From the mid-1830s when the “western frontier” was somewhere between the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi Rivers commercial interests, land speculators, merchants, and farmers were in the vanguard of settling the region. Their influence marks a constant drive for peace and prosperity and the flourishing of commerce. Most of their influence came through individual action and some cooperation on major projects. Even then there was a close relationship between the town officials of Eufaula, the officials of Barbour County, and the merchant community. 

During the first few decades of the county history there were various “merchant associations”, Boards of Trade, farmers and grange cooperatives, and sundry associations. It was not until the heady atmosphere of the pre-Depression business boom that the Eufaula Chamber of Commerce was organized. While there were chambers of commerce in the United States beginning as early as Charleston, South Carolina in 1773 most chambers were in large Eastern cities. The chamber movement gained steam in the early 1920s and by the mid-1930s virtually every small community that considered itself progressive had established a formal Chamber of Commerce.

In 1924 city fathers and local business leaders organized the first Eufaula Chamber of Commerce. The impetus for this action was the need for funding from the city and the business community to provide wharf improvements on the recently donated wharf from the W.C. Bradley Company to the city. Eufaula merchants donated $3000 to the city for the improvements. From this small beginning, the city and the business community have continued to work together in advancing the economic development of the region.

From the dark days of the Depression, through World War II, and into the 1950s the chamber was largely a volunteer organization with a hired part-time Secretary. With the impoundment of the Chattahoochee River creating Lake Eufaula, the location of major non textile industry in a booming economy, and the realization of heritage tourism as an important part of the economy of the Bluff City, the chamber began to take a lead role in marketing the region for commercial improvement and community improvement. Since the 1960s the Eufaula Barbour County Chamber of Commerce has been a partner with city and county government in almost every significant civic endeavor to improve the region’s economy and quality of life.

Currently the Chamber is located in The James S. Clark Center which was originally constructed around 1892 as a freight depot. It served Eufaula and the surrounding area until the late 1980's It sat vacant and deteriorating until 2000 when the Eufaula/Barbour County Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the City of Eufaula and the Barbour County Heritage Museum Board began renovation to house the Chamber of Commerce, Visitor's Bureau, and Barbour County Heritage Museum. The Chamber began operation in its new facilities on March 1, 2002

-Source Jim Bradley