When Goodyear and Steel Ruled Gadsden: The Industrial Era That Shaped Etowah County

In the decade before I was born, Gadsden and Etowah County were booming. The 1950s were the golden age of our area. At that time, almost one-third of our working population was employed at Gadsden Goodyear and Republican Steel. That’s about 20–25% of the total population of roughly 95,000 people. Think about that for a moment. One in four people in this county went to work every day at one of those two plants. Their paychecks built neighborhoods, filled restaurants, and kept small businesses alive from one end of Broad Street to the other.

That era didn’t fade quietly. In 2000, Republic Steel collapsed. Through the late 1990s, automation and competition from other plants were already forcing Goodyear to start laying off Gadsden employees. By 2020, the final tire made in Gadsden had rolled off the line, and the plant was emptied. Two generations of industrial dominance — gone.

So for a quarter of a century, we’ve been in the bottom of the curve. The numbers tell the story plainly.

In 1950, Etowah County had a population of 93,892, a labor force of 43,000, and only about 1,300 unemployed — a rate under 3%. By 2000, the population had grown to 103,459, but so had unemployment, with about 2,200 people out of work. Today in 2025, our population sits around 103,000, our labor force has actually shrunk to about 42,700, and unemployment remains in the 1,100–1,200 range. On paper, unemployment looks fine. But that’s partly because a lot of people stopped looking.

Last week, Mayor Craig Ford announced that Minth Group — a Taiwanese manufacturing company — has agreed to build a plant here and hire approximately 1,400 employees by around 2029. That announcement matters more than the job number alone suggests.

Yes, 1,400 jobs is not 14,000 jobs. Anyone who tries to tell you this is the same as the Goodyear and Steel era is not being straight with you. But that comparison misses the point. We’re not trying to rebuild 1955. We’re trying to build something sustainable for 2030 and beyond.

What Minth represents is a signal. A global company evaluated thousands of possible locations and chose Etowah County. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because of infrastructure, because of leadership, because of a workforce that’s ready to work. And when one major manufacturer chooses a place, other manufacturers start paying attention.

This Taiwanese company’s selection of Etowah County perhaps portends the entrance of other manufacturers to our area. That is most certainly my hope.

I’ve not always been a fan of every mayor this city has had. More than a few of them. But I am a fan of the work Craig and his team have done on this one. Bringing a $430 million investment to a county that’s been waiting 25 years for a reason to believe again — that deserves recognition.

So add the Minth factory to the employment rolls and two things become possible, or some mixture of both: every employable person in the county gets a job, or new residents buy homes and move in. Neither of those outcomes is bad. Both of them are worth working toward.

Congrats to the people of Etowah County. And let’s keep this momentum moving forward. More jobs in 2026.