Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-17
NEW FINDS OF COAL.
Railroad Surveys in West Virginia
Unearth Many Rich Veins.
CAPITAL RUSHING TO TIE FIELD.
Several Men Are Injured in an Explosion
of Dynamite Stick.
MINOR NEWS FROM THE THREE STATES
CAPITAL RUSHING TO THE FIELD.
MINOR NEWS FROM THE THREE STATES
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE prspKrcH,

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPLrcHl
CHARLESTON, Dec. 16.-A very striking
illustration OF the mineral wealth of West
Virginia is afforded in recent discoveries by
railroad engineers running line through
Boone county. On the face of a mountain
on the Pond Fork of Coal river, where but
Two veins of coal were supposed to exist, the
engineers developed the outcrop of no less
than IL veins, ranging from 2 feet inches
to 20 feet in thickness, and aggregating 6S
feet IL inches. One vein is pure camel coal
42 inches thick, another has "a inches Of
pure camel coal, overlaid with splint coal,
and another vein of bituminous coal is 20
feet thick, with two feeet of parting" seven
feet from the bottom. This gigantic seam
thus presents is feet of clear solid coal, of
the best quality.
Railroad engineers, in crossing, and re-
crossing the mountains of this State, during
the past year or two, have done much to
demonstrate the practical value of the great
coal fields OF West Virginia. They have lately
traced the Pocahontas field of coking coal
from the head of Guyan river, where it wa
supposed to end. across Indian Ridge to Pin
nacle, Otter and Barker, across all the forks of
Guyan river, through Wyoming county, across
into Raleigh, and following the Piney valley
through Fayette county into the familiar New
river coal country. Through this entire section
there are from two to five workable veins of
coal, one of them 10 feet thick. In some places
they dip little below the water level, but the
outcroppings as a general thing, are to be seen
on the mountain sides.
There is one thing about this Pocahontas
coklnC field said an engineer to your corre-
spondent, which, until recently, seems to have
been generally overlooked, but which gives 1t
incalculable value-aud that is its proximity to
the iron ore fields of Virginia. The Pocahontas
col1ing coal field, extending from Webster and
Russell counties, in Virginia, is the only field
of coking coal of any size in the United States,
Outsiue of COnnellsville, Pa. On this field not
only does the South draw, but the West and
Southwest
Immense tracts of coal and timber land are
being bought up by capitalists. A short time
ago Morgan, DreNel & Co., of Philadelphia
representing the Vanderbilt interests, pur-
chased $1,000 acres of cOking coal land in Ra-
leigh county. ard nave already completed a
railroad survey. The Chesapeake and Ohio
Railroad Company has also bought large tracts
and has an engineering corps out, laying down
4 new railroad line. The Baltimore and Ohio
people are also eudeavoring to get a share of
this undeveloped wealth, and have purchased
5000 acres of coal lands from ex-senator j. N
camden. The syndicate represented by James
9. Blaine, Senator German, ex-senator Henry
q. DAVIS, and Others, have also made large pur-
chases, and many smaller purchases of 10000
and 2O,OOO-acre tracts are constantly being made
throughout the coal and timber regions of the
State.