USA > West Virginia > Randolph County > The history of Randolph County, West Virginia. From its earliest settlement to the present, embracing records of all the leading families, reminiscences and traditions > Part 34
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" The letters and figures in the cut represent: B-Beverly; R-Tygart's River; S- summit of the ancient mountain; 1-the stratum of rock called The Great Conglomerate; 2-Canaan Formation; 3-Greenbrier Limestone; 4-Pocono Sandstone; 5-Hampshire Formation; 6-Jennings Formation, the floor of the valley; 7-Romney Shale, lying just beneath the valley floor.
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east, and the other force from the southeast toward the northwest. The result was that the strata, acted upon from both directions, were bent in enormous folds and arches, like waves on water. This is why we seldom see ledges lying flat, but nearly always tilted one way or the other.
There were four prominent folds or anticlines between the Ohio River and the Valley of Virginia, and many smaller ones, along a line drawn nearly southeast and northwest, through Beverly and Franklin. The first anticline (arch) is centered on Long Ridge, west of the Shenandoah Moun- tains; the next just west of it, produces Castle Mountain; the third, still west, has its center in North Fork Mountain, and the fourth produced the enormous mountain which arched over the Tygart's Valley River, of which Cheat Mountain and Rich Mountain are the remnants, the central and higher part having been worn away. There is no large fold west of Rich Moun- tain, the layers being nearly horizontal from there to the Ohio River; nor are there remnants of any large folds east of the Valley of Virginia. If such existed they are worn away. This description is meant only as an ex- pression, in the most general terms, of the structure. There are folds and flexures, almost without number. making a network over the whole area, and forming a complex system intricate in the extreme. But the four great anticlines mentioned are the chief features. If the foldings could be restored and made to appear as they would be if none of the upper strata had been worn and washed away, we would now have four great mountain ranges
between the Ohio and the Shenandoah Valley, and there would be broken valleys (synclines) between the ranges. The most western range, rising above Tygart's Valley, would be 7000 feet high; North Fork Mountain would be 16,000 feet; Castle Mountain, 11,000, and Long Ridge, 10,000 feet. The Alleghany range would not be a mountain, but a valley. It is not the top of an arch or fold, but the bottom of a cyncline or trough between two folds. The same is true of the Shenandoah Mountain. The Roaring Plains, that bleak plateau on the summit of the Allghanies, are (speaking in a geological sense) the bottom of a valley. They would have been in the bottom of a valley had not the higher ground on both sides been washed away and scooped out. Spruce Mountain, the highest in the State, is a remnant of syncline or valley. It is thus seen that what was once mountain is now valley (as Tygart's Valley), and what was once valley in now moun- tain (as the Alleghany, Spruce Mountain and Shenandoah Mountain). The cause for the wearing away of one part faster than another is that the rock covering the one is softer, or is so exposed that it is more easily attacked by the elements. The "Great Conglomerate" is a great protector of what lies beneath.
That which has so changed the face of the country, and reversed the order of valleys and mountains, is the flowing streams. Rocks and hills which seem so solid and enduring, are helpless under the merciless and ccaseless chiseling of the rivers and rains, the winds and frosts. They crum- ble to atoms. The carved and excavated foundations of the four vast ranges above spoken of, are proof of the power of water in cutting away mountains. Fourteen thousand feet of rock, layer above layer, have been stripped from the top of North Fork Mountain. Could these strata be restored, they would bend as stupendous arches over the top of the present mountain, their summit covered with perpetual snow, and overtopping the loftiest peak now in the United States. Thousands of feet, taken as an average have been worn from the surface of the whole country, between Randolph
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County and the Valley of Virginia. The rains and rivers have done it, the rivers cutting deep trenches for slucing off the detritus, and the rains washing the sands and soil into the streams. The muddy water which comes from the uplands with every rain shows how much of the surface of the ground is being carried into the sea.
