218 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



the southeast are Meadow river, Hominy creek, Cherry river, 

 and Cranberry river. The waters which drain a narrow area 

 of land along the Clay county line reach the Elk river through 

 Leatherwood, Buffalo and other creeks; and those that drain a 

 large area in the north reach the Elk through Birch river and 

 Strange creek. 



Original Forest Conditions. 



In the hardwood forests of the county white oak^ red oak, 

 chestnut oak, yellow poplar, hickory, beech and maple were 

 among the commonest species. With these grew nearly all other 

 hardwoods common in the forests of central West Virginia. 

 Black walnut was very abundant and of excellent quality in 

 several localities. Hemlock was the principal softwood, being 

 distributed generally over the county. Small areas of spruce 

 grew in the high mountains in the extreme eastern corner. 



The Lumber Industry. 



The roughness of Gauley river prevented rafting, but 

 thousands of poplar logs were drifted on the stream to mills 

 located on the Great Kanawha. The first extensive drifting 

 supplied logs to Thompson's circular saw mill situated near 

 Kanawha Falls in Fayette county. J. R. Huffman, who had 2 

 band saw mills at Charleston, drifted poplar, walnut and bass- 

 wood logs in large numbers from many points along the Gauley 

 and some of its larger tributaries. Timber was bought at a 

 very low price by both Thompson and Huffman and little care 

 was taken to save all the logs that were cut. It is stated that 

 thousands of feet of black walnut logs sank in transit on slow- 

 flowing Muddlety creek and are now buried along its sandy 

 channel. Hundreds of the finest poplar and walnut logs were 

 also left to rot upon the banks and in the drift-heaps along 

 Gauley river. A similar waste was permitted along Birch river 

 and Strange creek, tributaries of the Elk. Dams were built on 

 these streams and when the logs were ''splashed" out or when 

 they were drifted out during freshets many of them lodged 

 upon the banks and were there allowed to remain. 



