The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-10-23

pany are mining he brown uic nca ic Wilt
cat Summit, twelve cars o: which will FIRST IL.
tried at The Bristol Furnace, wbcnit is expect
ed large quantities of it will be taken out.
Mr.. Anderson begins next week with JEFF
Dillon to open the ores in the Wildcat Valley,
i on the lands of William McGeorge, Jr., of
f Philadelphia, and later will show up the Goals
onh his lands to the North of the Gap. Many
people think that but little is going on be-
cause their hands are not filled with gold dol
lars every day, but the work at present on
hand and the pew developments being begun
each week, point to winter of business of
large volume, and n very lively spring. 1t is
believed that the Big Stone Gap Coal COM
pany will soon begin the erection of coke
ovens On LooneY Greek, and as the Van Cum
den suit against the Virginia Coal & Iron
Company comes up in the U. S. Court nj Alb
ingdon this week, it is hoped that it vii. lie
settled in favor of that Company so that the
large developments which it would undoubt-
edly make, can be begun.
|
The first trains between the stations of the
l.. N. and S. A. & O. Railroads we're run
last Monday, over the VALLEY Street Railway,
and were found very convenient, and more ex-
petitions than the hacks.
The contractor who is grading the cutoff of
the Valley Street Railway, will have sur
plus of material from his cuts and offers to fiji
III the approaches of the tiryc-ways to tic
new bridge alta lower figure than it can be
done by hauling the dirt from East Fifth Street
The city fathers should attend to this prompt
ly before some sudden rise in the river shall
cause need for the bridge and it be found
useless, so far as crossing in wagons is con-
cerned.
The Valley Street Railway has been very
serviceable to the S. A. & 0. Railway this
week by putting on the track by the use of it's
engine derailed train of the S. A. & O., near
East Big Stone Gap, and so saving the coming
from Bristol of wrccking train; also by
bringing in its passengers and mail from that
point The Valley Street Railway has run it's
trains as far as Horizons Summit to make
transfers around slides.
DR.. bunting, General Freight Agent of the
5. a. Il 0. Railway, was out last week looking
after some lumber treigts for his road. While
here he expressed his approval of the wagon
road over the Black Mountain, and said he
would advocate the S. A. & O's helping To put
it in better condition, so as to get the Ken
tncky people for IS and so miles to haul their
freight from Big Stone Gap.
< X
The ore being mined beyond the Wildcat
| Summit is being sent to the Bristol Furnace
i"r trial, and the assay of the surface orc is
said 10 RIM 30 per cent metallic iron. Tie
red f,s>iierous ore as assaycd by the Arpa-
lachan Furnace people is reported to show 40
per cent. This week it is intended to develop
the ores in the open field on the property of
the Big Stone Gap Improvement Company
just across the South Fork at the end of East
Fifth Street. The miner who has made the
best finds of ore recently, thinks this will
prove to be the best and richest of all.
1t is interesting to note that shalc carry
ing some silver has been found in the carbon
ferrous formations near Big Stone Gap. 1t is
supposed to have been forced up by the up
heayal of Little Stone Mountain, which is near
By. This may be an Indication that further
| work may develap richer orr, bit II is more
likely that zinc, lead or copper will be fund
tributary to Big Stone Gap. The ANALYSIS of
the above was madea large laboratory in
the East, so the information is reliable.
The J.. n. is still running numerous
trains, and has been hauling wheat and flour
Eastward. Cotton will soon begin to go to
Norfolk for New England points and for export
to Europe, while the current of general mer-
chandise will set Westward to louisville and
other points. Major O'Brien, Chief Construct
ing Engineer, before finishing the road between
Big Stone Gap and Cumberland Gap told the
writer that when the business of the l.. L. n.
required it, the grade could be widened for
double track purposes at the unusually small
expense of s., OO0 per mile. This is in conse-
/ quence of his having made the cuts and fills
for the single track unusually wide, and that
it was we'll done is shown in the T.. & Ms un-
nual report where tue cost is put at nearly 81
0OO,009 for II miles.
Y The Virginia Coal & Iron Company is having
at Abingdon this week what it is hoped viii be
its final bout with Van Gunden, who represents
the Taylor, Fields & Johnson,or rather the
Fields heirs who are claimants to some Of the
land now in possession Of that Company. a.
large crowd of witnesses went over from this
section on Sunday, and the trial will probably
consume this week or last even longer. One
of the witnesses, an old man, tells me that these
claimants have not paid taxes on this land for
perhaps SO years, although the time of pay
ment was several times extended in 1880 and
lo40; and furthermore that this claim Of Tay-
4 lor, Fields and johnson may live in Lee county
several miles South of Big Stone Gap, in an
In