Having thus turned aside for a general view of the geology of the region, let a return be made to Tygart's Valley, and consider how the valley was formed, and what proof there is of its origin. Rivers are usually older than the mountains. Before the great folds of the rock were made between Randolph County and the Shenandoah Mountain, the country, as is believed, was nearly level, with a gentle slope in all directions from the highest point in Pendleton, Randolph and Pocahontas Counties. From that highest point rivers flowed in all directions, having their sources near together. The tributaries of the Cheat, with Tygart's Valley River, flowed north. Greenbrier flowcd south. Elk flowed southwest. The Little Kanawha took its course west, while the tributaries of the Potomac flowed east and north- cast. These streams probably all had well-cut channels before the folding of the strata and the elevation of mountains in the region commenced. Then as the horizontal compression began, and the great folds and arches of rock commenced to rise above the surface, there began a contest between the mountains and the rivers, as to which would oe master-whether the mountains, slowly upheaving, would turn the rivers from their courses, or whether the rivers would be able to cut through the mountains and continue in their old channels. The rivers were masters. They kept their courses, cutting away all obstacles. One great fold, as it happened, was upheaved directly under Tygart's Valley River. The river kept its course, deeping its channel along the summit of the mountain, which rose slowly. The amaz- ing slowness with which these folds were forced up surpasses compre- hension. There was no sudden upheaval, in a few months, or a few years; had there been, the rivers would have been turned aside. But ages unnumbered werc required, perhaps, for an elevation of a few feet, giving the rivers ample time to cut away the rocks as they were thrust up. The process was continued for hundreds of thousands of years, and, for aught we know, is going on yet as rapidly as ever.
The river may have been, and probably was, assisted in the work of excavating the valley along the summit by the rupture of the strata along the top of the arch. It can be seen that in bending a thick series of rocks into the form of an arch, the upper layers would be compelled to stretch or break, under the excessive strain. They would stretch to some extent; but the probability is that along the top of the mountain, as it was thrust up, the rocks were pulled asunder, forming a wide, deep crack along the entire summit. The river would of course take possession of this chasm for a channel, and would speedily widen and deepen it, forming it into a valley as it is now.
Thus the process of deepening and widening Tygart's Valley was simple. From the small beginning, from the small, shallow trench cut by the river along the axis of the fold, as it began to rise, the stream has worn deeper and cut wider as the mountain was forced up, until we now see the whole core of the mountain cut out, and only the sides remaining. The evidence of this is not far to seck. Six great layers of rock, each clearly defined, have been cut through by the river. The same strata are found on
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both sides ofthe valley.
The lowest one is called the Jennings Formation. It forms the bottom of the valley. It is not yet quite Formation Thick. MOSS cut through. It not only forms the floor of the valley, UPSHUR feet but the edges of the stratum are found along the hills on both sides, along the base of Cheat Moun- Sandstone 350 PUGH 300 tain and Rich Mountain. Next to this is a layer many hundred feet thick, called the Hampshire Formation, Great conglomerate named from its great development in Hampshire 400 County. The edge of this formation is found a little CANAAN higher than the Jennings, all along the base of Cheat Mountain. Crossing the valley to Rich Mountain, 1200 Greenbrier 400 Limestone the same formation is found, the edge of the stratum just above the first hills. On the Cheat Mountain POCONO 100 side the edges dip down toward the southeast. On HAMP - the Rich Mountain side they dip to the northwest. SHIRE The rocks on both sides of the valley rise toward the valley, and if continued, they would span the valley like an arch. The next layer above the . Hamphshire rock is the Pocono Sandstone. This is Jennings 700 not so thick; but a band of it runs along Cheat Mountain, and on the opposite side of the valley, at the same height the same rock is seen along the side of Rich Mountain. Above this comes a series Columnar Section, Shawing the Thickness and Order of the Different Strata of Rack in Randolph. of rocks of great thickness, easily distinguishable on account of its limestone. The series consists of the Canaan Formation and the Greenbrier Lime- stone. These rocks can be traced along the face of Cheat Mountain, and, at the same height, along the face of Rich Mountain, for the whole length of the valley. Like the formations above and below them, they pitch down into the mountains on each side of the valley, like the opposite sides of a vast arch, which, if continued would span the valley. Next above this is the Great Conglomerate, locally known as the Pickens Sandstone. It is a rock easily recognized. It is composed of round white pebles, in a matrix of sand. It is found near the tops of the mountains, along both sides of the valley. Above this are the Upshur Sandstone and the Pugh Formation. Thus it is seen that wherever a formation is founed along the face of Cheat Mountain, the same formation will be found, at the same altitude, on the opposite side of the valley against the side of Rich Mountain. Take the dip of any formation on both sides of the valley, and continue the lines from mountain to mountain, and it will be found that every formation will be an arch, the highest part of which will be over the center of the valley.
