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CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



War navigation on the river was stopped, the dams were broken, 

 and all improvements greatly damaged. After the war was 

 over repairs were made and the system remained intact until 

 about the year 1875. 



Mr. Julian Hill, of Madison, states that the first steam saw 

 mill in the county was put in operation at Peytona on the Big 

 Coal river about 1840 and was known as the Van Horn mill. 

 Before the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio branch rail- 

 road to Madison in 1907, however, there had been but few steam 

 saw mills in operation in the county and most of the timber cut 

 had been manufactured on mills at St. Albans and other points 

 outside. The Knight Lumber Company, at Sattes, and the 

 Mohler Lumber Company, near St. Albans, are still floating 

 not far from 13,000,000 feet of timber each year down the Coal 

 river from Boone. 



The largest 'operation located in the county has been that 

 of Peytona Lumber Company, with a single band mill at Pey- 

 tona on the Big Coal river. This plant was put in operation 

 in 1905. 



During the past 5 years small mills have literally flocked 

 to the forests of the county made accessible by the building of 

 the railroad. There are now not fewer than 40 mills sawing in 

 different sections. 



Since the railroad was extended from Madison to Clothier 

 in 1909 a large band mill belonging to Boone Timber Company 

 has been built just across the line in Logan county. This mill 

 will be supplied in part by logs from Boone county. 



Present Forest Conditions. 



The county is covered largely with cut-over forests aggre- 

 gating about 200,000 acres. Most of this forest land is ovmed 

 by companies which are holding or operating it for coal or 

 lumber. There are also approximately 10,500 acres of virgin 

 forest land lying principally in four areas. Two virgin tracts 

 lie wholly within the county, one near Peytona and another not 

 far from the northern end of the county on waters of the Little 

 Coal river. In the southern end a portion of a large virgin area 



