Thursday, May 15, 1924
The May 15, 1924 and May 22, 1924 editions of The Pocahontas Times were not digitized for our archives, so we will take a look back at the timber industry in the county from 100 years ago.
From History of Pocahontas County – 1981
… By the early 1930s, it was all over. The timber boom that was to last forever was deflated. With the exception of the Cass mill, all the mills that had been established with the building of the railroad were closed. Many of the mill towns were already no more than names. The virgin timber was gone and much of the land was a wasteland – damaged by the poor logging practices used and ravaged by the bad fires that often followed the logging operations. And the worst fires were yet to come, a result of the drought conditions of the middle 1930s.
But renewal was on its way. The natural healing powers of nature began their work as soon as the logger finished. Nature was also aided by man. Bad flooding in the Ohio River basin caused in part by the greatly reduced ability of mountains stripped of their tree cover to retain water helped to bring about the creation of the Monongahela National Forest. The first land in Pocahontas County to become a part of the national forest was 9,674 acres sold to the Forest Service in April 1923 by George Craig and sons. The work of reforestation started by the Forest Service was accelerated in the 1930s by the outstanding achievements of the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Today, (1981) the forests of Pocahontas County, with proper management and harvesting procedures support something more important than a boom – a stable lumber industry to provide steady employment and tax revenue over the long haul.
Unfortunately, no figures exist as to the amount of timber cut and lumber produced in Pocahontas County from the beginning of the white pine operations to the end of the boom period.
A few estimates of production by some individual companies may give some idea of the vast total.
Campbell Lumber Company – 158,000,000 board feet.
North Fork Lumber Company (1916-1927) – 110,000,000 board feet.
Wildell Lumber Company – 125,000,000 board feet, 25,000 car loads of pulp, 10,000 car loads of lumber.
Gilfillan, Neill and Co. – 100,000,000 board feet.
From 1884 to 1910, it is estimated that the St. Lawrence mill at Ronceverte cut 433,000,000 board feet from Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties.
To be continued …