The question is naturally asked: How long ago did the river commence its work of excavating the valley? How old is the valley? What is the rate of erosion? Is the valley being made deeper and wider? The answers can be given only approximately. Geologists never measure by years. They can compare the age of one valley with that of another, or one moun- tain with another, or a valley with a mountain; but they cannot tell the length of time in years, except in rare cases and in the most recent work of geology. Tygart's Valley has been all, or nearly all, excavated since the close of the Carboniferous Age. The coal which lies on both sides, and probably once extended across, above the present valley, was formed be- fore the folding of the rocks began, which have since been lifted into moun-
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tains and chiseled into valleys. Although the numbers of years since then are inconceivable, so great that the mind cannot grasp them, nor thought comprehend them, yet these valleys and mountains are young when com- pared with some of the patriarchs of geology. Old as the mountain was, of which Rich Mountain and Cheat Mountain are the remnants, its age is but as a day to a thousand years when compared with some of the other mountains of America. The Blue Ridge was an old, almost obliterated mountain, when the waves of a restless ocean rolled over the site of Rich Mountain and the Alleghanies, and the Blue Ridge is new and young in comparison with the Laurentide Hills of Canada.
We cannot tell how much is worn away yearly from the surface of the mountains surrounding Tygart's Valley. Careful estimates, continued for many years, and based on the amount of sediment carried by the Missis- sippi River into the Gulf of Mexico each year, have reached the conclusion that the rate of erosion for the whole Mississippi Valley is equal to the removal of the whole land surface, one foot deep, in 5000 years. Thus, for wearing away of one foot of surface, fifty centuries are required. Since the building of the Pyramids of Egypt, the Mississippi basin has not been lowered one foot. Tygart's Valley is a part of the Mississippi basin, and this valley has been worn down 5000 feet. But, on account of the steep- ness of the slopes, the rate here has been much more rapid than the aver- age rate for the whole Mississippi basin. Suppose that it has been ten times as rapid, or one foot in 500 years. This would give the age of Ty- gart's Valley, from its first beginning along the crest of the mountain, at 2,500,000 years. No one should place much confidence in these figures. They may be much too great, or vastly inadequate. However, if the data be correct on which the calculation is based, no other conclusion is possi- ble. An estimate to be given by and by, based on depth of soil and rate of sedimentation, shows that the bed of the river has not been perceptibly lowered in the last thousand years.
Tygart's River has reached that stage in its history where it ceases to cut deeper, but expends its energy in widening its valley. It has reached what is known as "the baselevel of erosion." That is, its current is not now strong enough to tear up the rocks underlying the valley, but is yet able to carry away the sediment washed in from the neighboring mountain slopes. It is a condition which comes to the old age of all rivers. In their youth, when their channels are steep, they cut downward. In their old age, when their currents, for want of grade, become weak, they widen their val- leys, but do not deepen them. A later stage is reached by some rivers when their currents become so weak that they can no longer carry out the sediment washed in from their sides. Then they fill their channels and their valleys with residual matter.
