List of company towns in the United States

This is a list of company towns in the United States.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

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.
• Bemiston, Alabama, formerly owned by the Bemis Brothers Bag Company
• 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
• Woodward, Alabama, formerly owned by Woodward Iron Company, later acquired by US Steel

Arizona

• Ajo, Arizona
• Bagdad, Arizona, owned by Freeport McMoRan
• Clarkdale, Arizona, built, named for, and formerly owned by Senator William A. Clark's United Verde Copper Company
• Morenci, Arizona, owned by Freeport McMoRan

California

• Betteravia, California, built by Union Sugar Company
• 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]
• Graeagle, California, owned by Fruit Growers Supply Company, an affiliate of Sunkist
• 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]
• McCloud, California, built by McCloud River Railroad Lumber Company.
• Metropolitan, California, built by Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company^[5]
• Nortonville, California, owned by the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company
• 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.
• Spreckels, California, formerly owned by Spreckels Sugar Company
• Tormey, California, owned by American Smelting and Refining Company.
• 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, an affiliate of Sunkist
• Wheeler, California, built by lumber company

Colorado

• Climax , Colorado, built by the Climax Molybdenum Company, The residential houses were all transported to the West Park subdivision of Leadville, Colorado, before 1965, leaving only the mining buildings standing.
• Durango, Colorado, organized in 1880 by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad
• Gilman, Colorado, built around (and eventually abandoned due to) the New Jersey Zinc Company's Eagle mine
• Ludlow, Colorado, was dominated by Colorado Fuel and Iron

Connecticut

• Hazardville, Connecticut, industrial village centered around the Hazard Powder Company powder mill
• Collinsville, Connecticut, industrial village centered around the Collins Axe Company Manufacture of Machetes and Hand Axes

Florida

• Lake Buena Vista, Bay Lake, and the Reedy Creek Improvement District located within Walt Disney World Resort, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company
• Ybor City, built by Vicente Martinez Ybor for his cigar manufacturing businesses; now one of Tampa's top night spots

Idaho

• Cobalt, Idaho, owned by the Howe Sound Mining Company (see Holden Village, Washington)
• Conda, Idaho
• Elk River, Idaho
• Headquarters, Idaho
• Leadore, Idaho
• Potlatch, Idaho

Illinois

• Granite City, Illinois, built by St. Louis Stamping Company, a steel company known for its "Granite ware" in which cooking utensils were made to look like granite
• Hegewisch, Chicago, founded by Adolph Hegewisch (President of the United States Rolling Stock Company) to emulate the company town of Pullman.
• Pullman, Chicago, once an independent city within Illinois, owned by the Pullman Sleeping Car Co.
• 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.
• Everist, a camp of the Mammoth Vein Coal Company (later, the Empire Coal Company), 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

• Gary, Indiana, built and formerly owned by U.S. Steel ^[7]

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.
• Stearns, built by Stearns Coal and Lumber 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.

Louisiana

• Bogalusa, Louisiana, started by Great Southern Lumber 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 Company 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

• North Dighton, Massachusetts, former textile mill town, greatly expanded during the 1910s-1920s.
• Whitinsville, Massachusetts, former home of Whitin Machine Works, textile machine manufacturer.
• Hopedale, Massachusetts, former home of the Draper Corporation, textile machine manufacturer.

Michigan

• Alberta, Michigan, started by Henry Ford
• 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

Mississippi

• Bankston, Mississippi, ghost town, former location of Bankston Textile Mill^[14]
• Electric Mills, Mississippi, started by Sumter Lumber Company^[15]
• Fernwood, Mississippi, started by Fernwood Lumber Company

Missouri

• Deering, Missouri, established by Deering Harvester Company or its successor International Harvester Company and later acquired by Wisconsin Lumber Company, which eventually ceased operations and divested it
• Leadwood, Missouri, developed by St. Joe Lead
• Trenton, Missouri, Ruskin College acquired all the businesses in the hopes of building a utopian society

Minnesota

• Akeley, Minnesota developed by T. B. Walker and named for his business partner, Healy C. Akeley
• Morgan Park, Duluth, Minnesota built by U.S. Steel and named for J.P. Morgan
• Babbitt, Minnesota developed by Reserve Mining Co.
• Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota developed by Erie Mining Co.

