Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1881 — LETTER FROM WEST VIRGINIA. [ARTICLE]
LETTER FROM WEST VIRGINIA.
My last letter was written from Kanawha Falls, W. Vu., some time ago, but rather than permit my narrative to |be incomplete, I will finish it at this late day. Of the little village cf Kanawha Falls too much cannot be said. It is situated in a slight dilation or widening of the river gorge, at the falls of the Great Kanawha River, and is surrounded on every side by the bold, abrupt and craggy Allegheny mountains, which rise from 800 to 1000 feet high, and it is certainly an ideal picture for a good aitist. The falls of the Kanawha are about 16 feethigh and are truly beautiful. I ie river above them is nearly a ha f mile wide, but it suddenly contracts to about 200 feet, where the water rolls over a ledge of roc.cs with a thundering noise, so that for a long distance in either direction from the falls, it seems.as if Vulcan were continually forging thunderbolts. On the 2d inst. we boarded an eastern bound freight train and soon arrived at Hawk’s Nest Station, about ten miles east of Kanawha Falls, and after a climb of two miles, winding around the mountain, we reached the celebrated Hawk’s Nest Cliff, which is 2200 feet high, and almost directly over the station. Here indeed a grand view could be obtained. We could
trace the course of-lhe river gorge for a long distance, by the position of the mountains on either side of it, unt 1 far away some solitary giant peak would stand directly across our line of vision, and would seemingly terminate the valley. Along the south side of the river, following its bends, and clinging to it like a parasite, Co’d be seen now and then the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad, which looked like a a huge snake curving gracefully around the mountain. To our left the “Lovers’Leap,” a cliff about the height of the Hawk’s Nest, appeared to stand alone with scarcely any support, while far in the distance a peak of s'a! wait arehaen rock rose higher still, and “dipped its top in the blue above.”! It was a scene to animate the most prosyjpracticaljhcart, and I had occasion while there to soliloquize upon my own significance com pared to these vast works o. nature. However, man has the responsible positi n of being interpreter of these works; of being able to conquer them by the power of thought. He can tell the foim and position of the land before they were forme I, and when and by what means and through what agencies their formation was effected. Not so insignificant is man, there''orc, after all. He was created la t; the age of man, the I’sychozoic era of Geology is by far the .-hottest of all, yet verily the last is first, for he has made the rocks silent witnesses of his power, and from them has constiucted a history of the world in the past. He is now developing the pres ent, and let ns hope that one day he may be enabled to neerinto the mists which hide from us the future.
’ The Kanawha Valley has been form •<1 entirely by erosion. Evidences of This are to be seen where the strata, broken and contorted, correspond, on both si<|es of the river valley. This erosion is from one to two thousuml feet deep. Tow long must it have taken the water to wear through one- ? nirth of a mile.of solid sandstone? The ('■ &■ O bed forms a . ue cessionlof dec p cuts hi h grades, and sharp ami apparently dangerous curves and dark tunnels cut through solid rock. We visited the Amsted coal mine, about 3| miles from Hawk's Nest, lining thither on a narrow gauge train, which in that distance runs up a grade of 1000 feet. How’s that for hiah!— ]n the mines we obtained some, line specimens of conifers, segillar.d ferns, and calamities, which a s riel Biblical chronologic would hardly 1 e able to account ior, but which nourished on the earth’s surface hundreds of thousands— probably millions es years ago. . Good carbo iji 1 crouds coal is taxoi: from the Amsted mine. The vein iseveral feet thick and has the ti-uul accompaniment of hard, brittle slate About 100 men are constantly employ ed and each man takes out from 3 to 6 tons per day, receiving dOc.per ton. \fter a good view o’ the mine we climbed upon pony coal cars, about 8 b V 4 feet and started down the moon tain propelled by gravity alone. The sensation experienced when riding upon wild cars, the engine being detached can better be imagined than described; especially when shaip curves, high trestles and overhang-
ing rocks abound. A great many evidences of the war arG Jill visible about Kanawha Falis, YourXcorrespondent obtained many in nuio '-'alls and grape shot from an exploded arsenal just across the river from the hotel. _ About two miles east of Kanawha are* the remains of a bridge across the Gauley river, which was destroy rd bv rebs during the war, and winch m s never been replaced: and near the same place are breastworks, rifle-i its and several soldiers’ graves. A lew vtnls east of our hotel stood, six Jnnnths ago, a log hut with one loom. . 1S well built as they usually are. Ims was constructed by order of ex-pt esdent Hayes, who. during the wint< r of ’6’2 and ’63 made it his headquarters The house has lately been de stroyed. but the people love to tell about it.
The people living in the Kanawha i V'll'ev were mostly Southern syinpu- i fhizei auri» K .be war. Many -n I in Kanawha Fjills are proud to admit tb.ut wore guerillas, an cl can t°ll wonderful and''interesting stories of exploits and ad ventures in the mountaEvorybody is healthy There was not a phvsician witiim fifteen miles o us during our whole visit. On political topics the people were somewhat reticent. However, I earned this much, that they were not at all anxious to assume their portion of ti e Virginia State debt contracted before the war. They say their State is too poor for them w assume the debt, which is very true, and that thou people are too pool also, which is ti uer still, in fact there is so few acres of tillable land that every foot that will admit of it is cultivated. M e saw a une farms away up on the mountain side a an angl of about 30 Afaeetous tde was tola us of a mal falling out of bis i.um and breaking
his leg. The people are more loquacious on the subject of Mahone and his Readjusters and curse them from thebott/miof their hearts. There is a surpii.dng unanimity in opinion among educated whites on the latter subject both in the Old Dominion and in West Virginia. Mahone is too Conklingish to suit them, they are not fond of political lions especially when the latter arc on the wrong side in the fight. West Virginia is yet an undeveloped State, but the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad has been a god-send to the people living in the mountains, and with her magnificent and valuable coal mines, that part of her territory is rapidly gaining headway. The State will never amount to much as compared with some of our Western States and Territories, out still when her educational facilities are increased, her mineral and agricultural resources more developed, and her political questions fully set tied, let us hope to see her an honored star in the American constellation.
A.