Ford as his police cruiser. Early Hodges store and Jenkins Grocery operated by Mel and Christine McKinnon Jenkins were the main businesses. The end of the virgin timber harvest did not terminate the forest products industry for Caryville. W. F. Harrison operated a sawmill and E. A. Hodges and Fern Arnold formed a lumber company, which later became Arnold Lumber Company. It remained the community's largest industry as late as 1971. Howell Plywood Corporation operated a plant in Caryville for several years in the post World War II era. Operations were continued on a modest scale by the Harrison and Garner Lumber Company. In 1954, residents of Caryville, realizing their town charter had lapsed, voted to remain unincorporated. Eleven years later, voters approved incorporation with a charter that withheld police and as valorem taxing powers. Calvit L. Walker a retired Army officer, was elected mayor. C. C. Barlow was named city clerk members of the town council under the new charter were Franklin P. Evans, Herman Brown, Preston Anderson, Ernest Peters and Luther Whitaker, Gaston Bryan, Cleston Tadlock and Odell Parish were subsequently elected to the council. A civic awakening was getting started in the town once again. A Wayside Park was added on the banks of the Choctawhatchee River, a totally new water system was installed and Caryville received a minimum custody vocational type prison facility at the south town limits. Floods from the nearby river continued to take its toll on Caryville residents. A disastrous flooding in 1990, and again in 1994, caused many homes to be destroyed or badly damaged by the high water. In 1996. a massive buyout of homes in Caryville was initiated by FEMA with most of the home owners taking advantage of the offer to sell out and move to higher ground. Today only a few houses dot the once thriving town of Caryville. City government is intact, however there are no schools or churches, and only a few businesses operate in the town. Thus, the once booming sawmill town of Caryville has joined the other smaller municipalities of the area in slipping away into almost a total ghost town, leaving a rich heritage and history that will long live in the memory of those who remember the town's colorful past. Notable people Robert L. Carter, United States District Court judge and civil rights activist Bob Thorpe, Major League Baseball player References Towns