Few traces remain today of what was the largest town in Carter County in 1920. Midco lay two miles north of Fremont and housed the Mid-Continent Iron Company smelter and chemical plant.
Frank Larabee and E. H. Busick were the leaders of the group that formed Mid-Continent Iron Company in 1917. This venture sought to smelt iron ore into pig iron on property purchased in Carter County. The site was near abundant and inexpensive hardwood timber suitable for charcoal production to operate the blast furnace. The operation used abundant water from a spring on the site, Midco Spring.
Anticipating the need for hundreds of workers to build the smelter and work at the plant, Mid-Continent founded the company town of Midco. Workers began constructing housing, the plant buildings and smelter, and a railroad system with two small and five larger locomotives to transport wood, ore, and finished iron. At full capacity, the smelter used 180 cords of wood daily to produce charcoal.
When the U. S. entered World War I, demand soared for wood products such as methanol and acetate, used to produce airplane dope to coat wings of aircraft. Mid-Continent produced these materials as byproducts of charcoal production and added a sprawling chemical plant at the instigation of the U. S. government. The government provided 60% of construction costs for the chemical facility.
Laborers and their families moved to the site through summer and early fall of 1918. Midco’s population peaked at 3000, making it the largest town with half the population of Carter County in 1920. Labor issues and flooding delayed completion of the facility until fall 1918. Even worse, the global influenza pandemic struck Midco in October. Workers and their families crowded into the completed houses, and some lived in tents until completion of housing construction. The virus spread rapidly in those conditions. Most employees were single men who had no one to care for them if they fell ill. Hundreds fell ill and people began dying by the dozens. One family, the Sanders, lost the mother, a daughter, and five sons to the disease. Eventually the death toll reached an estimated 100-200, and at least 1600 people became infected.
The U. S. Army had the site on lockdown and heavily guarded because of the need for security and to prevent spread of influenza. Food distribution proved difficult as well. The plant began operations at the end of November, but production was at a crawl because of the effects of the disease. The war ended three weeks earlier.
The end of the war meant less demand for the chemicals the plant produced, and Mid-Continent had missed its chance to secure a share of the post-war market. The company quickly sank into financial problems and attempts to sell the operation or attract more capital failed. Mid-Continent folded in 1921. Attempts to revive the operation under other ownership during the 1920s all failed.
The end of industrial production left the company with chemical supplies. Workers dumped these into a sinkhole along nearby Pike Creek. The pollutants re-surfaced at Big Spring south of Van Buren, flowed into the Current River, and temporarily spoiled the water supply for Doniphan. Jobless workers left the area, leaving it almost deserted by 1930. The receivers eventually sold the site, and today it is private land. All that remains are ruins and the iconic 165-foot smokestack to mark what was at one time the largest commercial operation in the southeast Ozarks.
