Arthur understood the great wealth that could be obtained from extracting the abundant natural resources of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, but even with million-dollar financing, the lack of technology and inaccessibility of the region proved too much to overcome. It was not until the invention of the Shay locomotive and the steam-powered skidder that large-scale logging of the mountains' timber became profitable. In the early 1900s, firms such as the Little River Lumber Company and Champion Fibre saw enormous returns logging the timber stands Arthur had attempted to reach decades earlier. Likewise, by the time of Arthur's death, the mountains north of Middlesboro had become one of the world's great coal mining regions.For a discussion of logging and coal mining in the Appalachian region, see Jack Hurst's introduction to the Business, Technology, and Industry section, Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee, 2006), pp. 441-447.
