The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-07-24
The Valley District.

The valley UlSCrlcC.
In hastily written article last week UNI
der the caption Of Valley Railroad, allud-
ing to the various iron beds in the Southern
portion Of Augusta county, which would
be accommodated by the completion OF the
road to Midway, we gave the per cent. OF
metallic iron of the ore at thirty. We had
written it atffty, but overlooked the mis-
take in reading the proof. Even fifty per
cent. UNDERSTANDS the value of the ores,
much of it analyzing fifty-five to sixty.
We mentioned the Vesuvius Furnace sur
vey, embracing five different properties,
and all the ores of superior quality; the
Black Rock Ore Bank, the Miners Ore
Bank, the Cotopaxi Furnace Property, the
Bear Ore Bank, the Trotter Survey and
the Kennedy Furnace property. On sew
eral of these properties, Furnaces have at
one time or another, been operated success
fully, and the quality of the iron produced
is said to have been excellent. A gentle
man long and successfully engaged in the
cast iron business informs us that in the
in barges, and at times wrecked, by the
changing of the channel the iron had been
exposed and gathered up for market; that
he had worked some of the pig thus Sc
cured. from the Black Rock Ore, and
had never handled its superior. Since the
brief reference last week to the iron inter-
ests of the upper portion of the county, sew
eral gentleman, more OF less familiar with
the properties mentioned, have spoken to
us about them, and given it as their oplll-
ion that no richer could be found any
where. This district, embracing the sur
veys we have mentioned, and aggregatlng
some thirty or forty thousand acres OF land,
much of it arabic, and some OF it heavily
timbered, would be on the immediate line
of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, if To-
Gated on the cast of South River, and the
west base of the Blue Ridge. They would
bein easy distance of the Valley Road if COM
pleted even to Midway, at the nearest
point only few miles, and at no point over
six, reached by easy grades and well adapt
ed to the construction of lateral railroads.
When we consider that the great iron inter-
ests of PENNSYLVANIA have been developed
and built up by the construction OF feeders,
such as would be required to connect the
Valley road with all the ore beds, and that
the railroad systems of the east and west
owe much of their expansion and raml1l-
| cations, and the corporations their wealth
and influence to the policy Of lateral roads,
it is not difficult to understand how similar
improvements would produce like results IN
Virginia. There can be no question OF the
iron ore deposits in the section of the Valley
| to which we refer, either as to the quantity
or quality. With facilities of transporta-
ton not only could the demands OF FUR
naces now established elsewhere be met,
| with the article they want and must have
| bu. encouragement would be given to new
enterprises contiguous to the ores and in oil
rect communication with the fuel necessa-
nv for their utilization. 1t is scarcely
necessary to elaborate this thought. 1t pre-
sents itself to every practical mind, famil-
| lar with the character of the coal and IRON
interests of the Chesapeake and Ohio line
and the proposed Valley route, and must
| sooner or later have practical form and ap-
plication in the business enterprises OF the
| country
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad COM
pany is the power, too, to which we must
look for the completion Of the Valley Road
IT, is mere petulant childishness to seek to
throw endorsements in the way Gifts OPP
erations, and stimulate an antagonist that
can work out nothing but disadvantage TIC
Valley interests. When we consider the
vast qualifications of this corporation, the
! immense business it has hadt to manage oyel
it's various branches, as well as the man
stem. and the great interests it has had te
protect and utilize, during period OF busl,
ness prostration which toppled to their fal
| the most gigantic financial fabrics OF Amer
lea. and is now shaking the whole CONNER
cial superstructure of Europe, it is not as
| tonishing that operations GA the Valley roao
were suspended, and attention given ia oShel
directions more vital to the general system
| sustained, anu DcslI1liS hlol OAASSoAJ VA o>
main sources Of revenue. That it is now
| able to maintain its credit and tide ovel
the depression under the immense shrinkage
of values, the prostration of business and cur
| tailment of trade and travel, is the wonder
| we have to consider. This it has done UNI
der the sagacious management OF Mr.. Gar
rett, and the Valley railroad itself kept
| from the auetioneer's block. Its interests
are now reyiving with reviving confidence
and business. Its securities are approach
! ING their normal value. Its business rela
lions are expanding in the west and north
west, and new division of management has
been established, with its central point al
Cincinnati When these arrangements anc
interests have all been matured anC
adjusted. and the lines in the West ano
| Northwest essential to the vigorous vitality
| of the central channel of business perfected
we may reasonably anticipate an active IN
terest in this important but less essentla
connection through the great Valley OF Viz
ginia. The natural wealth which is here te
be developed, and its association with es
tablished interests in the East, as well az
others to be established here, will give the
aSrlnrn