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Roanoke Times, January 31, 1907

ANOTHER ROAD FOR ROANOKE

The Catawba Valley Railway to Connect the Magic City With Newcastle.

WORK BEING PUSHED ON THE PARENT LINE

Nine and Half Miles Being Graded From Salem to Catawba Mountain - 
Will Go To Newcastle - Roanoke End Surveyed - Salem Gets $50,000 Glass Plant

   In all probability Roanoke will have a direct railroad to 
Newcastle, county seat of Craig, before another January 31.
   That statement is based on a foundation that warrants the 
construction of high hopes without fear of a collapse.
   The Catawba Valley railroad, now building from Salem to a point 
along Catawba mountain, will be tapped at a point on Mason's creek 
between four and five miles from Roanoke, and this spur will come 
into the city.
   The road will also be extended from Catawba mountain to Newcastle.
   When the plans have been carried out there will be a line from 
Salem to Newcastle, a distance of twenty-seven and one-half miles, 
and a line from Roanoke running into the Salem-Newcastle line at the 
point above mentioned on Mason's creek.
   From time to time during the past several years there has been 
talk of a proposed railroad from Roanoke to Newcastle, and from Salem 
to Newcastle, and there have been a number of items in the papers 
about a railroad from Salem to Catawba mountain.
   Work is now being pushed on the latter line and indications point 
to its completion within the next three months.
   Here is the real situation:
   The Catawba Valley Railway and Mining Company, capitalized at 
$200,000, is building a road from Salem to Catawba mountain, a 
distance of nine and one half miles. The contractors on the grading 
say they will finish their work by the first day of April. When the 
grading has been completed the track-laying will at once be begun.
   The company building this road owns 14,000 acres along Catawba 
mountain. What is said to be the finest glass sand deposits in the 
world lie in inexhaustible quantities on this land. This sand will be 
hauled over the company road to Salem where it will be manufactured 
into finished bottles of all sizes.
   The contract for the glass plant was given yesterday to a 
Pittsburg concern and the glass factory will be in operation not 
later than September 1. It will employ at least one hundred men. The 
plant will cost $50,000 and will have a capacity of twenty tons of 
sand per day, turning out a solid car load of finished bottles. The 
glass factory will be located on a twenty-acre site facing the 
Norfolk and Western railway tracks near the Salem passenger depot and 
will also have a track connection with the Tidewater railroad now 
being built from the coal fields to the sea.
   Not one dollar of bonds has been issued by the company building 
the road from Salem to Catawba mountain and the glass factory, but 
every penny is coming from the pockets of five men, as follows: 
Messrs. T. H. Cooper and E. S. Barnitz, of Salem; and Messrs. Louis 
A. Scholz, Henry Scholz, and C. G. Smith, of Roanoke. The officers of 
the company are:
   T.H. Cooper, president; E. S. Barnitz, treasurer; and Henry 
Scholz, secretary. The board of directors is made up of the above 
mentioned officers and Mr. C. G. Smith.
   It was said yesterday by officers of the company that there will 
be a ready market for the output of the glass factory and that the 
bottles will be shipped all over the country. The nearest factory to 
Roanoke at the present is located at Richmond. The Salem plant will 
be even larger than the Richmond plant. The company will, in addition 
to the hundred men employed at the glass plant, give employment to 
half that number at its silica mines and on its railroad.
   The road from Salem to Catawba Mountain runs along Mason's Creek 
to Mason's Cove and then along Catawba Mountain.
   So much for the road from Salem to Catawba Mountain and the glass 
factory at Salem.
   Now, about the road from Catawba mountain to Newcastle:
   The line has been surveyed along a route that will carry the steel 
threads through Beckner's Gap, thence across Catawba Valley, thence 
into McAfee's Gap, then into Craig's Creek Valley and along Craig's 
Creek into Newcastle town. The distance from the terminus of the 
Catawba Valley road to Newcastle is eighteen miles and work on that 
end will be started just as soon as the Salem-Catawba end in 
completed. The company building the Salem end of the road has been 
assured by men with millions that they are ready to back them in the 
extension project and there seems now to be no room for doubt that in 
one year from today trains will be running from Salem to Newcastle.
   And if the spur from Roanoke to the Salem-Catawba line on Mason's 
creek is built within that period trains will be running from Roanoke 
to Newcastle on the same date.
   The Catawba Valley Company paid high prices for its right of way 
from Salem to Catawba mountain, but the right of way from the 
terminus into Newcastle will cost nothing as the Catawba Valley 
company owns ten miles over which the line will run, while property 
owners along the rest of the route are so eager for the road that 
they have expressed their willingness to gladly give it free way.
   The line from Salem to Newcastle and from Roanoke to Newcastle 
will reduce the distance that has to be traveled now in order to get 
to Newcastle by rail more than one-half. At present, to go from 
Roanoke to Newcastle a person has to go from Roanoke to Buchanan on 
the Norfolk and Western railway, then from Buchanan to Eagle Rock 
over the Chesapeake & Ohio railway and then from Eagle Rock to 
Newcastle over the C. and O. valley branch. And it takes practically 
all day to make the trip.
   The new line will penetrate and traverse an undeveloped field said 
to than is found at any other place in the United States. Newcastle 
has a population of about 2,000, and it in a fine section.
   The Catawba Valley company will in addition to mining silica and 
manufacturing glass bottles, carry on an extensive artificial stone 
manufacturing business and mine iron ore on a large scale. The iron 
ore deposits begin at a point a few miles out of Salem and continue 
for more than twenty miles. It is said the ore is found practically 
on top of the ground and it is believed that coal also is to be found 
along the route.
   The cost of the Newcastle end of the road will be approximately $300,000.
   "And why didn't Roanoke get the glass factory?" was asked.
   "Because Roanoke did not offer the inducements that Salem offered 
to the promoters of the enterprise," was the reply.
   "If Roanoke had offered inducements, would the road have been 
built into this city to begin with, and the glass factory located here?"
   "Most certainly. The route was surveyed into Roanoke all right and 
the road and factory would have come here had the company met with 
proper encouragement."
   "But Roanoke will get the road yet?"
   "Yes, the road will come to Roanoke."
   And the coming of this new road will mean much to Roanoke. It will 
bring new trade to this city and lots of it. It will put Roanoke in 
close touch with a now faraway, next-door neighbor. Roanoke merchants 
will get money that Lynchburg merchants are now getting.
   Big oaks from little acorns grow!






Posted by
Ron Davis