Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1900-04-20
THE GREENBRIER RAILROAD.
(No.2)

NO.
AS stated in our last letter, this rail-
road undertaking is assuming shape
with considerable r%apidity. At this
point the railway crosses Knapp's
Creek, the largest tributary of Green
brier river. The bridge spanning this
stream will be $50 feet long and a fill of
considerable SIZE and length is neces
sary at the northern end of the bridge.
This has already been completed with
the exception of a little dressing up
before the rails are laid. Work on
this bridge may prove one OF the
causes of delay i'll the opening OF this
road. The northern abutment is fin
ished and work is being pushed on
the southern, but a pier is TO be built
in the centre which has not yet been
begun. Last fall the waters in this
quarter were lower than ever known
before, and a little bit of common
sense would have dictated the build
ing of the pier first, but with studied
Indifference to the fact. or with mex
pllcable stupidity, nothing was done
on the pier until winter SET in, then
they went at it, and as might have
been expected the Golfer dams we're
washed out and work on it is abandon
ed for the present. 1t is said that the
attention of the railroad engineers was
called to the danger of putting off work
on the pier till winter set in, but If SO
here was a mistake. 1t is an histori-
Lcal fact that no Il must suggest any
|thing to the average civil engineer
| who is entrusted with the building OF
Il n rn1xuo- Tf ha lonc ho no1ollu 10
insulted for his pains, and to show
him how stupid he really is, the very
opposite of his suggestion is the course
pursued.
Through this town, which bids fair
to be an important point, the road bed
has been made wide enough for three
tracks. North of this point Clover
Lick, DunmOre and Durbin will be the
principal trading points, and it is
stated that when the West Virginia
Central and Pittsburg joins this line
at Durbin repair shops will be built
there.
The great bodies of timber for which
this county is noted stand on the
heads of Cherry, Cranberry and Will
liams rivers which form Gauley river.
and on the head of the Greenbrier
river Twelve miles west of this point
is the top of Gauley mountain which
runs parallel with Greenbrier river.
From the summit of that mountain for
seventy-tive miles scarcely a habitation
is to be found, and the most primeval
forest stands untouched by the hand
of man. The vastness of the timber
is almost incredible. Underlying that
| entire forest is the finest of cOking coal,
six, eight and ten foot veins show
themselves along the water courses
and where there have been slips in the
land. There is more wealth there,
many believe, than in all Alaska. and
yet this country has lain undeveloped,
and in fact untread until within the
last few years. We remember well, it
was not many years ago, when $4,000
acres of this land known as the Paul
McNeel and John wager tract went
begging at 40 cents per acre. every
acre of which has a ten foot vein of
coal on it, and the timber on which is
now estimated at 20, 600 feet per acre.
Then too the Allen T. Caperton lands
of about 80, 900 acres in the same quar-
ter were swallowed by the Camden
syndicate at about 80 cents, after much
delay and apparent anxiety not to take
them. These lands when developed as
they are about to be, have fabulous
wealth in them. This coal is rs miles
nearer Newport News by this new
route than any other coal On the line
of the G. & O. True the Greenbrier
railroad does not directly dey elop these
coal lands, but a branch of II miles
built from this point will develop
them, and should the G. q O. entend
it's Hot Springs branch to this point as
there is reason to believe it will, the
distance for this coal 10 the seabOard
will be shortened by about 40 miles.
The timber on the head of Ganley
about which we have just been taking
is of the best quality. Poplar grows
to enormous size. and to find a Is foot
log containing 1,C00 feet Is OF every
day occurrence. Cherry is possibly
more abundant there than in any
other quarter of the globe, and spruce
and hemlOck which have recently
bounded into favor so rapidly on &C
count of their use in paper making,
are very abundant. North of this
point and Immediately along the line
of the railway are vast forests of oak
hemlOck and spruce, i~nterspersed with
various other timbers. To the east of
this point is the white pine section,
from which the St. Lawrence Co in
the last twenty years has cut and float
ed not less than 100, 900 600 feet, the
Cumberland Co. about eighty million
feet, and the Beaver Lick Lumber Co.
about sixty million feet. This has not
exhausted the white pine. as both the
st. Lawrence and the Cumberland
Cos. have fine bodies of it still stand
ing. SINE ten years ago an insect
infested this section and bored Into
the yellow and white pines killing
nearly all the former, and in soma sec
tions a good deal of the latter. But
this Bug as it was called by lumber
men has disappeared and what pine is
here now is in a fine state Of health.
The insect never damaged either the
hemlock or the spruce.
1t is a question as to how far north
the e.. & O will extend this line.
Whether they will push it to a direct
northern connection with the B. q O..
at RowlesbuIg and the Pennsylvania
further north, or stop in this county,
is not known. 1t can hardly be credit
ed that they would stop at Travellers
Repose, the point they have just
reached the richest timber field on
their immediate line, and await the
building of the W. Va. Central and
Pittsburg to join them there. This,
unless all the railroads in the State.
and especially these two, are under
one management, would be suicidal on
the part of the G. & 0. The w. Va.
Central and Pittsburg would by this
/ policy secure for its trains all the pulp
wood which is to supply the great
Covington pulp mill, and also all the
lumber cut in one of the finest lumber
fields in the county, and after hauling
it a few miles turn it over to the g. &
o., which would haul it three, yes five
times, if not ten times as far, and pos
sibly received only so per cent of the
charges, as its share of the earnings.
This to a Iayman would seem queer,
possibly to an educated railroader it
would be just the thing. For this if no
other reason we expect to see the &. &
O. push g little further into the woods
on the head of Greenbrier than it's
present survey carries it. If a Pitts
burg connection is made by this line.