Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-11-17
OPENING UP
or the Great Mineral Basket Of
West Virginia
By the Narrow Gauge System---Bisecting
the State by the G. and G. Road
Where Shall Be the
Market

A writer from Wheeling to a Pittsburg
paper gives some interesting facts in con
nection with railroad matters. The letter
said: General Manager George NJ. Whites
carver, of the Grafton 4 Greenbrier rail
road, was in the city last night for the pur
pose of couferring with the Baltimore 4
Ohio authorities relative to matters affecting
both companies. The Grafton 4 Green
orier road is the most important of tbs mar
row gauge roads of this State, and when
iully completed will be the most valuable
and important system in the State. Capt.
Whitescarver, in nescribing the route oil
the road and branches, said Our road
is calculated to bisect West. Virginia
indeed, when the lateral branches shall
have been completed it will quarter the
State. We begin at Grafton, where the Chi
a and St. Louis branches of the Balti-
more 4 Ohio road converge; thence we
run south through the counties OF Taylor,
Barbour. Randolph, Pocahontas and Gresu,
briar, TO the Virginia State line at some
Joint on the Chesapeake l. Ohio road. The
road is already built and in paying opera
ion as far as Philippi in Barbour county
The money for the construction Of the road
IS far as the summit of the Allegheny
mountains, in Randolph county, has been
subscribed and work will be vigorously CON
menced upon it Immediately. At the point
where we cross theBuckhannon river, in
Barbour county, another branch will strike
of and proceed through Barbour and Up
shur counties TO Buckhannon, and thence
by the most practicable route to the great
Valley of the Elk river.
FERTILITY AND PROJECTION.
Down this valley TO the city Of Charles.
ION, at the confluence of the Elk with the
Great kanawha, is a naturalaud very cheap
cute. Lateral branches will be construct
d as feeders in various counties through
which the main lines run. As q matter OF
Necessity the narrow-gauge system will be
ascd. The most careful estimates based
pom the cost Of the road already construct
d dc not place the cost of constructing this
road at more than 5000 per mile.
No man who has not explored the unde-
.yeloped interior counties of West Virginia
has any adequate idea Of the resources. In
Randolph county alone the coal deposits
re unsurpassed in the United States, and
aot a bar of railroad iron has ever been laid
Town in the county. One vein of Goa.
within fifty miles OF Grafton is twenty.eighf
Get in thickness, and farther in the interior
IF the county still thicker veins are to be
ound. Iron ore is in almost inexhaustible
quantities in Randolph and other counties
.ilong the line of this road. None OF this
ere has been shipped, although its value
oetn passed upon by the best authorities in
he country. There is also timber of all
varieties in a profusion not found in any
state on this side of the Rockies, and in
quality the best in the world.
WITH PITTSBURGH
"The resources of the Elk valley are val
liable and diversified, and the grades We
shall have the benefit of along its course
will make the moving offreights at once
rapid and cheap. The fac: that we shall
have the benefit of the competition Of both
he Baltimore L Ohio and Chesapeake 4
Ohio roads east and west will be of grea,
Importance to US. Another thing: The
Pennsylvania road is about to build an
extension of its Monongahela
River system from Fayette coun-
~ up the Upper Monougahela to Fair
mont and Grafton, and through this medium
we shall have direct communication with
he great iron and coal city of Pittsburg
Which is the natural market for both Of
hese products. The Baltimore and Ohio
has already nearly completed its line down
the M~onongahela from Fairmont to Nor
g~antown, and next year will finish it from
Morgantown to Unicntown,in Pennsylvania,
thus assuring competing lines into Pitts
burg"
The construction Of the Grafton and
Greenbrier system is an assured fact, as the
counties through which it is projected are
voting the subscriptions necessary to its
building.