The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1892-12-29
INDUSTRIAL NOTES.

The coming year points to prosperity
FIR Bic Stone Gap. Numerous enterprise
arc being talked of and the development
of our coke field is sure to give US !:
healthy start
Nine wears ago there was not twenty
ovens in the pocahontas district. loday
they have about 5000. The mining popu-
lation has increased from few hundred
~ ohout 81. 900 within the past ten years
Tha deyclopmcnt of This field has made
the Great Norfolk and Western road and
limit the cities Of Roanoke, Radtord, Blue
6elJ Graham. Pocahomtas aud numerous
smaller towns. 1t has brought into Nir-
p;nia about twenty large furnaces and
hundreds of smaller enterprises that have
added Immensely to the population OF
southwest Virginia and put the old state
of Virginia foremost among the southern
states in the iron industries.
Big Stone Gap has coal field equal in
arc, IN thc Pocahontas field with coal
of II quality and thickness nnexcelled'
and we arc so geographically situated that
every mining collicry will he feeder.
For. after passing through the Gap, you
find no location suitable for large town
in an area of forty miles. We have II
great advantage over the Pocahonias
region in railroad competition The j.. y
nuts ma i'm the market Of Cincinnati,
St. Louis, Louisville, Chicago and all the
great iron points of the south and the 5.
A. & o. and L. T. V. & &. gives MS compc-
titiou TO the same points. The n. W.
will throw open the same markets that
have made the Pocahontas district what
she is. Then bring in the roads now
pointing here and there is no estimating
Big Stone Caps possibilities.
Steel plants are now being rapidly built
in the south and Pennsylvania will soon
have a rival in the steel producing indus
tries that will prove as formidable Il rival
rs the iron industries in the south have
been. Ashland, Ky, has IL new steel
plant which is running at handsome
profit and drawing her supply of orc from
Lake Superior and coke from the New
River district. Chattanooga has sue
cessfui steel plant with Il long haul OF
both orc and coke Birmingham has one
in opcration and is to have another.
Middlcsboro has Il large plant nearly
completed.
Now with the Cranberry district in
sixty-five miles of us which will furnish
us high grade of Bessemer ore; coke at
our door and high grade Of iron ore
within stones throw OF our furnace, can
any man say Big Stone Gap is excelled
for steel producing? With our native
ores we can make steel by tho Basic pro-
cess and with the Cranberry ores we can
make steel hy the Bessemcr process. Let's
have a steel plant. If this is an age OF
steel VIC are ready to make steel.
1t is surprising how few people are
with The natural resources of
this section aud how many judge the
whole south hy bad investments OF their
friends in towns and sections of country
that never had amy merit. Only Il short
while s;.,cc tive Of Middlcshoro's most
prominent business men made us Il visit
aud were taken out to orr coal heIdS
They were heard to remark that they had
no conception Of the amount of coal We
have in this section and after being shown
q vein of coal fourteen feet in thickness
with hardly IL prcccptihIc parting they
were astonishcd. 1t takes development
10 advertise our resources. The develop
mcut has begun. Look out for Big Stone
Gap.
Ten wears ago coal lands in the Poca-
hontas region could have been purchased
for from ~ to s. per acre. Now you can
not buy for any price, and is now yielding
81 500 per acre in ROYALTIES. Ten years
AFRO coal land in this district could have
been purchased for 10 cents per acre that
can not now be bought for 500.
A muck mill is being talked Of in con-
nection will, the furnace plant here. y
plant of this kind would add greatly to
Big Stone Gap and furnish us hundred
lahorers more skilled and drawing better
wares than our furnace men. Pcnnsyl-
ynuia has thus far been able to hold her
own with the south by manufacturing her
furnace products at home and sending
out only the manufactured article. As
soon as that policy is adopted in the south
We will have no rival in PENNSYLVANIA.
We are now shipping nsylvania pig
irom She manufactures it at profit and
sells it back to US. Bring on your muck
mill, steel plant, rolling mills, nail mills,
etc. They will all pay here and we can
get them with Il little work.
BLAINE BETTER.
The Great Man OF Magnetism More
Cheerful.
WASHINGTON, Dee. 23-The news from
c.,1