 In the late 1880s, Fort Payne experienced explosive growth as investors and workers from New England and the North flooded into the region to exploit coal and iron deposits discovered a few years earlier.This period is called the "Boom Days", or simply the "Boom".Many of the notable and historic buildings in Fort Payne date from this period of economic growth, including the state's oldest standing theater, the Fort Payne Opera House; the former factory of the Hardware Manufacturing Company (today known as the W. B. Davis Mill Building and home to Big Mill Antiques Mall and Vintage 1889 restaurant; and the Fort Payne Depot Museum, formerly the passenger station for the present-day Norfolk Southern Railway.