WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



263 



bottoms of Tygarts Valley river from Valley Head to a point 

 about 2 miles below Elkins, and along Leading creek. The bot- 

 toms of most of the creeks and rivers are very narrow. There 

 are level or undulating uplands in several localities as Mingo 

 Flats, near the head of Tygarts Valley river; Whitman Flats 

 and Cranberry Flats, east of Rich mountain; and Roaring 

 Plains, on the Alleghany mountains. 



The largest streams of the county flow northeastward be- 

 tween the high mountain ridges named above. These, named in 

 the order that one would cross them going from east to west, are 

 Gandy creek, Dry Fork of Cheat, Laurel Fork of Cheat, Glady 

 Fork of Cheat, Shavers Fork of Cheat, Tygarts Valley, Middle 

 Fork of Tygarts Valley, and the Left and Right Forks of Buck- 

 hannon. Space will not permit an enumeration of the large 

 number of creeks and runs that are tributary to the rivers men- 

 tioned. An area of considerable extent in the southern end 

 of the county is drained by the headwaters of Elk and Holly 

 rivers. The several large forks of Cheat, as well as the Elk, 

 the Middle Fork, the Buckhannon and the Holly, are clear, 

 rapid-flowing streams, and all the rivers and their numerous 

 tributaries have their sources in the forests of the high moun- 

 tains. The Shavers Fork of Cheat enters Randolph at an alti- 

 tude of 3,700 feet and leaves at 1,765 feet, making a fall in its 

 course through the county of 1,935 feet. It is pointed out in 

 Maxwell's History of Randolph County that the fall of the 

 waters of this stream in Randolph county is 170 feet more than 

 in its course of about 3,000 miles through the Monongahela, the 

 Ohio and the Mississippi from the Randolph line to the Gulf of 

 Mexico. The enormous power of the water in the county is 

 almost beyond computation. 



The Lumber Industry. 



Although there were settlements in Randolph county as 

 early as 1772, most of the forest land remained undisturbed 

 for a hundred years thereafter. Outside of the valleys of 

 Tygarts Valley river and of Leading creek the territory was 

 slowly occupied, being mostly high, mountainous land and unfit 

 for farming purposes. 



