The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-10-03
sTAUNTON, VA.
Iron Cat
IRON GaJe.
Pittsburgh American Manufacturer.

Pittsburgh American Manufacturer
The first sale of lots at Iron Gate, Va the new
town Just established on the James River divi-
sion of the Chesapeake and Ohio road, two miles
south of Clifton Forge, took place on Thursday
the 18th inst Over $4,000 worth of lots We're
sold, the premium on the lots above the prices
fixed by the Iron Gate Land and Improvement
Company being fully 38a per cent Large con
tracts have already been let for quite number
Of houses, stores and other buildings and the
little town presents quite an animated appear
ance.
Iron Gate is in what is to-day the most sue
ces sful pig iron producing district of Virginia,
and what promises in the near future to be the
largest iron producing district in the South.
Within radius of five niles of the new town
there are five furnaces, viz the two Longdale,
the two Lowmoor and the Princess, with a COM
bined capacity of nearly five hundred tons a
day. Some 20 miles distant is the Victoria fur
nace- which has recently gone into blast. The
ores used in this furnace are the Oriskany No. r,
which probably finds its largest development i'll
the United States on the hills above Iron Gate
The veins there average Is to 20 feet thick. The
outcrop ON the hills, five to seven hundred feet
above water level, are easily and cheaply mined
yielding in the furnace an average of 43 per
dance, the ore being undertake with the Lower
Helderburg, which is used in all of the furnaces
in this vicinity. The coke is brought from New
River, some hundred miles distant, and with the
opening up of some OF the deposits that lie back
from the New River, it can be furnished to the
furnaces at price considerably less than is now
possible. Labor is cheap abundant and eff
Gent. The Iron Gate Iron and Steel Company
have already in course of construction an iron
rolling mill with capacity of to 10 thousand
tons year, and arrangements are now being
made for the establishment of steel works
which, when completed, will give employment
to some 400 men. Negotiations are in progress
for the building of blast furnace, machine
shops and other industries. A stove and gen
eral foundry is now in course of construction.
Two miles away, at Clifton Forge, the Chesa-
peake and Ohio railroad proposes erecting their
new shops, making at this point all of their new
works, using their other shops for light repairs.
1t is stated that $500OO0 will be put into the
building of these works.
The location is an exceedingly beautiful and
healthful one. just at the upper limits of the
town the James river breaks through the North
mountain, leaving gap not 400 feet wide at the
Ease, showing in the mountains on every side
one of the most perfect and grandest anticlinal
arches to be found i'll this country, and showing
in addition the various deposits of lime and ore
for Which this region is so famous. On the
grounds of the company are large lithia and
chalybeate springs. The town will be some 200
feet above tidewater. Malaria is unknown, and
the climate is salubrous, the surroundings beau
tifu and the location as healthy one as is to be
found in the Alleghanies