Editing West Memphis, Arkansas (section)

===Founding of West Memphis===
After the levee system was built and strengthened, [[Zack Bragg|Zack T. Bragg]], a lumberman who had been logging in [[St. Francis County]] since 1905, purchased 300 acres of virgin timber and established a sawmill in 1914. The mill was located along a railroad spur and a dirt path that would eventually become Missouri Street in West Memphis.<ref name="Woolfolk, Margaret Elizabeth 1993"/><ref>Beauregard, Michael A. "Images of America: West Memphis". Arcadia Publishing, 2014.</ref> Bragg also acquired the timbering rights to thousands of acres of adjacent land clearing the area that eventually gave way to fertile farmland and to the future West Memphis. The area around Bragg's Mill was known for the first few years as Bragg, Arkansas. The small community consisted of the mill, a commissary and boarding house, and a few dozen dwellings for workers.<ref name="Beauregard, Michael A. 2014">Beauregard, Michael A. ''Images of America: West Memphis''. Arcadia Publishing, 2014.</ref>
  
In 1914, another operation began two miles south of Bragg's Mill when William H. Hundhausen began plans for the Bolz Slack Barrell Cooperage plant located at the southern end of present-day 8th Street in West Memphis. The Bolz Cooperage, which was a stave mill, purchased a great quantity of acreage for its lumber operation. Within a short time of the mill's beginning, a small community developed. In 1917, highways 70 and 61 were established and clearing began through the future West Memphis.<ref>Beauregard, Michael A. ''Images of America: West Memphis''. Arcadia Press, 2014.</ref> With the threat of river flooding diminished by a strengthened levee, the establishment of two lumber operations and the building of two major U.S. highways, the small lumber communities grew rapidly. In 1920 the population was approximately 132 and by 1928, the population had grown to 350.  The community incorporated as a city in 1927 with the name West Memphis. Zack T. Bragg, one of the city's founders, was elected as the first mayor and served for three consecutive one year terms. William H. Hundhausen, another founder of West Memphis, was elected as its third mayor and served from 1932 to 1944.<ref name="Woolfolk, Margaret Elizabeth 1993"/>