WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 14.j 



Original Timber Conditions. 



On the Allegliany mountains red spruce and hemlock were 

 the predominant timbers, originally, with a scattered growth of 

 sugar maples, beeches, and other hardwoods. East of this, be- 

 ginning abruptly along the upper margin of the Alleghany es- 

 carpment, the growth was of many varieties of hardwoods, 

 liberally intermixed with the pines that were found throughout 

 that region. White oak and chestnut oak were the most valuable 

 hardwoods, and yellow pine was the leading softwood of the east- 

 ern part of the county. 



The Lumber Industry. 



The lumber operations in Grant county have been confined, 

 chiefly, to the mountainous, northwestern section which was 

 made accessible by the building of the Western Maryland rail- 

 road along the North Branch in 1887. Since that time the bulk 

 of the timber has been taken from the top of the Alleghanies to 

 supply the large mills located at Wallman, Maryland, and at 

 Bayard, Wilson, Dobbin, Henry, Wilsonia and Fairfax, West 

 Virginia, and to supply smaller mills scattered here and there in 

 the region lying back from the railroad. All the large band mills 

 in the county have ceased to run except the plant at Dobbin 

 owned by the Parsons Pulp and Lumber Company. 



Not much has been done in the lumber industry east of the 

 Alleghanies. The sawing by small water and steam mills, through 

 all the years of settlement and up to the present time, has been 

 for the purpose, principally, of supplying lumber for local uses. 

 An exception to this was the floating and hauling out of walnut, 

 poplar and pine logs about 20 years ago, and the cutting for 

 many years of chestnut oak timber for tan bark. Much bark has 

 been used by the local tanneries at Moorefield and New Creek 

 and at Petersburg before the burning of the plant at that place 

 in 1904. The loss of timber in the bark industry has been con- 

 siderable, probably one half of the chestnut oak cut being 

 wasted. The chestnut oak timber in the Maysville, Greenland and 

 Williamsport sections has been largely utilized for lumber and 



