The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1913-02-28
Greatest OF ALL.
The EIkhoIn Coal Field Of Eastern
Kentucky Breaks all Records.


Manufacturers Record, of Balti-
more:
All OF these facts are OF special
interest when we turn to publica-
tions made in the Manufacturers
Record more than 25 years ago, in
which special correspondents and
noted experts told of the vast re-
sources of the Southwest Virginia
and Elkhorn fields, and of the GER
tainty of that region becoming one
of the great coke-making cen-ers of
America. In 1886 the Manufacturers
Record sent a special correspondent
across the mountains of North Car
olina and out through the Elkhorn
field on horseback reconnaissance
with General John T. Wilder who
was then planning the building of
the Charleston, Cincinnati & Chica-
go Railroad. General Wilder, who
is still living in Knoxville, Tenn,
was one of the pioneer coke iron
makers of the South, having set
tied in Tennessee Immediately af-
ter the war and begun active de-
velopmept of iron interests.
To our special correspondent who
accompanied him on that trip, Gen.
eral Wilder, speaking of the Elk
horn and Southwestern Virginia cox
ing coal fields, said:
II have never seen or read any
thing like it. God Almighty set his
forces to work ages ago to create
this tremendous upheaval Volca-
noes and earthquakes were the
mighty agencies employed to lift
these vast masses of carbon from
subterranean depths and fasten
them in their places high above the
valleys until they were needed"
Though General Wilder was un-
able, because he was in advance OF
! the times, and because capital in
sufficient amount could not then be
raised to carry out SO gigantic an
undertaking as the Charleston, Gin
cinnati & Chicago Railroad. his Wis
ion OF the possibilities of that ter
ritory and what railroad through
/ 1t would mean are now being real
lized through the construction of the
1Clinchfield Railroad, operating from
! Spartanburg, S. c.. into the great
coal fields around Dante, Va, ana
an extension of which is now under
way to the Breaks of the Sandy,
where it will meet the Big Sandy
branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio.
The building of this Big Sandy line
a few days ago fulfilled Wilders
dreams as to that portion of ,the
territory from the Breaks of the
Sandy to Ashland, Ky. The Clinch-
4 field, built at a cost of about 1925,
600 a mile, is far different rail
road from any that could have been
built in 1886, even Il capital could
\ have been available to carry out
General Wilder's plans, for no one
would then have dared to build
such a railroad as is the Clinchfield
and at such an outlay as that cost.
On July 81, 1886, the Manufacture
ers Record, In a lengthy editorial
based on a report made by its spec
ial correspondent who travelled with
General Wilder in this preliminary
investigation. saida
"The Elkhorn vein of coal of Eas
tern Kentucky. and which 1t is be
lieved extends into Southern Wesi
Virginia, and the character of which
has only recently been developed, Ii
claimed to be the most valuable bed
of coking coal in the United States
This bed has already been proven
up over an area of 700 square miles
and shows much less percentage OF
ash--in some cases as low as pei
cent and less sulphur and Other
deleterious properties, and is more
compact in texture and of strong
er bearing surface in the furnace
than the coke of Connellsville
Proofs and developments such al
these substantiate the prophecy OF
teh late Prof. VIM. B. Rogers of the
archaeological School of Boston, that
in this territory will be hereafter
found the seat of the great iron in
dustry of the world Other than the
great wealth and possibilities of this
region, as shown by the statements
made, the camel coal of West Vir-
ginia and Kentucky is factor OF
vast Importance. Here. as nowhere
else in the world as to quality Is
found this deposit, while in quail
| lity, with the exception of the very
limited supply of the Bog Head coal
of England--a coal so limited In
supply as to be in no sense COM
petitor---is its equal to be found. :
The late Edward Atkinson oil
Boston, one of the farseeing poll
tical economists of the age in an
/ article printed more than 20 years
ago in the Manufacturers Record
dealing with the future of the iron
interests OF the South, referred to
this Southwest Virginia and Eastern
Kentucky region and adjacent ter.
ritory as containing mineral and
timber resources equal to those OF
Great Britain and France combin-
ed.
In view of the tens of millions OF
dollars which are being poured in
to Eastern Kentucky and Southwest
Virginia through the railroad opera
tions of the Clinchfield. the Louis
! willie & Nashville, the Baltimore &
Ohio and the Chesapeake & Ohio
railroads. and through the vast pur-
! chases of coal lands for development
on scale commensurate with the
wealth Of that territory. 1t has seem
ed worth while republishing these
| statements about that field made
|I ~ "I| I|'' ||'