WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



113 



river in Boone county, the dimensions of which are given by 

 Maj. Jhos. L. Broun, of Charleston, as follows: The tree meas- 

 ured eight feet and nine inches in diameter at the base, and the 

 distance from the ground to the first limb was seventy-one feet. 

 From the tree were cut six logs, each twelve feet in length, the 

 diameters of which at the small ends were respectively seven 

 feet, four inches; seven feet; six feet eight inches; six feet one 

 inch ; five feet nine inches, and five feet six inches. 



^'Wm. C. Reynolds, civil engineer, says: I found on West 

 Fork near the head and over one thousand feet above the foot 

 of the mountain, a walnut tree eight feet in diameter and tall 

 enough to furnish half a dozen average length logs."* 



The Lumber Industry. 



According to Mr. William Thompson, of Madison, '*Up to 

 the year 1830 no timber of any note had been taken out of the 

 county. About this time, however, the people who lived along 

 Little and Big Coal rivers began to cut the finest of the poplar 

 for flat-boats which they constructed themselves and floated to 

 St. Albans during freshets. From there the boats were towed 

 by steam boats and distributed above at the various salt fur- 

 naces along the Great Kanawha. The whole flat-boat was made 

 of poplar except the white oak boat pins. At •first the boats 

 were comparatively small and the gunwales were hewed and 

 sawed by hand. The price then was from $2 to $3 a running 

 foot. Later, when the flat-boats were. made larger and were 

 loaded with fencing plank and staves, the price was reduced to 

 $1 a foot. There were probably as many as 100 flat-boats built 

 on the Little and Big Coal rivers each year for 40 years, or 

 more." 



Beginjiing about the year 1855 the Coal River Navigation 

 Company put in a system of locks and dams on the Big Coal 

 River from its mouth at St. Albans to the village of Peytona 30 

 miles above. The river was thus made navigable for boats and 

 barges, and large quantities of coal, logs, staves, tan bark, and 

 hoop-poles were brought out of the county. During the Civil 



* *'T.he Mountain State"— Summem 

 8 



