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<DIV><FONT face="Trebuchet MS">Bluefield Daily Telegraph<BR>April 11,
1909</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=4>RICHEST BITUMINOUS PRODUCER IN WORLD</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>Rogers Party Enthusiastic Over Resources of Section
Traversed by Virginian Railway</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> 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.</DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=left>[<EM>Some numerals were blurred on the microfilm, but the best
interpretation is shown.</EM>]</DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Script size=6>Gordon
Hamilton</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>