Montana

• Colstrip, Montana, a coal strip mining town formerly owned by Montana Power Company
• Trident, Montana, a former Portland cement company town owned by Holcim

Nevada

• Boulder City, Nevada, built and formerly owned by the United States Bureau of Reclamation
• Empire, Nevada, owned by USG Corporation

New Hampshire

• Berlin, New Hampshire, residential development for wood products manufacturing by Berlin Mills Company
• Harrisville, New Hampshire, historic textile mill village; National Historic Landmark

New Jersey

• Haskell, New Jersey, named for Laflin & Rand company president Jonathan Haskell
• Manville, New Jersey, the largest tract of land was the Johns Manville Corporation
• Maurer, Perth Amboy built by brick manufacturer after the Civil War and later absorbed into Perth Amboy
• Roebling, New Jersey, a factory village within the limits of Florence, New Jersey; the town was owned by the Roebling Steel Corporation run by the descendants of John A. Roebling

New Mexico

• Madrid, New Mexico, residential development for miners of the Albuquerque and Cerrillos Coal Company^[16]
• Playas, New Mexico, built by Phelps Dodge Corporation

New York

• Cohoes, New York, formerly owned by Harmony Mills
• Endicott, New York planned and incorporated by Endicott Johnson Corporation
• Johnson City, New York renamed by and after George F. Johnson of the Endicott Johnson Corporation
• Oneida, New York, incorporated 1848 by the Oneida Community which later became Oneida Limited
• Steinway Village, the part of New York City in Astoria, Queens used by employees of Steinway & Sons

North Carolina

• Bynum, North Carolina, formerly owned by J.M. Odell Manufacturing Company (town purchased by the county in the 1970s)
• Kannapolis, North Carolina, owned by the Cannon Mills Company

Ohio

• Glenwillow, Ohio, built by the Austin Powder Company^[17]
• Goes Station, Ohio, built by the Miami Powder Company^[18]
• Kings Mills, Ohio, built by the Great Western Powder Company and Peters Cartridge Company^[19]
• McDonald, Ohio, built and formerly owned by the Carnegie Steel Company (later U.S. Steel)
• Rossford, Ohio, founded by the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company (later Libbey-Owens-Ford)

Oregon

• Algoma, Oregon, supported by the Algoma Lumber Company
• Bradwood, Oregon^[20]
• 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
• Southport, Oregon, owned by the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company
• Starkey, Oregon
• Valsetz, Oregon
• Vanport, Oregon
• Vaughn, Oregon
• Wauna, Oregon
• Wendling, Oregon
• Westfir, Oregon
• Wheeler, Oregon
• Wilark, Oregon

Pennsylvania

Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, established by George McCurtry, President of Apollo Iron and Steel Company

• Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, former home of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company
• Braddock, Pennsylvania, dominated by Carnegie Steel Company and later by U.S. Steel
• Buck Run, Pennsylvania, built by James B. Neale between 1902 and 1943 for his anthracite coal miners and their families. By 1925, his company town boasted of a school, an infirmary, a community recreation facility, a company store and several churches in addition to homes for the miners with running water, electricity and steam heat. The Buck Run colliery was located outside of Pottsville, in Schylkill County PA.
• Ford City, Pennsylvania, organized in 1887 by PPG Industries
• Hershey, Pennsylvania, built by Hershey Chocolate Corporation ^[7][21]
• 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

• Slatersville, Rhode Island, historic former mill village

South Carolina

• Newry, South Carolina

South Dakota

• East Sioux Falls, South Dakota, an old quarrying town east of Sioux Falls, owned by the East Sioux Falls Quarry Company.

