WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL. SURVEY. 



175 



grew in every locality. In the fertile valleys of Hackers creek 

 and West Fork river the stand of timber was once enormous, as 

 indicated by a few remnants that still remain. The broad mea- 

 dows of the bottom lands are almost everywhere adorned with 

 magnificent specimens of such trees as black maple, white elm, 

 sweet buckeye and white oak. Along the slow-flowing streams 

 black willows, sycamores, box elders and many other water- 

 loving trees grow in profusion. These individual trees and 

 small areas of timberland furnish the most reliable and satisfac- 

 tory information regarding the original forests. 



The Lumber Industry. 



More than half of the county was settled before timber could 

 be sold for enough to justify the owners in getting it to market. 

 The early settlements throughout the northern and eastern dis- 

 tricts were supplied with such lumber as they needed by the 

 water-power saw mills located along the streams of this region. 

 That only the choice trees, such as soft yellow poplars and black 

 wahiuts were cut for this purpose, is shown by the clear and well 

 preserved lumber in some of the old residences and out-buildings 

 still to be found. All trees that were too large to be easily manu- 

 factured as well as all that were not within easy reach of some 

 mill, were cut down and split into fence rails, boards, or punch- 

 eons, or else rolled together in the clearings and burned. 



There were large numbers of poplar logs floated on the West 

 Fork river from about 1875 to 1890. This was before the time 

 of an active industry at home and the logs were obtained at a low 

 price. Mr. R. T. Lowndes, of Clarksburg, was the principal oper- 

 ator, during this period. He bought logs from the land owners 

 along West Fork and its larger tributaries and floated them to 

 Clarksburg where they were manufactured into lumber on his cir- 

 cular mills. W. B. Mick and Sons also floated logs within the 

 same period. 



There has never been a band saw mill in operation in the 

 county. Portable stave and circular lumber mills have cut most 

 of the timber not removed as described above. Almost every lo- 

 cality has had mills of the latter kind. The two districts which 

 have been most thinly settled and in which the portable saw mill 



