New Hampshire's industrial history runs through a handful of defining sectors. Textiles led the way, with Manchester's Amoskeag Manufacturing Company the giant of the era. Paper and pulp anchored the North Country, especially Berlin on the Androscoggin. Shoe and leather manufacturing, furniture, and other goods-producing industries filled mill towns across the state.
As the great mills declined through the 20th century, the economy diversified. Precision and advanced manufacturing, technology, healthcare, education, finance and insurance, retail, and tourism all became important, and the old millyards were repurposed for new companies rather than abandoned.
Underneath the big names, the steadiest force has always been small business: the shops, trades, restaurants, services, and family firms on every Main Street. That local economy — the one 603Local exists to map — is the through-line connecting the mill era to the present.