The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1915-05-05
Dickinson
County.
Vast Resources Untouched
Because of Lack of
Transportation.

Virginia that may be regarded
as untouched, and are today as
rich in hidden and undeveloped
wealth AZ they were when John
Smith landed at jamestown.
Take Dickinson county, for
instance There the vast forests
of mountainside and valley
have been cut into but slightly,
the iron and the coal beneath
the ground, which are believed
to be inexhaustiblc, have never
been worked into, and the vast
farming lands, intensely rich
from the valleys ali the way to
the mountain tops on the bor-
ders, have scarcely been reach
ed, 1t may be said.
This condition of affairs is
due to the fact that Dickinson
county has heretofore had no
railway lines passing through
its territory Now, one great
line skirts along the eastern
border from the Kentucky line
into Russell county, and on to
the southwark, n branch line of
the Norfolk and Western that
now stops ut Toms Greek. in
Wise county, near the south
west border of Dickinson, will
ere long be extended through
the center of the county, and
other lines are almost certain
to be built from the Kentucky
regions southwark through
Dickinson, and the time is not
far distant when there will be
great development in this part
of Virginia and Dickinson will
loom up as one of the very
richest of the 100 subdivisions
of the Old Dominion.
Dickinson il the Youngest
county in the State, and has
the distinction of being the only
one to have been established
since the war. 1t was formed
in 1850 from the counties of
Wise, Buchanan and Russell.
IL is situated in the extreme
western section: is bounded on
the north by Kentucky, the
dividing line being on the top
of the Cumberland Mountains;
on the east by Buchanan; on
the south by Russell, and on
the west by Wise county. The
area is 32l square miles, or
3l3,507 acres. Perhaps there
are as many as 500 farms, most
ly on the small order, none
having under cultivation any
large acreage.
The products are corn, wheat,
rye, oats, mIllet, potatoes, sor.
ghum, buck wheat and some
tobacco. The lands both in the
valleys and along the noun
tainsides are we'll adapted to
all of the grasses, and there is
no county in the State in which
there might be better grazing
or bigger profits in cattle and
stock raising. Tho people well
know this, but without trans
portation facilities they have
never gone extensively into the
business, except since the com
pletion OF the Carolina, Clinch-
field and Ohio Railway along
the eastern border, considerable
attention has been given To it
there, and it has been demon
strated that no region excels
Dickinson for cattle and stock
raising All of the vegetable
and fruits grow to perfection,
but because of the inability to
get products TO the outside
markets, fruit growing hereto
fore has been simply for home
consumption.
+ he principal streams of
Dickinson are Pound, Cranes
Nest and Russell Fork Rivers,
and McClure's Creek, which
flow northward, through breaks
in the Cumberland Mountains,
and their waters finally find
their way into the Ohio River.
y very large portion of the
county, probably from half TO
three-fourths of its area, as
above indicated, is in original
forest of oak, hickory, poplar
walnut, elm, ash, maple, wild
cherry, cucumber, pine and
hemlock. There are q few saw
| mills in the snnlhern nart OF