The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1885-03-11
W0LFES WEALTH.
wHAT 1T IS $40 wAAT IT MAy Be.
The future seat on Large manufactures.

/ Rad earned III my mlnu some general
ideas of its location and resources from
the war DAYS of 1863, and from a general
examination of the state reports of cur
geological survey, but I was totally un
prepared to find such enormous unde-
veloped wealth in a county so close to
leading railway lines. In an average of
real wealth, few counties can stirpass
Wolfe. If the Kentucky Union railway
were completed by way of the Red river
valley and Campton through Wolfe
county, in less than five years the income
from the products of the county would
surpass those of any county in the state.
Great as Bourbon, Fayette, Scott, Wood
ford, Clarke, JesSamine, or other of the
richest agricultural counties of the state.
may be, they have nothing which can
approximate the vast natural wealth of
Wolfe, which is now classed in the ur-
fortunate list of "pauper counties. y
Wolfe and Powell contain the only white
pine south of the Ohio river. rode for
fifteen miles, through splendid forests of
this valuable wood Gentlemen from
other safes with me, were amazed at this
immense wealth, now unproductiye and
being destroyed by decay and forest fire.
Having seen the Michigan forests, feel
safe in SAYING that many of the trees in
this belt surpass the best pine landssof
Michigan, and, judging from what per-
sonally saw, / should say that there was
in Wolfe county, enough of this white
pine timber to make its value to the
county for twenty years, according
to acreage, equal to the wheat production
of the best counties in Kentucky for n
similar period. If the timber were re-
moved, agriculture would follow in the
wake of the woodlands axe, and thus
thousands of acres, when denuded of
valuable timber, would produce tobacco
and fruits. equal to the best products of
similar things in any part of Kentucky.
The extent and value of your oak for
ests were equally amazing. The oak
timber of Wolfe county could not be
cleared out for twenty years, and it can
moi. be excelIed in quality or quantity
per acre, By any oak land in America
The trees, so tai, and straight and clear,
will produce the highest quality of ship
and railway timber. An acre of much
of the oak forest in Wolfe county, would
produce in one year more revenue to its
owner thap the pastur4ge from the best
blue grass land would produce in ten
years.
The coal deposits were more surprising
even than the timber. Prof. Proctor, at
my request, had kindly ordered exami-
nations of the coal veins of Wolfe
county, TO be made by his assistants in
the past winter, and coal was found near
CamptOn, which develops as one of the
best COX ug veins in America. Lands
containing "a lar deposits in Pennsyl-
vania ale w5:l $4,000 an acre. A thor
ough analysis shows the seam to be thick
er, while the quality is equal to the best
Pennsylvania coke-making coal The
Wolfe county coal seems to be singularly
free from sulphur. The deposit begins
on the Red river, west of McNab's noun
tain, and continues throughout the en-
tire county 4 thousand coke ovens could
be proftably operated at or near Camp
ton and the yield from these and four or
five coal mines would produce a dollar
per day for every man in Wolfe county,
The iron deposits were found, also, to
he much thicker than was originally be-
lieved. The best quality of iron ore is
found near Red river, with thickness
of four feet in the vein, and this within
eight miles of very fine quality of COX
ing coal; thus making Wolfe county,
and Powell, one of the most economical
places for the manufacture of iron in
America. The coal and the iron can be
found within from two TO ten miles of
each other, both of very high quality,
and | am informed that there is no place
in this country where similar state of
affairs can be found, except near Cum
berland Gap on the Tennessee and Ken
lucky line. This would unquestionably
enable parties TO manufacture iron at
not exceeding 81 to S12 per ton If
this be true, when railway communi-
cation is established, Wolfe county will
be the seat of large iron manufactures.
1t IS thus apparent that your county has,
in remarkable degree, and all right to-
gether,-tile great essentials to wealth
and prosperity, fine timber, coking and
other bitumin0us coal and iron deposits
A railway passing through Wolfe on the
suggested line of the Kentucky Union
would make for the county ON annual
revenue from these threee products of
S4000:000 If such wealth were in Penn
sylyania, Ohio or Indiana, q line would
be constructed In less than six months
| was somewhat surprised not to find
more enthusiasm among the people of
Wolfe. Its taxable pr porty is now set
down aft $500 600. The construction OF