The condition in which Tygart's Valley now is, is only temporary. It is deepening very little, but the time will come when the swift currents of its youth will be renewed, and then the river will plow out the bottom of the valley and send the soil and sand pouring down the Monongahela. A prophet is not necessary to foretell this chapter of the future. It will come as surely as effect follows cause. The cause is at work now; the effect is inevitable. The argument by which the conclusion is reached is as follows: Between Fairmont (or the foot of Valley Falls, above Fairmont,) and the mouth of Leading Creek, the fall of the river is more than one thousand feet. Those falls and rapids are all wearing up stream, working their way
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upward, leaving a deep gorge below, through which the river flows with a gentle current to join the Ohio at Pittsburg. In course of time those falls, rapids and cataracts will cut back until they come up through the gap in Laurel Hill, and enter the lower end of Tygart's Valley. As they work their way up the river, they will cut a gorge from 700 to 900 feet deep. They will continue this gorge right up the center of the valley to the head of it. Then the bottom of the river will be several hundred feet below the floor of the present valley. The most of the present level land will disap- pear. Here and there along the sides fragments may remain, as benches or terraces, just as at present fragments of old valley floors are found as benches and terraces along the faces of hills in Monongahela and Marion Counties, and in Pennsylvania. Broad bottom lands once existed there. The river cut them out. The same river is advancing its falls and cata- racts slowly up toward Tygart's Valley, which is doomed to share the fate which already has destroyed the level lands which once existed along the course of the Monongahela. Once the river begins cutting out the floor of Tygart's Valley, it will make quick work. The Romney Shale lies a short distance beneath the present surface. When the cataracts attack it, it will go out like sand. It is too soft to resist.
LOGS BURIED UNDER SOIL.
Old logs are seen protruding from beneath heavy beds of soil in many places throughout the valley where the river has cut away its banks and exposed them to view. Some of these logs have lain there for centuries, covered with sand and mud, and in some cases beneath gravel. Several logs have been uncovered at the water's edge, on the west side of the river, a quarter of a mile above the Beverly bridge. The deepest one is buried under eleven feet of soil. Others may seen in the bottom of the river still deeper. The stream at that place is cutting away a high bank, uncovering the timber. The origin of those logs is evident. They were once drift- wood on the river, and lodging in sheltered places were slowly covered by sand and silt which pre- served them from decay. Buried timber is found beneath the soil throughout the Tygart's Valley in Buried Logs Near Beverly. such quantity as to show that the river has swung back and forth, from mountain to mountain, uncovering logs in one place and burying them in It would be interesting to know how long they have lain buried.
another. All are not of the same age, of course. Generally speaking, those which are buried deepest have been there longest, for the burial process, in most cases, seems to have been an accumulation of silt and sediment. The prob- lem was to discover the average rate of accumulation of sediment in the bottom lands of the valley. The key to the problem was discovered in an excavation near the mouth of Files Creek, where a bed of charcoal was found beneath the surface. A furnace for drying lumber had been there, and had not been used for thirty-three years. The bed of charcoal was neatly silted over. It was in a position to be flooded with every deep rise of the river. By making due allowance for grass roots and the unusually rank vegetation growing there, and the probable washing in of soil from higher ground nearby, it was estimated that three and one-half inches of sediment had accumulated in thirty-three years, or about at the rate of
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one inch in nine and a half years, or one foot in 114 years. If that rate holds good generally throughout the valley (the rate is probably too great rather than too small) it furnishes a basis for estimating the time required for accumulating the bed of soil on any piece of bottom land subject to sedimentation by the overflow of Tygart's Valley River. Multiply the depth of the soil in fect by 114, and it will give the years required for ac- cumulation. Those who use this basis of calculation should exercise cau- tion and take into consideration all surrounding conditions that might in- crease or diminish the rate of sedimentation.
The depth of soil in the valley varies from a few inches to probably twenty feet. Ten feet is probably a fair average. The buried logs, above spoken of, under eleven feet of soil, have been there 1250 years, if the rule holds good. The river yet seems to be flowing on the same level as then. It shifts its channel slowly from mountain to mountain. No spot in the level valley can be found which has not at some time been the bed of the river. Yet, it sometimes keeps the same bed for ages. An instance of this is seen above Slate Ford. A low piece of bottom land is there seen, be- tween the present river and the bluff. It contains perhaps fifteen or twenty acres. On the west it is bounded by a bluff, about twenty-five feet high, curved like the arc of a circle. That bluff is the old river bank. It is cut out of rock. It marks the extreme western limit of the river since it has been flowing on its preset level. The stream washed the base of the bluff until it cut away many acres of rock, twenty five or thirty feet thick. Then the river made itself a channel down through the bottom farther east, and it ceased flowing along the base of the bluff. Since that time the bottom land there has been filling by sedimentation. A fine meadow now occupies the space between the bluff and the present river bank. The depth of the soil, shown in the measurement at the bank of the river, averages about eight feet. If the above rule holds good, more than 900 years have elapsed since the river occupied its channel along the base of the bluff. It is now working its way back toward the bluff, and flows over solid rock. Appar- ently its bed is on the same level as it was 900 years ago; further evidence that the valley is widening but not deepening.
