The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-12-07
THROUGH THE STATE.
Pittsburg Times.

great resources of the South is the
latest thing in railroad circles. The
connecting link to complete this line
is the Buckhannon &Holly RiverRail-
road, plans for which are now being
made, and work will be commenced in
the spring. The road is made up
as follows: The Baltimore 4 Ohio
now has lines finished or under con
struction from Pittsburg through
Fairchancc to Morgantown, w. Va.
where the new oil field has been dis
covered. From there it runs to
Clarksburg by way of Fsirmont.
From there to Weston the route Is
e.osered by the Clarksburg h Wcs-
ton road. The road connects at
Weston with the one now under con-
struction by Senator Camden, to
Braxton Court House. The Buck
hanon n Holly River road then starts
from Braxton and connects the Vir-
ginia Central with the Virginia Mid
land, making a through route to
Charleston, West Virginia.
The Buckbannon n Holly River
Railroad is being surveyed and will
be built and put in operation MS soon
as possible, from Braxton Court
House, W. Va, down the Elk river
to Charleston, where it will connect
with the Chesapeake n Ohio, Kama
wha n Ohio and the Big Four roads
to all points South and West This
will also give another line from
Pittsburg to Chicago.
The road commences ut Philippi,
in Barbour county, West Virginia,
and follow the Buckhannon river up
past the town of the same name, and
passes through the mountains at
Hull's Gap. From there it follows
the back fork of the Fix river and
Sugar creek to Webster Court House.
A branch of the road begins at Brax-
ton Court House and runs up the
Elk river to the mouth of the Holly,
then to a pass known as Myers Gap,
which will he crossed by tunnel
1000 to 1900 feet in length. The
route then runs down the Marsh
fork and intersects the main line on
the Buckhannon river, near McCol-
ley's. The road will be 1T miles
long and standard gauge,
The above facts have been CLEAN
ed from an interview with w. A.
Edeburn, Of Edeburn a Cooper, civil
and mining engineers. Mr. Edchurn
has just returned from West Virgin
ia, where be has had a corps of cngi-
neers surveying the new route and
for the past few days in making
map and profile of. His engineers
are still at work down there under
the charge of w. L. Waters, of Ne
vile Island, who is one of the incor-
porators Of the road
Mr.. Edeburn refused to give the
names of the incorporators Of the
road, but outside it was learned that
among them are w. f. Waters, of
Neville Island; Councilman Hugh
Ferguson, of the Sixteenth ward
Benjamin Vandergrift, John N. Nos
ser, Richard DIETRICH and B. G.
Christy. 1t is also understood that
the company holds thousands Of
acres of this land and have options
on thousands more. Arrangements
have been made to have the bonds
for the building of the road put in
the hands of Eastern capitalists
"The coming rival Of the great Ka
nawha coal field" said Mr.. Edebnrn,
''is the bed on the Elk river in West
Virginia, where better shipping coal
is found for western markets. A fact
known to but few people is that the
trial trip Of the new government
cruiser. Maine, was made success
by the use of Kanawha river coal.
This coal has greater steam making
qualities than Pennsylvania coal, in
that it contains larger amount Of
carbon and will give the greatest
amount of heat without stopping up
the fues Of boiler The Elk river
coal is found in veins of from to
20 feet and there is both coking and
fuel coal. Its fuel coal is superior
even to the Winifred coal of the Ka-
nawha river. Of these coal lands
Senator Camden holds 10000 acres.
Its coking coal is equal to the pro-
duct of the famous Flat Top mines.
"The counties of Kanawha, Clay,
Braxton, Webster and Nicholas have
practically remained an unbroken
wilderness because it was impossible
to bringits rich treasures ofminerals
and timber to market. This rail
road is designed to open up coun
try which will surpass any other
section in the United States in the
variety and richness Of its timber
and the immensely Of its coal beds.
Land which few years ago cost but
SO or 81 an acre will cut from 15, 600
to 10000 feet of yellow poplar to
the acre, not counting the other va
rieties of timber which grow on the
same ground. AS soon as the tim
Der is of, the blue grass springs up
and makes grazing equaled only by
the blue grass regions of Kentucky.
Aside from this, / can say that with
in 80 years the hillsides of West Vir-
ginia will equal the favored south Of
France for it's vineyards.
"This section of country will also
be a factor in the rivalry now exist
ing between the Monongahela and
the Kanawha coal operators. Last
year the Kanawha district shipped
out 60,000,000 bushels of coal and
the Flat Top mines sent out 1000
600 tons of coal. The Coal Trade
Journal places their coal at the head
of its list of all the Goals that enter
Chicago. When this road is finished
it will add one third more to the out
put or about 3S,000,000 bushels.
The West Virginia operators choose
to ship by rail to Charleston and
southern points, they will have an
advantage of 200 miles Of river tow
age and the ability to ship six weeks
later than Monongahela operators.
In fact, this section Of the coun-
try enclosed in the triangle, made
by drawing lines from the upper end
of Webster county to Wheeling and
Charleston, comprises the undeve'-
oped portion Of the Blue Ridge noun
tains between the iron and coal
fields of Alabama and the great ceal
fields of the Monongahela. 1t is es-
timated by competent engineers that
an acre of this land will mine 10, GOO
hushals af coal and ma a ruln IL IL