Taken forty years later, in this 1950s picture mules and horses have finally been displaced by automobiles on Main Street. When the present concrete bridge was built in 1938 below the original iron bridge, the road was moved over to give downtown Helen a triangle shape which still shows today. And when Main Street was finally paved in the late 1940s, Helen children seized a glorious opportunity to roller skate on the "incredibly smooth" pavement with only an occasional interruption from a passing car. The Mountain Ranch Hotel, Helen's original tourist enterprise, burned in 1945. It was survived by the adjacent pavilion which continued to host local dances for many years (the pavilion roof appears under the tall trees atop the grassy hill on the right). The great sawmill and Helen's railroad had been gone for nearly 25 years, but the Wilco hosiery mill supplied much needed jobs.