WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



219 



There were a few water-power saw mills along the Gauley 

 and other streams and a very few small portable mills in opera- 

 tion before the year 1885. Most of the timber that had been 

 sold up to that time, however, had been taken from lands ad- 

 jacent to the larger streams and drifted out, as above men- 

 tioned. The lumber from small mills operating in the interior 

 of the county during the past 25 years has been hauled on 

 wagons and tram-roads to Camden-on-Gauley and Richwood, 

 on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and to Belva on the Chesa- 

 peake and Ohio. The names and approximate dates of a few 

 portable saw mill operations are given below: 



A. J. Aylor operated a portable mill in the vicinity of 

 Craigsville from 1896 to 1902; L. C. Williams, from 1898 to 

 1905, on the waters of Gauley river; Geo. H. Alderson, 1893 

 to 1902, in many sections of the county; W. D. Huff, 1895 to 

 1908, numerous sets; Marple Bros., 1902 to 1908, on Cranberry 

 river; T. A¥. Blankenship, 1898 to the present, on Beaver creek 

 and Gauley river. The extensive operations of Arthur Brooks 

 on Beaver creek should also be mentioned. Beside these there 

 are many others that have operated in a small way and many 

 others, also, that have recently begun to operate. 



During the last few years the forests of the county have 

 been made accessible by the building of railroads, and 11 huge 

 band mills within the county and 2 or 3 on the outside are en- 

 gaged in reducing the quantity of timber in Nicholas and ad- 

 joining counties at the rate of over 200 million feet a year. 

 Three of these mills are located toward the southern end of the 

 county — at Yaughan, Swiss, and at the mouth of Grassy creek; 

 one is at Tioga in the northern end of the coimty; and the re- 

 mainder are near the Baltimore and Ohio railroad between Al- 

 lingdale station and Eichwood. The operations of the Cherry 

 River Boom and Lumber Company, with 2 mills in Nicholas 

 and 1 in Webster, and of Pardee and Curtin Lumber Company, 

 with 3 mills in Nicholas, are the largest in the state and are 

 among the largest in the country. A writer on the resources of 

 West Virginia said of Nicholas county 17 years ago, "A few 

 mills are located in the county and some logs are taken out the 

 Gauley to be sawed at other places but the timber supply i^ 

 being almost imperceptibly reduced by this." If all the mills 



