The Wisconsin and Arkansas Lumber Company's mill can be seen here on a 1909 postcard touting a $1 million investment. The principal owner was Arthur B. Cook who would operate it, along with Malvern Brick and Tile, until his death in 1934. His daughter Verna Cook Garvan would succeeded him. Garvan’s donation of 210 acres outside of Hot Springs made the tourist attraction known as Garvan Gardens possible. The operations of the Wisconsin and Arkansas Lumber Company, which came to be abbreviated as WALCO, included its own company store, which, in exchange for goods, accepted the pictured tokens that were a portion of the mill workers’ pay. WALCO used railroads for access to distant timber. Much of the cleared land belonging to WALCO was eventually sold to the International Paper Company, which replaced what had once been diverse forests with pine plantations. (Courtesy of Steven Hanley and Ray Hanley.)
Arcadia
