Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-11-26
Vanderbilt enterprise.
Continued from first Page

control Of the Hooking Valley road.
end that 1t is to be extended south
rom its present terminus at Gallipo
lis, O., to a point opposite Hunting
ION, w. Va, where The Ohio will be
bridged and connection made WITH
the main line of the Chesapeake 6,
Ohio. This will give the Chesapeake
& Ohio direct route to the west and
northwest markets, at the lowest posi-
RE rates, and over it's own system.
II was the intention first to build the
Chesapeake & Ohio down to the lert
bank Of the Kanawha river to the OHIO
and there connect with the Hooking
Valley. With this plan in view, few
weeks ago President ingalls, announc-
I'd to meeting If the West Virginia
Coal Exchange here that he soon
would be in position to make rates Or
kanawiia coal to Duluth and st. Pau
which would shut Pittsburg and East
err Ohio coal out of those markets
1t was later decided that the extension
of the Hooking Valley was less ex-
pensive and more desirable, and the
new plan was adopted.
Mining engineers have been at work
for month on the recently acquired
lands, and they report that the coal
is the finest in the State. One Of these
men admitted to your correspondent
that the scheme of the new owners is
as detailed, and that the mines to be
opened would be operated by electric
machinery of the latest labor saving
design, rendering labor troubles prac-
tically impossible and reducing the cot
of production to the minimum.
The total length of railroad to be
built, including the Greenbrier road,
the Dry Fork connection and the Cam
den connection will be little less
than 125 miles. When this is done,
the Vanderbilt interests will have a
direct line for coal freights both east
and west, and all facilities for produc-
ing and delivering soft coal at lower
rates than any competitor now in the
market It will also have dOckage
facilities after a short haul east for
cOastwiSe trade.
Kanawha and New river coal opera
tors, who depend upon the markets
reached by the Chesapeake and Ohio
for their demand, and who have learn
ed of the project, are decidedly I'M
comfortable, and it is reported there
is a willingness to sell out coal prop
erty at figures much lower than would
have been tempting a short time ago.
They see that with the same people
owning the railroad and the best of
coal mines, the smaller producers will
stand poor show in the market.
A telegram from Davis, w. Va,
where the United States Leather Com
pany, (the Leather TrusD has large
tanneries, states that the Leather Com
pany is also interested in the plans,
and that it has contracted for the tan
bark on the tracts owned by the Van
derbilt syndicate. 1t is stated that the
Dry Fork railroad was secured to give
the Leather Company an outlet to its
tanneries from the bark region. This
is probably correct as it is known that
bark land is largely taken up and is
getting scarce in West Virginia. The
Leather Company spent thousands Of
dollars during the last session of the
legislature to get through a law per-
hitting it as an outside corporation to
hold unlimited areas Of timber and
bark land. This legislation was de-
feated, and the company's representa-
tives have been making a diligent hunt
for private holdings of bark lands since