The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1910-11-23


lowing article regarding the /
developments now going on in /
Eastern Kentucky:
The Manufacturers Record
has long article this week
which il devoted TO the Elkhorn
coking fields in Kentucky,
which apparently are 20 awak
en- TO third boom IN their
favor. With acknowledgements
10 the Record the following
interesting history and reports
on the field are CLEANED from
this article.
The Elkhorn field was first
discovered by John r. Proctor
and the late Prof. y. ). oholer,
over thirty years ago. These
men recognized the value of the
c0king qualities Of the coal and
gave IL the name "Elkhorn
/ Coking Coal, from Elkhorn
. Greek, on the waters OF which
the large deposits Of the coal
are found. Twenty five years
ago the Manufacturers Record
published "a special article on
this land. which at that time
was on the market and which
lin eighteen hundred and ninety
two the Merritts. of Duluth
were contemplating purchasing.
This family. which controlled
the Mesaba ore range, seat T.
~. Mitchell, one of the foremost
coal experts, 20 the field and his
j report was so hattering that the
Merritts would have purchased
at least one hundred and thirty
thousand acres, but for the fact
that panic struck the country
e and the Merritt fortune was
/ wiped out, their Mesaba ore
p, range afterwards becoming the
. back bone Of the Steel Corpora
tion.
After years OF effort the Biz
e Sandy Company. of Boston
y induced the Chesapeake * OH,
, ID extend ITS lines Go "a part o
, the field, but just when The
plans were started anOthe
b panic prevented the realization
s Of the dream of "a coal empir
J.. which rival Connrsyille. Ihi
p was in nineteen hundred an'
+ seven. but as the panic wa
y more a money panic than "A rea
o depression, the result was tina
"a the field has again come 20 th
n front. The Consolidation Goa
ar Company has purchased ON
"A hundred thousand acres on Oh
n Virginia border Of Dickenso
y county between the preser
\ Chesapeake & Ohio, the LOun
,r willie 4 Nashville and the Care
h lima. Clnchfield x Ohio, whi'
- they have secured a propose
'd extension of the Cincinnati
"a Hamilton < Dayton of the Ba
le timOre < Ohio system of th'
n region. This means that q
re section viii have plenty
n railroad facilities as railroa,
4 are not unlike humans anu a
IN selfish enough to want as mUS
81 business as the other fello
ri gets.
re Close TO tins property +.
ne Berwind recently secured ol
o hundred thousand acres of CO
- land from John c. Mayo, Isat
h I. Mann, and Taylor Ninso
"a and this property is also TO
IL developed, but the plans of d
at velopment have not been Civ
is out. 1t is stated on very go
in authority, however, that Il
lr- property can be reached
"a either the Norfolk and We
N. ern or the Chesapeake a
lds Ohio with the chances IN fav
ese of the latter company, which
ok is stated has already made p
ars Iminary preparations for
of extension.
rer The Elkhorn coking field c'
sists of about three hundi
Thousand acres of land lyi
along the head ~ aters of the
Sandy river in Pike, Floyd 9
Letcher counties in Kentucl
The field Is surrounded by OF
IN coal lands which comp
ap, many more thousand OF acl
is, 1t is close 20 the enormous Il
of Southwest Virginia, as y
lry, as TO Knott, Leslie, Mar