Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-03-05
WEST IRoN.eATE LAND COMPANY


AND IT'S DEVELOPMENT.
WEST ERON.GATE LAND COMPANY.
IMPROVEMENTS AND BUILDING-THE GEN
ERAL PROGRESS.
The development in the South, and in
Virginia especially, in which such rapid
progress has been made 10 locating towns,
with their quick growth into cities, has
had many incentives to advance its work
in material prosperity. Having the most
valuable resources, this result is natural,
and efforts at work On that liue should be
encouraged to the fullest extent by our
people wherever there is foundation upon
which to build. Iron-ores, and iron-making
especially, as the latter has been brought
forward in the past in the localities where
the ores exist, have been the most fruitful
of our industries, and, if studied in con.
nection with earlier history when the lack
of quick and cheap transportation so much
hindered development, we may find much
solid pleasure in the sketch as we review
the times and the efforts of the old iron
masters of Virginia-and not only as to
their manner of prosecuting business, but
also for their practical attainments with no
small appreciation for the pioneer progress
they accomplished. Thus minded, we have
desired to see the progress at Iron-Gate,
ono Of the localities in Virginia which fills
the bill for q new prosperity based upon
the resources of which we have spoken,
and it has also splendid record in the
production of iron, both in the past, and in
this day under the new appliances, as
science ard practice have developed them.
OF the iron-ores and
THEIR PAST AND FUTURE
iron making, we turn from anything OF sup
posed interest we can gather up of the past
or of speculation as to the future, and re-
produce what that learned and accomplished
student of science, and careful observer Of
cur mineral resources-the late Profess or
Campbell: of Washington & Lee University
"a short while before his death, wrote OF
the section where the new industrial town
of Iron Gate is rapidly making its way to
recognition, and for the diffusion of bene-
fits to the people of the locality in all time,
and to the commerce of the country. The
ores of the Rich Patch Mountain and the
furnaces within circle of five miles of
Iron Gate, chief of which are those Of
Low Moor and Long Dale-if no other facts
presented Iron-Gate as worthy of the sup
pert as an industrial residential location,
these alone would be sufficient for the
largest OUTLAWS for working up the iron
thus produced. But to the extract we will
make from Professor Campbell's long and
fully illustrated sketch of the locality. In
the Virginias of December, 1880, he says
"The little mountain chain, varying in
width from about one mile Northeast Of
Clifton Forge Pass, on the Richmond i
Allegheny Railroad, TO distance of fifteen
miles towards the Southwest, is rapidly
becoming q centre of attraction to the
manufacturers of iron and to capitalists
seeking for iron lands in which to make in
vestments. As Virginia is destined soon to
become the great central iron producing
Safe of the Union, SO this Rich Patch
chain is to be one of the great iron centers
of Virginia"
Some years after Professor Campbell
prepared the report from which the above
extract is taken, he was called on by the
Richmond & Allegheny Railroad Company
to examine the same field again, and, after
doing SO, reiterstes his views before made
known and accompanies them with the
following extract from report of Major
Jed Hotchkiss relating to the same inter-
ests of that region. Major Hotchkiss said
in June, 1880 -
sOften solid bed of ore 10 feet or more
thick, containing as mass 30 per cent or
more of metallic iron, rests Immediately on
limestone bed that will furnish the best
of 1ux for this ore in the blast furnace,
while beneath that in the gorges and on
the slopes of the same ridges outcrop the
red shale and fossil ores of a yard in thick
ness that are SO desirable for mixing with
others to produce the best grade of iron."
In connection with the superiority Of the
iron made at Low-Moor and Long Dale,
Is higher bid, than made by competitors,
which has been given for the metal of the
Princess Furnace at Glen-Wilton, just
stown the river below n-Gate, for iron
for the castings of the armament in the
construction of the armed cruisers now
building by the United States Navy De-
partment.
fIs AND BAR.IRON
ut Iron Cato We mont Tn uot olonr
faster with this sketch, but must have
few words about iron-production in the
past, within almost stones throw from
the Piazza Of the elegant "Iron-Gate Iun,"
and that was the place Immediately in the
gap of the mountain where Jackson's
River breaks through it, known as Clifton
Fo ge, from which place the large and
growing railroad town just above takes its
name.
1t was about 1897 that Colonel John
Jordan, Of Lexington, in connection with
his two eldest Sons, Edwin ". and Samuel
r., (the latter the proprietor afterwards of
Buena Vista) after completing their con-
tract for the construction of the old Blue
Ridge Canal, in connection with John Ir
vine, also Of Lexington, erected Clifton
Forge, and there produced the excellent
bar.iron, for which the name was noted,
procuring the pig metal from the neighbor-
ing furnaces, of which the ores of the
Rich Patch belt were the chief reliance
Colonel Jordan and his sons also built the
Lucy Selma Furnace, now known as the
Longda'e Works, and were eng ged in
iron production at other points in Ale
grf ny, Botetourt and Rockbridge counties
add in all their enterprises, which were
chiefly in iron, worthily won the title of |
"Epeinecf Kings" recently conferred on
them by the learned scientist, Dr. VIM. Il. |
Ruffner, when he was called to look over