The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1908-06-26
ASSURES VIRGINIA OF GREAT FUTURE

President OlCott ia Address to Mininq
Institute Predicts a City of Ten
i Tines Present Size.
! The members of the Lake Super.
ior Mining Institute, one hundred
and ninety.seven strong, arrived in
the city late yesterday afternoon
from the Vermilion, and in the eve
ming held the first business session
of their thirteenth annual conven.
tion at the spacious auditorium OF
Roosevelt school, where on behalf
of the city they were given welcome
in few brief words by Attorney L.
NJ. Osborn.
A number of addresses were made
by members, and the High School
Glee Club added to the pleasure of
the occasion by we'll received selec-
tons. Among the numbers of the
evening was an address of more
than passing interest to Virginians
by President W. J. Olcott, of the Du-
luth, Missabe & Northern railway,
whose knowledge of conditions af-
tecting the steel corporation lends
color to his predictions of a bright
future for Virginia, the present me-
tropolis of the Mesaba. Mr.. Olcott
reviewed his first advent on this
range, in 1892, when he walked from
old Mesaba to Biwabik, across what
has since become the Virginia town
site and over to that spot on the
map which has come to be known
by west-end residents as "Hibbing."
Mr.. Olcott briefly reviewed the his
tory of this rich section since that
date, but the matter of greatest inl-
portance to Virginians was his
statement that the high percentage
OF phosphorus in the ores of the
Virginia district had tended to re-
tard more rapid development OF
many of the properties in this sec
ton, a defect which is being rapid
ly overcome by the construction of
open-hearth furnaces, and his pre-
diction that within few years Vir-
ginia was destined to mot only dOu-
bic and treble in size, but would be
ten times larger than at present."
Mr.. Olcott also paid high tribute to
the Cornish miners, who though
coming from country where the
methods of mining are still primi-
tive, have made good in this new
section where ability, courage and
push are the fundamental principles
| which brfng' man to the front.
T. F. Cole followed in a short ad-
dress in which he recited the adj
vance being made in the use of
steel in every line OF business, stat
ing that in the mining business
steel was rapidly replacing wood
and the Oliver Company was now
planning on the use of steel in place
of wood for underground timber
ing. He made mention of the im-
portance OF the steel plant to Du-
luth and to the entire northwest,
and predicted that within a few
years the great bulk of the Lake
Superior ores would be manufac-
tured in this section, the territory
tributary to Duluth making of that
city prospective distributing point
for the entire northwest as also for
many points in the south and south
west. Mr.. Cole deplored the rapid
disappearance of the timber supply
and said the state legislatures and
state governments should be ap-
pealed to provide for the reforestra-
tion Of cut-over lands.
Prof Winchell gave learned ad-
dress upon the geological structure
of the Mesaba ores, gained through
careful research, his first visit to
this range being some twenty-five
years ago.
From this point the members of
the Institute left this morning for
HibbinG, where they will visit the
big open pit propositions of the
west end and enjoy glimpse of the
Hibbing bunch as they try to knock
Graham out of the box in to-day's
game.