The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1913-01-01
Southwest Virginia Greatest
Coal Producing Section
in the South.

ttley anu III Lee county ana
along the Carolina, Clinchfield
and Ohio Railway was never so
busy ard prosperous in its his
tory. The four big railroads
hauling coal and coke from this
field are taxed to their utmost
capacity, and only about fifteen
to eighteen years ago the writer
read letters from coal dealers in
Richmond, Norfolk and other
manufacturing and fuel con
Stunning centres saying they
would not pay freight charges
on Clinch Valley coal. The
first seam opened up after the
Norfolk and Western road was
built into this field did not plan
out very we'll, so far as the
quality of the coal was concern
ed. and that was the cause of
this kind Of talk, but times have
changed, new seams have been
developed, and now no coal
stands higher than that of the
Clinch Valley. If the Old Do
minion had not been so liberal
to her daughters, West Virgin
in and Kentucky, when sliclng
off her mountain territory, She
would indeed "have coal to
burn.
Virginia Coal That Is Coal.
However, by n stroke of good
fortune, Virginia did not let all
of the good coal land go. Only
recently the Pardee Company
opened a new seam in the Black
Mountain measuring eleven feet
clean coal Two hundred feet
above this marvellous seam
they opened a five-foot seam Of
splint coal They were driving
these seams straight through
the mountain, but they have
only TO go half way before they
will be on Kentucky territory.
Nevertheless, we have enough
and plenty to spare in Virgin
ia, for from Pocahontas on
through Buchanan and Dicken.
son Counties to Cumberland
Gap the old mother of States
will be mining coal for centur-
les yet to come.
This field has decided adyan-
tages over the West Virginia
field in that we have four com
pellng railway lines with the
shortest and most direct hauls
to the Atlantic Coast and TO the
Panama Canal ships Virgin
ians have not yet realized the
enormous wealth Of their South
western coal fields.
Abundant Railway Facilities.
The latest move in railway
circles is the purchase of the
branch line known as Wise
Terminal by the Interstate
1t is nine miles long and oper
ates between Norton and Gln-
morgan. 1t is, and has been
for some time, quite race be
tween the Southern, the Louis
vile and Nashville, the Norfolk
and Western and the Clinch
field as to which shall control
the most undeveloped coal terri
tory. All four of these lines
have been active the past three
years extending their lines and
building and absorbing branch
lines IN order to get more coal
to haul. This latest deal puts
the Southern Railway right up
to the Kentucky State line.
The Carolina Clinchfield is
hammering away night and
day putting II tunnel through
the Sandy Ridge at Dante, Va.
which, when completed, will
give it clear field into one of
the greatest coal regions in the
world. In addition to these
four trunk lines, the Baltimore
and Ohio and the Chesapeake
and Ohio are both within a few
miles of this field to the north,
and there is no doubt but that
these two lines will soon be
hitched mp with the four al
ready Mt the door. With all of
these lines i'll operation and the
Panama Canal doing business
and calling for more and more
coal, Southwest Virginia is go
ing TO flourish as no other part
of the old State has up TO the