Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-15
A BRAN NEW RIVAL.
Opening Up of 1000 Acres of Coal
Lands 1S9 Miles Nearer Chicago.
TIE MONONGAHELA HEADWATERS
Will Ship Black Diamonds by Rail Cheaper
Than BY Boat.
AN ERIE CANAL PlTTSBURGSoNLY HOPE

People interested in the proposed canal
from the Ohio river to Lake Erie should be
put on their mettle by the inroads some peo-
pie are contemplating into the coal districts
of Logan, Marion. Monongalia and sur
rounding counties in West Virginia. I. Nj.
Jenkins s. Co., of this city, have secured
1000 acres in Marion county. The coal is
said to be as good for gas purposes as is
known, but, though a fair article, not the
best for coking. But the chief value it pos
sesses is that the vein is eight feet thick in
the clear and a train of cars can be loaded in
the mines. There will be 500 coke ovens in
operation on this tract in short time. The
ground costs but $50 an acre ana on much of
Il the timber will sell for several times the
cost of the land as soon as railways reach the
country.
This section is, by the Baltimore and Ohio
Railway system, 1S9 miles nearer Chicago
than is Pittsburg, and 60 miles nearer a
Lake Erie port. 1t is patent at a glance
that with veins of the thickness mentioned,
and shorter route to the Northwest, the
section mentioned will always have the
bulge on the Pittsburg district, that is on
that portion of it that must ship down the
Monongahela river. This territory is ada
cent to the railway built by ex-United
States Senator Camden and others. To
connect with Bellevernon 25 miles of rail-
way are already built from McKeesport,
and J, 900 men are at work, who will soon
open the country to the great beyond.
OTHER CAPITAL INVESTING.
A number of capitalists, among whom is
c. Kimberland, of Pittsburg. have gotten
upa company with $500, 900 capital stock.
aud expect to begin boring for petroleum
C5r
weeks. They have leased 5000 acres of
land, and think they will get oil. Prof.
White, State Geologist of West Virginia, is
of the same opinion, as he has already bored
a well in the territory, reaching the Gantz
sand. IfoiI should fail, the coal under and
timber on the land will pay largely as soon
as railway communication is secured.
There are in Logan, Mcdonald and other
counties of West Virginia 800, 900 acres of
land that can be bought il is said, at So an
acre, and under all of it there are coal veins
varying from SO to IA feet in thickness. On
this ground, it has been learned BY actual
investigation, are SOC, 600 poplar trees over
"a inches diameter at stump height, thou
sands of large walnut trees and white oak
trees without number. Many millions OF
money have been spent in late years build
ing railways where no one lived, while some
of the most prosp arous counties in the Union
have none at all.
THE BIG CANAL OFFSET.
This will not long remain so. and if Pitts
burg people do not want to be day behind
the fair in securing market for their coal,
and want to prevent the establishment of
blast furnaces elsewhere, they Will whoop
up the canal project with all their might,
soul and strength. 1t can be put through
100 feet wide, u feet deep, locks built and
the .n<s piled for less than S10,000,0 900,
and craft can be constructed in which coal
and iron ore can be carried for one-ffth the
cost of railway transportation.
Had the coal and iron interests the push
about them that some have they would not
wait Uncle Sans elephantine movements,
but sail in and have their coal floating to
the Northwest before West Virginia devel-
opment secures a foothold. The kanawha
coal operators, with navigation three weeks
earlier and three weeks later, and with bet
ter draft of water, will soon eifectually take
the-40lysr river market, but if PiItsburg
moves promptly il can secure the North
west,