The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-11-01
WEST VIRGINIA.
The New River People-Old and
New virginia-The Mineral wealth.
Of West Virginia.

The New River PeOp1e-Old and
New Yirginia-The Mineral Wealth
of West Virginia.
From the New York Tribune.l
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, Sept. 90
We have ridden in eight days from
the Ohio at Huntington to this place.
1t has beena charming1and wonderful
ride, through country great part OIL
which will, when it is opened to tourists
become famous for its bold and mag
niicent scenery, while the remainder
the hundred miles which lie between
Huntington on the Ohio and the
Falls of the Kanawha, less wild, but
also picturesque-must, because of iti
immense undeveloped mineral wealth
attract capitalists, who will draw
thither, as soon as the Chesapeake
and Ohio road is completed, new and
numerous population to mine the
camel and splint coal and iron, to
manufacture the salt and oil, and to
prepare for market the timber in which
it is rich.
What a change a railroad makes.
The journey for which we needed
eight toilsome, though delightful days,
you may make next October in six
hours. The coal veins, which without
this road would be almost valueless,
and which NAV even now be bought
for a song, will be made by this rail
road worth hundreds of dollars per
acre. The pine and black walnut and
other timber which, am told, abounds
in the gorges Of the New river, and
which cannot be hoated down that
turbulent stream, will find market by
rail. The iron Of Central Virginia
and of Eastern Kentucky will be
brought together with the coal of the
Kanawha Valley at Huntington or
elsewhere along the line OF the railroad
at small cost, and numerous new fur
naces and forges must quickly arise
where now a scanty farming population
is Just awaking from q centurys stagna'
ton. I don't know that l have ever
before felt so strongly the immense ad.
dition to the prosperity, wealth, and
happiness of region Of country, which
is produced by a locomotive steam en-
CINE running on an iron tramway.
TIE NEW RIVER REGION.
Here is a great region which is now
of little importance TO the rest of the
country. 1t was a hard country to fight
in; it was an unpromising country to
invest capital in. You and could not
be persuaded TO live there; it did not
reward its inhabitants with wealth.
And here comes a railroad and sud.
denly changes all this; the coal and
iron will be mined, and in the mining
Of it millions OF capital and thousands
of an industrious population will be en-
gagged; the salt and oil wells will be
reamed out and new ones bored; the
lumber will be sawed. And not only
do all material interests look up, but
to the traveller-to me-the mountains
had a new charm, as | thought that
they were to be soon accessible; and
in the New River canon, which, with.
out a railroad, would remain for ever a
forbidding wilderness, the views were
to my Imagination grander and far
more interesting, because | knew that
soon any lover Of the picturesque
might, with small expense and no hard,
ship, come and take his pleasure in
them. Even the terrible Colorado
canon-which is only the New River
canon multiplied by ten-will cease to
be forbidding, l think, when it is ira
versed by railroad.
The New river runs through q deep
gorge, or what, in California, they call
a canon, for nearly the whole of it's
course from the mouth Of the Green
river to its junction with the Kanawha.
The population of this canon is not
numerous, but it has long been solitary,
and is in some respects extraordinarily
rude and peculiar. The people have
been 80 long shut out from the rest OF
the world, and have had so little COM
munication even with the top OF the
mountains above them, that they have
acquired to some extent manners and
customs of their own.
Their employments are hunting and
fishing, and in q small and desultory
way farming-which means raising corn
and calves; for though where the canon
widens they have pasturage for cows.
milk is not a part Of their diet.
The New river country has been,
from time immemorial, a convenient
and safe place Of refuge for persons in
its vicinity who had reason to fear the
law. 1t is said that it was first settled
by such persons, and during the late
war its people had the reputation Of
preying on both armies, knowing that
no General could afford to sond q force
intostheir deep ravine to pursue them.
TIE LOWER PART OF THE RIVER
is but little inhabited; as you ascend
there are occasional narrow flats, where
you find farmer established in small
and cherries log cabin, with lot o.
white-headed children, among whom
should say from observation. girls pre-
dominate, -,,-,sv -.-fs,.tzsrgf.s
When the engineers Of the railroad
first entered this canon, the Children
and women used to hide themselves al
Their approach. BY and by they grew
holder, and one day n, little boy was
caught and duly asked his name: &
.rsWhsfe ID your fstherG' the engineer