.) G-P phased out the operation over the next five years.

Successor/Parent History: Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, toilet and paper towel dispensers, packaging, building products and related chemicals. As of Fall 2010, the company employed more than 40,000 people at more than 300 locations in North America, South America and Europe. It is an independently operated and managed company of Koch Industries.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.