Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1841-12-09
SCOTTSVILLE ROAD.
To the Editor # he Spectator.

uor Weifafe anu prosperity, Will De, trust, SUM-
cient excuse for my present effort to show that
the very existence Of that place. and the interests
OF the Western section Of our State, demand that
every energy should be used to improve the
Scottsvilie road, and to discourage the attempt,
which ia making, to attract the trade Of that Sec
ton to the Winchester market.
Stanton has hitherto been supported almost
entirely by her peculiar position as regards Inter-
nal improvements. Always the head of good
wagon transportation, she has derived therefrom
all the benefits attendant upon being the head of
"Navigation." When the hardy hunters of the
West with difficulty packed their produce over
the mountain paths, and later, when the barely
passable roads admitted, tosome slight degree, Of
the use ofwagons over those mountains, at Staun-
Con they were met by improvements which al
lowed from thence the easy transportation of
much larger burdens. With their small loads,
however, it would be folly to proceed; trading
therefore with the merchant, HE by degrees OBJ
tanned sufficient load to bear the cost of trans
portation to desirable market. Trade thus ac-
quired has been the chief support of Staunton.-
She has been declining ever since the opening of
better roads to Kanawha placed the farmer of that
section upon more equal footing with your mer-
chants as regarded transportaton--and but little
business has been done with Greenbrier or Bath
since the construction of the Warm Springs road.
Either the trade has been diverted to Winchester,
or it has passed through Stanton to Scottsville.
The rapidly progressing road to Parkersburg will
enable wagner to top the Handicapped sum-
NIT Of the Allegheny, easily as he can cross
the Blue Ridge, and the farmer then can carry his
load to market as cheaply as your merchant could
send ii, and when this takes place the remainder
Of your little business will be taken from you.-
To prevent this calamity it is only necessary to
have yoar Eastern outlets superior to your West
ern inlets; to hape communication with Sc0fts-
ciAe schteh tcin enable your merchants to send
at load than can be transported on the roads sDest
If her-thus making for their profit the reduced
cost Of transportation.
The benefits resulting from Internal Improve
ments have never been exaggerated. Civiliza-
ton, industry and wealth, will brighten the face
of nature wherever the effects of its spirit may
penetrate. Nowhere will its advantages be more
fully or more speedily developed than throughout
those ranges Of counties extending from Staun-
ton to Parkersbuig on the ono hand, and to Kama
wha on the other. Thousands upon thousands
OF acres now so densely shrouded in forests as
scarcely to be reached by the rays of the sun, be-
fore many years have passed, will be trodden by
the sturdy Poughman and swept by the reaper's
sickle. The wealth that those counties may dis.
gorge is incalculable; and doubt not but that
some of us will live to see trains of wagons
richly freighted with all the products of the soil,
issuing from regions which now furnish nothing
more valuable than shingles bear SKINS
Stanton must secure the trade Of these sections,
and regain all that the Warm Spring and Harri-
sonburg road now diverts, if she properly inn
proves the Scottsvlle road.
II however she encourages the Winchester
route this trade is exchanged fora "Receiving and
Forwarding" business. A great deal will doubt
less be "FoRwARDED" and very little RECEIVED
for it. Even if this should be permanent bu-
sness, much doubt whether the exchange
would not be a bad one. But ii ,OiH not be per-
nanent- Your energies will be made of to
attract the trade of the very sections have allu-
ded to (Which otherwise would be yours) and
the trade higher up the Valley, to Winchester.
Your exertions would render that trade all i'm
postant TO Baltimore. The merchants of that
place, ever on the alert, would extend the Valley
road, and Stanton (having furnished weapon
to break her own head) will sink from "depot
fo'On to mere dining place for stages and a yard
for wagons. Too late, then, will be your exer-
lions to change the channel once opened, the
zeal of Baltimore is too we'll known to doubt but
that she would remove any distractions tina,
might be thrown into it, and the current of trade
would sweep down that channel in stream that
would, for years, defy any attempt at checking it.
Taken in time, and it may be directed as YOU list,
but let it once be directed and all your power
over it is lost.
very few words will suffice to show the adj
vantage to the farmers in the western section of
our State Of Matchmaking the Scottsvile road.
tits well known that at present that road is in
such condition as to frequently render the Win
chester route the most desirable. But let that
road be made equal to the Valley road, and the
case will then stand thus: At the intersection of
the Parkersburg with the Warm Spring and Har-
risonburg road, (about 90 miles from Staunton,)
the rival routes commence. A wagner, from
either Wood or Kanawha, by taking the one has
to 60 80 miles to Harrsonburg, and IS miles
thence to Winchester--the other route takes him
to Scottsville in 63 miles, or 35 miles less, and
from thence his goods can be delivered in Balti-
more, In better order, and at the same or less
cost than from Winchester. A gain consequent
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