Tennessee

• Alcoa, Tennessee, formerly owned by Alcoa and still economically dominated by the company
• Norris, Tennessee, built and formerly owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority
• Oak Ridge, Tennessee, built in secret by the United States government for the Manhattan Project; controlled by the federal government until 1959
• Old Hickory, Tennessee, built to house DuPont employees; now a suburb of Nashville

Texas

• Camden, Texas, owned by the W.T. Carter & Brother Lumber Company and its successors
• Sugar Land, Texas, once owned and run by the Imperial Sugar Company, transformed into an upscale suburb of Houston
• Thurber, Texas, owned by a coal-mining subsidiary of the Texas and Pacific Railway

Utah

• Bryce Canyon City, Utah, built and owned by Ruby's Inn and the Syrett family, owners of Ruby's Inn

Vermont

• Proctor, Vermont, once owned by the Vermont Marble Company; the town of Proctor was under the control of Senator Redfield Proctor

Virginia

• Saltville, Virginia, dominated by Mathieson Alkali Works and its successors through the Olin Corporation
• Stanleytown, Virginia was dominated by Stanley Furniture

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
• Black Diamond, Washington, owned by the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company, sold to the Pacific Coast Company in 1904
• 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
• Longview, Washington, established in 1921 by the Long-Bell Lumber Company and led by Robert A. Long the lumber baron from Kansas.
• 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

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

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

Wyoming

• Jeffrey City, Wyoming was built in the 1950s to house employees of nearby Western Nuclear uranium mining and milling operations. Other uranium mining companies built housing adjacent to the town to take advantage of its location and infrastructure. The townsite was sold off in an auction in the 1990s.
• Gas Hills, Wyoming was composed of several mining companies' towns, the largest of which was owned by Lucky Mc Uranium.
• Shirley Basin, Wyoming was another uranium mining company town owned by Western Nuclear, Inc.

References

1. Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501 (1946).
2. Carranco, Redwood Lumber, pp. 163, 166 & 202
3. Carranco, Lynwood (1982). Redwood Lumber Industry. San Marino, California: Golden West Books. p. 207. ISBN 0-87095-084-3.
4. Carranco, Redwood Lumber, pp. 200-203
5. Carranco, Redwood Lumber, p. 203
6. Carranco, Redwood Lumber, p. 145
7. Hardy Green (2010). The Company Town: The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills That Shaped the American Economy. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-01826-2.
8. Wight, D.B. (1971). The Wild River Wilderness. Courier Printing Company.
9. Angier, Jerry; Cleaves, Herb (1986). Bangor and Aroostook. Flying Yankee Enterprises. pp. 4&5. ISBN 0-9615574-2-7.
10. Bangor and Aroostook p. 24
11. Melvin, George F. (2010). Bangor and Aroostook in Color, Volume Two. Morning Sun Books. p. 29. ISBN 1-58248-285-3.
12. Dole, Samuel Thomas Windham in the Past (1916)
13. Jennifer Stowell-Norris, The History of Strathglass Park
14. The Bankston Textile Mill Retrieved 2014-03-31
15. Electric Mills Retrieved 2014-03-31
16. Myrick, David F. (1970). New Mexico's Railroads. Colorado Railroad Museum. pp. 138–9.
17. "History of Austin Powder Company". Reference for Business. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
18. Burba, Howard (5 March 1933). "Remember When the Powder Mills Exploded?". Dayton Daily News.
19. Sullebarger Associates, PAST Architects. "Ahimaaz King House and Carriage House Historic Structure Report" (PDF). Deerfield Township, Ohio. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
20. McArthur, Lewis A.; McArthur, Lewis L. (2003) [First published 1928]. Oregon Geographic Names (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. p. 107. ISBN 9780875952772.
21. "Monuments to power". The Economist. 2010-10-14. 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

• Carlson, Linda (2003). Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest. ISBN 0-295-98332-9.
• Crawford, Margaret (1995). Building the Workingman's Paradise: The Design of American Company Towns. London & New York: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-695-2.