The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-03-21
WHINING TON Or SOUTHPORT 70 Be- A
GREAT G0aL!sG STATION
An Application to the yfrEfnf
legislature for n for n
railroad Causes Some Disclosure.
The Vast Coal Area of southwest
Virginia to BE Developed.

Nv "a NAo4Co w
The splendid coal fields of the large
southwest Virginia counties of Buch-
anan and Dickinson are untouched and
undeveloped. The coal deposits OF Wise
county are only partially reached by the
Clinch Valley Division Of the Norfolk
and Western and the Southern formerly
the Louisville and Nashville, which
meet at the town OF Norton, in Wise
county.
These three Virginia ountie lie
along the Kentucky line from northeast
TO southwest. The high range of the
Cumberland mountains divides them
from Kentucky. An equally high paral-
lei range walls off the counties OF Taze-
we'll. Russell and Scott. The three
counties taken together from a rectang-
ular area eighty miles long and thirty
miles wide. Each one is twice as large
as Henrico county, and the whole terri
tory is pronounced by experts to be the
finest coal field in the Allegheny noun
tains.
COMPETING RAILROADS.
competing railroad interests have
to the Importance of pre-
empting this territory. Those one time
rivals, the Chesapeake and Ohio and the
Norfolk and Western, are acting in this
matter with a harmony Of cooperation,
which tells of the close aIliance and
vi olIlIllo IIllSISSl dllG
ownership, which have come with re-
cent movements in the world of rail-
way finance. Only a few days ago the
general assembly passed, and the gov
ernor signed, a bill permitting the Big
Sandy Railroad to enter Buchanan and
Dickinson counties. And no word of
opposition came from the alert repre-
s%entatives of the Norfolk and Western.
This road, as now constructed, runs
from a point on the Chesapeake md
Ohio at the junction of the Big Sandy
and Ohio rivers some flfty-seven miles
up the Big Sandy river. in Kentucky.
Forty miles more will bring the road
up the Big Sandy river to the Virginia
line. The company proposes to build
his extension at once, and to divide
upon entering Virginia, running one
branch up the Levisa river through the
center Of Buchanan county and the
other up the Russell Fork through the
center of Dickinson county. 1t is pub
licly announced that the so-Called Big
Sandy railroad is merely a branch OF
the Chesapeake and Ohio. Mr.. Wick
ham told the committee that the COM
pany proposed to push the develop
ments of the Buchanan and Dickinson
coal fields at once, and Mr.. W. A. Glas-
gow,attorney for the Norfolk and West
ern, argued long and earnestly with the
committee hat the Chesapeake n
Ohio should be given this territory
without competition.
SEABOARD INTERESTED.
Mr.. Bruce had spoken in Of
the charter of the Gainesville railroad,
which proposes to enter and develop the
same territory from the southwest,
starting at Norton or Big Gap. hit
feature of Mr.. Glasgow's speech in OPP
position to the Gainesville Railroad
zLa-%or ,yoc L{. cfofanoanf fhot this
road was probably backed by the Sea-
board Air Line, that the Seaboard had
recently purchased the Virginia South
western or Atlantic and OHIO, running
from Big Stone Gap to Bristol, and that
it was believed that the purpose of the
Seaboard was to build a forty mile link,
connecting it's system in North Carolina
with it's recently purchased property at
Bristol. This MI. Glasgow thought,
would result in the Virginia coal from
Buchanan, Dickinson and Wise. going
to tidewater at Port Royal, the Sea
boards deep water port in the carroll
mas rather than to Newport News or
Lambert's Point, the terminals OF the
Chesapeake and Ohio and Norfolk and
Western. The S~eaboard's development
of this Virginia territory would be
| greatly to the injury Of the Hampton
| Roads coaling terminals, thought Mr.
Glasgow, especially as vessels can Goa
at Port Royal, which is on the coast, IN
twenty-four or thirty-six' hours less
time than at Newport News or Lam
| bert's Point. The S~eaboard's develop,
ment of this coal territory and the linz
to Port Royal would lose 10 Virginia
| the income from the percentage on the
| long haul to deep water over either the
Norfolk and Western or Chesapeak
and Ohio.
"Mr. Bruce and Mr. Anderson were
IF the opinion that Chicago capltallst'
interested in the GOA fields were bacl
Of the Gainesville road, but Mr.. WICK
ham and Mr.. Glasgow were conlden
that the Seaboard Air Line $1,000 paCi
of the proposed road.
WILMINGTON OR SOUTHPORT.
A citizen of Wilmington called oul
attention to the above article and said
THE article from the Richmond
Times speaks for itself, but 1t is wrong
when it refers to Port Royal, S. c., a:
the Seaboard terminal for coating ocear
We have understood 70
some time that the Seaboard Air Lint
has purchased the areas Of coal lam
in southwest Virginia, with the view
of establishing one OF the largest Goa
depots in this country. either at VII
mington or Southport, N. c. AS thi:
article states. these powerful corpora
tons now owned by the Pennsylvania
railroad, the Norfolk and Western rail-
way, and the Chesapeake and Ohio rail-
way, are using all their power to de
feat the necessary charter for a con
Meeting link between the roads nov
owned by the Seaboard Air Line, on tn
plea that the coal business would b
diverted from a Virginia port. We sur
mise tina the corporation OF the caro-
DINA Company by our townsman. w. Z
Worth, and his friends, for various pur
poses, was chiefly for the purpose OF
developing the coal business at thi:
port on a more comprehensive anC
magnificent scale than has ever beer
thought of heretofore. and now tina
the two great coal roads OF Virginia
are trying so hard to defat the scheme
we feel sure there is something yer,
tangible back of it"
We shall welcome the day when oul
e~nterprising merchants shall ave grea
fleets of ocean going steamers an
coal barges coming TO a North Caro-