N&W in 1909--Princeton

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
December 14, 1909

MAY ENTER PRINCETON
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Norfolk and Western Likely to Touch One of Important Points on Virginian

    Roanoke Times:  Everyone concerned with the industrial business of the Princeton section of the states of Virginia and West Virginia has for a year now predicted that the Norfolk and Western, by reason of the building of the Virginian railway on a low grade, would of necessity be forced to build the original route through Princeton by way of the Stinson Gap at the head of Rocky Hollow to the mouth of Widemouth.  The Norfolk and Western has never abandoned this route, and it is now rumored that it now intends to build this line.  Whether this will be done cannot now be stated, but the fact that there are engineers on this line between Stinson Gap and Princeton and between Princeton and Sand Lick adds much to the rumor.
    The supposition that the Virginia [sic] could extend a line from Princeton to Bluefield is without foundation.  The Virginian will go to Pocahontas, tap the upper coal fields and bring the product of their mines through Princeton as the shortest route to the seaboard and the easiest grades.
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[It is interesting that this article states, "The Norfolk and Western has never abandoned this route."  None of the NWHS Archives' three 1890 and 1891 Jed Hotchkiss  maps of proposed railroad lines into the "Great Flat Top Coal Fields"  shows a line through Princeton although one 1890 map shows that some elevations were taken near Princeton and also Sand Lick Church.  Does anyone know of any other evidence that the N&W proposed to reach the coal fields by way of Princeton.  Incidentally, Sand Lick flows into the Bluestone River from the east with its mouth just north of the mouths of Crane Creek, Flipping Creek and Simmons Creek, which all flow into the river from the west.]

Gordon Hamilton
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