CHAPTER VI 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



Had all parts of West Virginia been as easily reached and 

 settled as the valleys of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, 

 on the east of the Alleghanies, or as the valleys and low hill 

 areas along the Ohio, the Great Kanawha and other rivers on 

 the west and south, the conditions in all sections would be more 

 uniform, and a larger area than the county could be taken as a 

 unit for study. Such^ however, has not been the case. Large 

 areas in the interior of the state, remote from navigable streams 

 and from the main lines of travel, have been occupied and de- 

 veloped slowly ; and many of the rough and unproductive moun- 

 tainous sections have acted as complete barriers to settlement. ' 

 Almost every conceivable condition and stage of development, 

 therefore, will be observed in crossing the State from east to 

 west. Some sections have been settled for more than 150 years, 

 and a large percentage of the forest removed; others have been 

 partially settled and improved in more recent years; and still 

 others have remained to the present time in their wild, original 

 state. A discussion of local conditions is intended to assist the 

 owners of large and small tracts of woodland in making intelli- 

 gent application of the recommendations contained in this re- 

 port. 



In the following discussions of past and present conditions 

 in the 55 counties of the State the writer has depended for in- 

 formation on a hasty and, in some cases, slight examination of 

 the forests, the streams, and the lumber operations in each 

 county; on the facts gathered from hundreds of lumbermen, 

 surveyors, county officials and other citizens in every part of the 

 w State; and on the facts regarding the subjects treated in the 

 publications of state and county historians and othei*s who are 

 the authors of hand-books, reports and other literature. 



The areas of Brooke, Calhoun, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, 



