The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-10-23
[From the New York Tribune.l
VIRGINIA COAL AND IRON.


The certain and speedy completion of the
Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, connecting
by rail every important city of old Virginia,
through the heart of West Virginia, with
the valleys Of the Kanawha, Ohio and Mis-
sissippi, gives new value to the mineral
wealth of both the States traversed by that
great work. We are indebted to General
J. ID. Imboden for a full, circumstantial nc
count of the iron and coal deposits of either
State, with approximate statements of their
extent and value respectively, which we
condcnse as follows:
The ascertaincd and tested coal-ficlds of
Virginia proper are as follows:
l. The Chesterfield, near tide-water, at
Richmond--150 square miles.
2. The Prince Edward, 60 miles south
westward of the foregoing-20 square
miles.
8. The Dan River partly in North Caro-
lina) near Danville--20 or 80 square miles.
4. The Cumbel land (of Maryland,
whereof there is in Virginia some 60 to so
square miles.
5. The "Dora,o (anthracte) in Augusta
county, at the head Of the Shenandoah
scarcely opened-extent unknown.
6. The New River and Catawba Mont
gomery and Pulaski counties-extending
also through Giles county)-partially An
thracite, and developed in several places.
This field extends into
West Virginia, which embraces 10000
of the 1000 square miles of the great Ale
ghany coal-basin-thel largest and among the
richest known to exist in the world. Its
center seems to be the valley of the Great
Kanawha, the chief river of West Virginia.
wherein Professor Ansted reports nearly
twenty workable seams Of coal, with an
aggregate thickness of over seventy feet.
Its entire length is 800 miles, extending
from Northern Pennsylvania to Alabama,
with a width ranging from 80 to $50 miles.
Its horizontal position, proximity to the
surface, and freedom from noxious gases,
render it the easiest mined coal in America.
From this field the coal is now dug which
supplies New York and Philadelphia with
gas. 1t has been computed that most of
this area will yield As, 900 tons of coal
to the acre, or 2S,S00, 900 tons to
the square mile; much of it so dis
posed as to render pumping or lifting UNI
necessary. Immense quantities of it are
now boated down the Kanawha and Ohio,
finding markets all the way down to New
Orleans. Splint, camel and every other
variety of bituminous coal are found in DIFF
ferent parts of this vast field. The splint
is widely regarded as the best coal known
for smelling iron from the ore, which exists
in great abundance all through both Virgil
MAS. tits probable that the valley of the |
Kanawha, when traversed by the Chesa-
peake and Ohio railroad and its branches,
will be found one of our best localities for |
making good pig iron cheap F; while the can
mel coal yields sixty gallons Of superior pc
itrolcum to the ton, and has been, as it |
probably will again be, the surest and most |
profitable source of that valuable oil. The |
seams of camel coal often show an aggre-
gate thickness of fourteen feet, giving 81
900 tons to the acre, containing ,2Go,00 |
gallons Of crude oil. And fit timber for |
oil casks is nowhercselsc so abundant as in
West Virginia.
Iron ore is found IN most of the counties
of the two Vjrginias, and has feen mined |
to profit in at least twenty of them. The |
ern base Of the Blue Ridge from Abe I
marie county down into North Carolina, is
very rich and abundant; the James River
canal and most of the Virginia railroads
laid with British rails) traverse or cross it,
as the Chesapeake and Ohio either does or
soon will. The Norfolk and Great Vest
ern ralroad-soon to be pushed through
the southern tier of countics-cuts through
vast deposits of rich fossiliferous ore, MAIN
ly in Patrick county. The charcoal pig
made from this ore is hardly surpassed.
Massive beds of brown hematite ex-
ist in Carroll county-not yet avail
able, but soon to be made so by the
railroad last named. No richer ore is any
where found. Red and $brown oxides
underlie the soil of nearly every county in
western (old) Virginia, from Botetourt to
Grayson and Tazewell, as brown hefnattcs
do those of the entire Shenandoah Valley,
and either have been or soon will be made
available by the completion of the railroads
required to combine them cheaply with
coal. When the Chesapeake and Ohio and
ssNerf0lk and Great Western shall have been
the requisite branches and con-
nections will almost build themselves.
When these roads shall have commenced
freighting ore to the coal-fields and
coal back to the orc beds, Vir-
ginia may proftably supply half the
seaboard and third Of the Ohio Valley
with cheap and excellent iron. The fact
that the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad had
to be cut, for considerable distance,
through vein of coal eleven feet thick,
will serve to convey some idea Of the mine
raj wealth Of the two Virginias. A new
railroad from the Chesapeake and Ohio at
the junction Of the Greenbrier with New
River, forming the Great Kauawha, will I
run up the valley of New River, crossing
the Virginia and tennessee and the Norfolk
and Great Western Roads, carrying the
coal OF the Kanawha Valley to the great
@re-beds of South Western (old) Virginia,
md ineite unwonted and beneficient activity
n 'roN-making therefrom.
In most counties of either Virginia, excel
ent coal or ore (offen both in close proxim-
ty) can now .be bought at prices ranging
rom IS to so per acre. Many of these
acres have rich, deep, virgin, soil, with a
splendid growth of forest-trees covering
bwo-thirds to three-focrths Of them lands
which in Pennsylvania would be deemed
at 81, 900 per acre. Who can
doubt that free labor with railroads will
soon give like value to the mineral lands ;
~ oil apd IF West Virginia u