NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF GILES COUNTY, VIRGINIA 
By *George D. Hubbard and fCAREY G. Croneis 
INTRODUCTION 
Location and Extent of Area 
Giles County is in the northern section of the southwestern 
portion of the State of Virginia. It is bounded on the north by 
the State of West Virginia, on the east by Craig County, on 
the south by Montgomery and Pulaski counties, and on the west 
by Bland County. Pearisburg, the county seat, which lies a lit- 
tle north and west of the geographical center, is 37°19'N latitude 
and 80°44"W longitude. 
Inclosed within the irregular boundaries of the county are a 
trifle less than 350 square miles. 
Previous Work 
In 1881, Boyd^ published his ''Resources of Southwest Vir- 
ginia,” which contained, among other things, a short account of 
the geology of Giles County. Boyd, however, had merely sum- 
marized the also short account which appeared in W. B. Roger's 
"Geology of the Virginias” in 1841. The work, excellent for 
having been done in the early forties, was not so good forty years 
later. Boyd also gives a rather complete account of the county's 
mineral resources. Here it may be said that Mr. Boyd was an 
optimist when he was discussing the iron ores of Giles County. 
However, it should be added that he was also something of a 
prophet when he was discussing manganese prospects. Of this 
more will be said in the chapter on Economic Resources. 
Stevenson,^ in 1887, made a geological reconnaissance of a 
half a dozen counties in the southwest portion of Virginia. Giles 
was one of the counties visited and Stevenson’s observations on 
* Department of Geology, Oberlin College. 
t Department of Geology, University of Arkansas. 
^ Boyd, C. R., “Resources of Southwest Virginia,” J. Wiley & Sons, 1881. 
^ Stevenson, J. J., “A Geological Reconnaissance of Bland, Giles, Wythe 
and portions of Pulaski and Montgomery Counties of Virginia.” Proc. of 
Amer. Phil. Soc., Vol. 24, 1887. 
307 
