6lO CLAY, ROAD MATERIALS, ETC. 



attention for commercial power development are the West 

 Fork River in Lewis and the Little Kanawha, flowing through 

 both Lewis and Gilmer, along both of which plants might be 

 constructed, although conditions are not ideal. No gaging 

 records are available in either county along these streams, but 

 it is certain that the run-off in winter and spring is large, 

 while in the summer and fall it is correspondingly small, mak- 

 ing it necessary to build enormous storage reservoirs to equr" 

 ize the flow. An additional drawback is the fact that these 

 streams run through thickly settled regions, where the bottom 

 lands are of great agricultural productivity and there are 

 many coal seams that would be difficult to mine if the valleys 

 were flooded. An additional drawback would be the distance 

 to convenient markets, without which such projects are un- 

 successful, and the further fact that both counties have large 

 quantities of cheap natural gas introduces a competing factor 

 that is not found in most regions where hydro-electric dc- 

 opment has proved successful. The most favorable location 

 for such a plant would be in the neighborhood of Wildcat on 

 the Little Kanawha River, where the run-off from both 

 branches of the river could be secured, the flow being more 

 constant here on account of the much larger percentage of 

 forest area in this region, and the damage to abutting prop- 

 erty would be the least, because the land is poor. 



The following table, showing indicated horse-power de- 

 veloped by streams flowing through Lewis and Gilmer, is 

 compiled from Tables 15, 17 and 18, pages 417, 424 and 425, 

 of the Semi-Centennial History of West Virginia, by Dr. J. M. 

 Callahan, the tables in question being part of a special article 

 on "Water Power Resources" by A. H. Horton, District En- 

 gineer, Water Resources Branch. U. S. Geological Survey: 



