Page 12 - A Narrative of the History of Roanoke Virginia

And back in Philadelphia, as the information poured in about the discovery, the second most
important decision was being formed concerning the find. Secret surveys and title searches
were undertaken and the result was that much of that territory was either not under contract
or was owned by a number of property holders with little or no idea of the worth of their land.
Clark quickly realized that owning the deposit was far more profitable than leasing the
mineral rights.

The Clark firm moved quickly to monopolize access to the seam: it bought up all existing
railroad charters into the area, purchased mineral rights for a hundred-thousand acres along
the belt, and helped organize the Southwest Virginia Improvement Company. In a separate
brilliant move, the new land owner began leasing the mining rights, but only exclusively to
operators who agreed to use the N&W railroad for cartage. By August 1881, the N&W
owned the vast holding known as the Pocahantas minefield.

The final survey of the find revealed that the original twelve-foot wide Flat Top Pocahontas
seam ran for six miles before dividing into two five-foot seams for the next eight miles,
bringing the total “Pocahontas” deposit to around six to ten thousand tons of coal per acre. It
was named one of the largest coalfields in the United States.

The rail line began construction on a seventy-five mile spur line from Radford, Virginia, to
Pocahontas, Virginia, a company town being built by the Improvement Company as its base
of operations in the coalfields.

News of the proposed SVRR junction with the N&W in the vicinity of Bonsack spread to the
Highlands not long after Clark & Company purchased the AM&O, and towns that stood any
chance of getting the junction initiated campaigns to lure the railroad. Salem, which had
already been selected as a junction for the rival “Valley Railroad,” sent a delegation that
included the president of Roanoke College to meet with SVRR officials in Luray. Later, the
town also convinced U. S. Senator William Mahone to petition the line for a terminus at
Salem.

Lynchburg, already home to the AM&O’s offices and machine shops as well as a junction
with the Midland Railroad, also sent a prestigious delegation to confer with the officials. Big
Lick, by contrast, assumed it had no real chance to get the junction until a survey team for
the railroad came to town. Residents “grew very much interested” after that, according to
State Delegate Henry Trout, and although the town lacked the budget of its larger rivals, it
immediately instigated a modest campaign to make a case for the place.

In late February 1881, Big Lick’s business owners and councilmen gathered at Rorer Hall to
discuss a strategy for attracting the railroad. The village, the group concurred, had
numerous “inducements” that could make it the best choice. It was located in the midst of an
agricultural bonanza, it had rivers and creeks to supply water power for mills, it was “a
manufacturing town of no small magnitude”. And there were some mineral deposits nearby.
Although the citizens present expressed interest in doing what they could to get the line’s
attention, Peyton L. Terry, a wealthy tobacco merchant and dry goods store owner, told
those gathered that he was afraid townspeople “were not sufficiently aroused to the