The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-04-30
A BURNING MOUNTAIN.
Strange Tale from the Cheat River
Region of West yirxinia.

~ 0OnNINS MUM AIN.
Strange Tale from the Cheat River
Region of West Virginia.
A Rowelsburg. w. Va, correspondent
Of The NesO lork Star writes: Four
young Baltimoreans, under the guild
ance of Jimmy Balm, of St. George,
started out, week or so ago, to hunt
in the Cheat river district, south of
Tucker county. Yesterday the four
sportsmen returned hero to take the
train home. They brought no game
but came burdened from St. George
with a most marvellous story of burn
ing mountain in their hunting district,
some fifty miles south of here. Their
names are Messrs. Mills, Fitzgerald,
Thomas, and Van Dorm. They return
cd to St. George with the family of
Mountainecr Melton, whom they over
took on the way. with all their goods
and chattcls packed on q lean mule.
The mother carried sick child in her
arms, and two little boys, whose tow
heads were ilcecc-grown, to.l,llcd on
barefoot after her, while the father and
two grown sons led the way. Their
appearance showed that they were
leaving hastily for some reason. They
were Overtaken about ten miles south Of
St. George. and said they had followed
the Cheat for twenty-five miles; that
the inhabitants were fleeing that region
because of some terrible fire '.somc-
where" in the ncighborlood, and that
they had left it the day before for the
same cause.
1t appears from what could be gath
cred from the wild talk of the willing
but ignorant family that they lived
from hand to mouth on 81 patch of
cleared ground on mountain side,
whose base formed u portion of the
Cheat rivers bank; that the terrible fire
was somewhere over behind or in
UNDER the mountain; that no smoke
was visible, but that the air was sitting
hot and the river at u certain point was
so hot that the fish died in it. The first
intimation Melton had of the phenomena
was this unusual sight of dead fish in
the Cheat. whose ice had earlier than
usual broken up in their vicinity above
rs far as could be seen but to his sur
prise had remained normal length of
lime below and formed Il small gorge
at the place they lived. Strangely hot
winds also came down the valley, while
from elsewhere it came with winters
chillincss.
In tracing the cause he found it
evidently to lie in subtcrrancan heat in
the mountain side which extended
under the river bed, and about half II
mile up stream became so hot that i:
heated tho water. which ran slowly
there, till Il steam rose from the surface
near the bank. This was family notice.
able tor Il short distance further up, be-
yond which tho water by degrees as
sumod its normal state. The atmos-
pllcre was warm, and the slightest cx-
ertiOn brought out the pcrspiration.
At the point mentioned il was sitting,
and there also the earth was too hot to
place the hand upon. Nothing else
was noticeable. the mountain being
bleak and bare from winter, but further
back upon its sides the heat was alb
solutely uncomfortable, and after climb
ing up its thickly wooded sides for two
or three hundred feet the hardy noun
taineer was forced to return, the air be-
ing unbreathablc. Animals had left their
retreats, birds steered clear of the local.
ity, and not . living thing was to
be seen. The earth was dry and crack
ed with the heat. Dead snakes and
vermin were discovered by the father
and sons, who evidently were mentally
paralyzed by the unusual and startling
order of things. Tho heat, instead Of
diminishing, increased, tho cracks in
the earth widcned and new ones ap-
pcarcd; tho locality became uninhabit-
able and tho tcrror-strickon family, de-
pressed with the knowledge that some
thing strange and terrible was taking
place in the earth beneath them, and
living in the midst of sitting winds
whose increasing heat brought to their
terrified and ignorant minds pictures
Of burning forests and volcanoes, held
consultation with neighbors and hastily
resolveo to abandon the uncomfortable
locality.
All the men in st. George protesting
knowledge of the district have talked
to Melton, and his story was the same
10 each under the kecncst questioning
The town of st. George is excited over
the discovery, and OH Tuesday party
half dozen started for tho scene of the
'burning mountain" 1t is about five
or ten miles northwest of the well
known large area of volcanic rock in
southwestern Virginia. Men, however.
well acquainted with the geology of the
state declare the location of this volcan-
ic area is fixed to u nicely, and does not
come within ten miles of the point in
question as located by Melton. The
only other tenablc theory is that btu
minous coal, in which these mountains
are known to be rich, has become
ignitcd and forms IL smol,lering mass
down in the mountains heart, making
y mighty caldron of the Cheat rivers
bed. LII several wcll-known localities
OF the state such fires have been known
to exist, notably at Cassvillc, Monon-
gala county, where the heat from burn
ing coal that crops out of the mountain
side has ut some time melted and burn
ed the lc,!gcs or strata of limestone
above it all out of semblance to rocks.