NASHVILLE — The southwest Arkansas city of Nashville turned out in numbers to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its local Coca-Cola plant.
The Wednesday bash also marked the 100th year the plant has been owned by the Wilson family.
The Texarkana Gazette reports that the business was begun when W.W. Wilson bought the Hill Brothers Wholesale Grocery and, soon after, a hand-operated bottling operation that cranked out 75 bottles of soft drinks per day.
The first bottle of Coca-Cola produced by Wilson came off the line in 1911 and he went on to win the rights to bottle the soda in five Arkansas counties.
Now the Wilsons run only a distributorship. The last bottle was produced in Nashville eight years ago, with production moving to Texas to save money.