 However, the setbacks in economic markets and demand, domestic and foreign competition, all combined to keep the narrow gauge railroad from generating sufficient traffic and rebuilding the antebellum prosperity.Ironically, it did succeed in returning the area to its 17th-century period of mixed economy, thereby allowing the continued survival and slow economic growth of the region.Meanwhile in the town, much as in the countryside, the war caused at least a generational, if not two-generational, economic loss.