Virginian in 1909--Richest producer

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
April 11, 1909

RICHEST BITUMINOUS PRODUCER IN WORLD
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Rogers Party Enthusiastic Over Resources of Section Traversed by Virginian Railway

    Henry H. Rogers and his party have completed the first inspection of the new Virginian Railway, which Mr. Rogers has built at a cost of $40,000,000, and at the same time the capitalists were shown the extent of the coal resources from which this, essentially a coal line, expects to draw its tonnage for the future.  This entire range of mountains is bedded with coal.  The coal experts on the Rogers special declared that this Deepwater section will yet be the richest bituminous producer in the world.  This is claimed on account of the four separate and distinct mineable seams of coal underlying the mountains of this new field.  Two of the seams are above water level and two are below.  Each has a width of from 7 to 16 feet and, to the uninitiated, this storehouse of nature seems inexhaustible.
    For eighty-five miles the Virginian penetrates this new field, and is now prepared to deliver its products to the coal markets of the world.  This is a greater coal field mileage than is enjoyed by either the Norfolk and Western or the Chesapeake and Ohio Railways' main line.  But all this is not exclusively Virginian territory.  For ten miles in the Matoaka section of Mercer county, the Norfolk and Western's Widemouth branch parallels the new line, and beginning at the famous Jenny Gap, in Raleigh county, the Chesapeake and Ohio parallels the Virginian, just to nag the new road along a little.
    Some of the coal land owners along the line are unfriendly, but they are the people who have access to the Norfolk and Western and Chesapeake and Ohio branch lines.  There is the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company, a subsidiary company of the Norfolk and Western.  This corporation owns 32,000 acres of land in Wyoming county and immediately adjacent to the Virginian line.  These people will not deliver a ton of fuel to the Rogers road, but will deliver exclusively to the Norfolk and Western through its Widemouth branch.  It is said that some years ago this tract was sold at public auction for delinquent taxes for ten cents an acre.  Later it was sold for $1 an acre, and the second owners thought they had made a bargain when, however, the railroad came and it was bought up by the Pocahontas people at an enormous price.
    Just to the west of the Pocahontas land lies the tract of the Beaver Coal Company, in Raleigh county. This comprises 48,000 acres, and already the Slab Fork Coal Company has opened an operation on the Rogers line and is now sending coal to the seaboard.  Then, again, the New River Collieries Company owns coal land on the Virginian.  This is the property of the Guggenheims, of Colorado.  They have operations now working in the New River field, and have one big plant at work on the new road.  Their tract includes 9,000 acres and extends for six miles along the Virginian.  At Glen White Junction a three-mile branch road is extended to the E. E. White Coal Company's plant.  This company has 5,000 acres of undeveloped property, which will in a short time become tributary to the Virginian.  A half dozen operations are projected for this single branch line of the Rogers road.
    One of the largest undeveloped tracts on the Virginian is the McKinley Land Company's property in Raleigh and Fayette counties.  There are 16,000 acres in this one piece of property and one operation at Herberton has begun to ship coal already.  The lands of the White Oak Fuel Company extend over three counties.  There lies in Fayette, Raleigh and Wyoming 60,000 acres of coal belted land.  Some of this is developed, though much of it is not.  President Samuel Dickson, of the company, met the party at the junction of the White Oak Railway and the Virginian and showed the capitalists a few of his thirty-one operations.  His little road now has a connection with both the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Virginian.  Nine thousand acres are embraced in the Plum Orchard field in Fayette county.
    None of this tract is developed.  The Loop Creek field, the largest of all those exclusively served by the Virginian, extends over 24,000 acres of fine coal land.  This company has big collieries and hundreds of coke ovens at Page, near the Deepwater end of the line.  Summing up the coal resources reached by the Virginian, it is found the 200,000 acres are now touched by the carrier.  These lie in four counties, and there is no richer coal section in the state of West Virginia.  There are over half a dozen operations actually working now, but a score are being planned.
    In a short time two additional branch lines will be added to the road.  The first is now being graded for fifty miles down the Guyandotte River, through Wyoming into Mingo county, and the second is contracted for to run a distance of twenty-five miles up the Winding Gulf Creek.  These will double the coal acreage from which the road may draw.
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[Some numerals were blurred on the microfilm, but the best interpretation is shown.]

Gordon Hamilton
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