Lanett, Alabama: Mill Town on the Chattahoochee
For most of the twentieth century, Lanett was a textile town. The West Point Manufacturing Company and later WestPoint Stevens operated mills that employed thousands of workers in Lanett and the adjacent Georgia city of West Point, separated only by the Chattahoochee River and the state line. When the mills closed or downsized in the 1990s and 2000s, the economic blow was severe. Buildings that once hummed with looms went dark, and Lanett's population declined from its peak.
Today the city has about 6,500 residents and sits in Chambers County along Interstate 85, roughly halfway between Montgomery and Atlanta. The interstate access has helped somewhat, drawing a few distribution and light manufacturing operations to the area. The old mill buildings have found scattered new uses, though vacancy remains a problem. Lanett and neighboring Valley share a school system and a regional hospital, pooling resources in a way that reflects the economic reality of the area.
The Chattahoochee River provides a natural boundary and a recreational resource. West Point Lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir just upstream, offers boating and fishing. The river corridor also serves as a greenway connecting the twin communities on either side of the state line.
Chambers County was historically one of the more productive agricultural counties in east-central Alabama, with cotton as the primary crop before textiles took over. That agricultural heritage is mostly gone now, replaced by a service economy, commuter patterns toward Auburn and Opelika, and the slow process of reinventing former industrial towns.
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For most of the twentieth century, Lanett was a textile town. The West Point Manufacturing Company and later WestPoint Stevens operated mills that employed thousands of workers in Lanett and the adjacent Georgia city of West Point, separated only by the Chattahoochee River and the state line. When the mills closed or downsized in the 1990s and 2000s, the economic blow was severe. Buildings that once hummed with looms went dark, and Lanett's population declined from its peak.
Today the city has about 6,500 residents and sits in Chambers County along Interstate 85, roughly halfway between Montgomery and Atlanta. The interstate access has helped somewhat, drawing a few distribution and light manufacturing operations to the area. The old mill buildings have found scattered new uses, though vacancy remains a problem. Lanett and neighboring Valley share a school system and a regional hospital, pooling resources in a way that reflects the economic reality of the area.
The Chattahoochee River provides a natural boundary and a recreational resource. West Point Lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir just upstream, offers boating and fishing. The river corridor also serves as a greenway connecting the twin communities on either side of the state line.
Chambers County was historically one of the more productive agricultural counties in east-central Alabama, with cotton as the primary crop before textiles took over. That agricultural heritage is mostly gone now, replaced by a service economy, commuter patterns toward Auburn and Opelika, and the slow process of reinventing former industrial towns.
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