Virginia: a Hand-book Giving Its History, Climate, and Mineral Wealth: Its Educational, Agricultural and Industrial Advantages
By Virginia. Dept. of Agriculture, Thomas Whitehead, Virginia. Board of Agriculture
Published by E. Waddey Co., 1893
Original from the University of Virginia
Digitized Dec 19, 2007
349 pages
PULASKI
Was formed in 1839 from Wythe and Montgomery. It is twenty five miles long and eighteen miles wide. The surface in some parts broken and in others level. Area, 195,763 acres. The soil is very good and adapted to grain and grazing. Population, 12,790 males; 6,568 females; 6,222; white, 9,669 colored 3,121. The county is situated in the fertile and beautiful New River Valley and is noted for its rich hay and grass and fine stock.
Its increased railroad facilities and mineral developments have been greater in the last eight years than in most counties in the State. From the Norfolk and Western Railroad, which is the main line running through the county from east to west, two important branches have been thrown out&em;one starting from New River Bridge and extending a distance of eighty-four miles into Tazewell county, opening up the great Pocahontas or Flat Top coal field; and the other leaves the main line at Martin's, now Pulaski City, and extends up the New River and Cripple Creek valleys.
In 1886 the following description of the mining interests was prepared for the Hand-Book:
“In addition, within the last year the Belle Hampton Coal and Iron Company have built a narrow gauge road from near Churchwood, on the New River road, to Tyler's Brush Mountain coal mines, a distance of four and a quarter miles, and is mining and shipping a quantity of stove and grate coal that commands the best price of any coal in the State.
“In 1878 the Altoona narrow gauge road was built from Martin's to their valuable coal fields&em;a distance of eight miles&em;and has transported great quantities of coal, which has been used principally in smelting zinc ore at the Bertha Zinc Works, and at the salt furnaces of Colonel Geo. W. Palmer at Saltville.
“The coal on Brushy Mountain, on which are located the Altoona and Belle Hampton (or Tyler's) mines crops out near the top of the mountain for a distance of about forty miles&em;through Pulaski county and east and west into Wythe and Montgomery counties&em;and lays at a pitch of about thirty five degrees, and from the fact that the veins are thrown up again some miles south&em;on the Tract Mountain, in Pulaski, and Price's Mountain, in Montgomery&em;it is believed that the substratum of the whole valley between is one solid mass of coal.”
There are valuable veins of limestone and fine building stone. Limestone, sandstone, or granite can be gotten, and a fine vein of millstone rock is found on Brushy Mountain, near the coal vein. Rock nearly equal to the French burr is gotten out near the Belle Hampton coal banks. There is also on the same mountain a vein from which valuable grindstones are made, and another that furnishes whetstones of superior quality. A vein of zinc ore fifteen feet thick has been found on the lands of D. S. Forney, and near here are the well known “Bertha Zinc Mines,” from which a supply of ore yielding 45 per cent., is drawn for the furnace at Martin's, on the Norfolk and Western Railroad, that has a capacity of 1,300 tons (now more than 3,000) of spelter a year. In other places iron, lead, copper, manganese, etc., are found. One of the finest bodies of mineral lands in the United States is located partly in the extreme southwestern end of the county, beginning near the junction of Big and Little Island creeks with New River, and extending a great distance up the New River Valley. “Boon Furnace,” in this county is situated on a bed of this ore, and is regarded as one of the most profitable furnaces in the United States. It continued in operation all through the suspension, although having to haul its product fifteen miles to reach a shipping point. Valuable lead and zinc deposits occur in juxtaposition to these iron beds throughout their extent. Taken altogether, it is unsurpassed by any mineral section in the world. (Reported in 1886.)
There are many streams affording valuable water power for mills and manufacturing purposes. At Snowville, a thrifty little village, they have a woollen mill, a foundry, agricultural implement shops, and other machinery, and at New River Bridge a foundry and spoke factory, and other works are in contemplation.