E.L. More, president of the A&F Division of the L&N Railroad, arrived in River Falls from Nashville in 1897 to lead construction of an L&N branch line and, seeing the area’s abundant virgin longleaf pine timberland, bought a half-interest in a small mill on Buck Creek near River Falls. Encouraged by his friend and mentor Major E.C. Lewis, president of the NC & STL Railroad and an L&N board member, More helped build the Horse Shoe Lumber Company into one of the largest and most modern sawmills of its time before it closed after the disastrous flood of 1929. The mill, located along the river near this site, operated an extensive logging rail system that used as many as eight locomotives over the years. Key personnel included vice president Cyrus A. O’Neal, secretary Henry Stanley, private secretary E.W. Arwood, superintendent Gus Henderson of Andalusia, and woods foreman John Miles Cooper of Andalusia. In 1920, More organized the River Falls Power Company to create a grid system supplying electricity to nine counties along the Florida-Alabama state line, with start-up capital from Leslie Cheek of Nashville, More, and O’Neal. More served as president, O’Neal as vice-president, and Stanley as secretary. The coming of electricity drew industry to the area, and More built a modern all-electric sawmill on the site where his old mill had burned in 1924. Power came from the company’s Gantt and Point “A” dams, built upstream on the Conecuh River in 1924 and 1926, and a large auxiliary steam plant in River Falls was added to ensure uninterrupted service. A third dam on the Patsalagi was planned but abandoned after the 1929 flood.