CHARACTERISTICS OF TYGART'S VALLEY SOIL.
It is a peculiarity of this valley that few beds of gravel underlie the soil. The bottom lands of Cheat River and of the South Branch of the Po- tomac, are built upon beds of bowlders and gravel. The subsoil in Tygart's Valley rests upon rock, a flaggy sandstone and shale of the Jen- nings Formation. There are a few and unimportant gravel deposits. The South Branch and Cheat have powerful currents, capable of carrying gravel and bowlders which they bring down from the mountains in large quantities and deposit on the bottom lands, where they are covered by sedi- mentation. Tygart's River has a weak current. It carries nothing coarser than sand and not much of that, except of the finest grade. The lack of gravel underlying the soil has a direct influence upon the valley's agricul- tural interests. Farmers usually have trouble in securing good drainage for their land. The bottoms lie so flat that surface drainage is slow, and the solid and compact subsoil prevents good under-drainage. If beds of gravel were beneath, they would furnish deep drainage. Tiles placed under- ground would be an artificial substitute for gravel beds; but tiles have never been extensively used here. No factory for making them exists in
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the county, and the cost of bringing them from a distance prevents their general introduction. Open ditches do not give the best drainage, but they are an improvement on no drainage at all. They interfere with the cultiva- tion of the land. There are many portions of the valley which do not need artificial drainage. Those tracts, for the most part, are what are known as delta lands. They lie at the mouths of creeks which come down from the mountains and meet the valley. The creeks usually have stronger currents than the river, and they bring down coarser material, and deposit it in the valley. The coarser material gives better under drainag. The delta lands at the mouths of creeks, covering sometimes hundreds of acres, are gener- ally a little higher than the adjacent river-bottoms, and this assists drain- age.
Although the valley has been settled a century and a quarter, a great development awaits it. The land'has been devoted principally to grass, hay and cattle, and the farms have been large. The destiny of the valley is that it shall be cut up into small tracts, the swamps and wet lands drained, the remaining thickets removed, and grain and fruit take the place of hay and pasture. The valley now has a population of 10,000. It could as easily support 40,000. It is beautiful now. Its beauty can be increased four fold by higher cultivation. It can be made the garden of the State. The surrounding mountains still lie in primeval forests. They should be and will be cleared; and where now the long, graceful ridges of Cheat and Rich Mountains greet the eye as almost unbroken wilderness, there will be mountain ranges of pasture, on which tens of thousands of cattle and sheep will fatten. The old citizens of Randalph justly feel proud of their county and its progress. But they have scarcely witnessed the beginning. It is not in the province of history to deal with the future. The historian has done his duty if he has faithfully pictured the past. But the writer of this book wishes to place on record here the prediction that not many genera- tions will pass before the people of Randolph see a transformation of valley meadows and pastures into farms, orchards and gardens, with four families where there is one now, and the mountain forests will change into blue- grass-ranges, covered with flocks and herds. The State cannot furnish another such combination of valley and mountain, the one suited to scien- tific farming, the other to profitable stock-raising. The valleys are now, or soon will be, threaded with railroads. The mountains, while lofty, are of such slopes that they may be crossed nearly anywhere by excellent wagon roads. If wood for fuel should ever be exhausted, the coal beneath the ground is inexhaustible. The water-power within the county is sufficient to drive all the machinery in West Virginia. This power could be carried by electricity to any part of the State, if it were needed. The people of Randolph have within their reach all the possibilities man could wish. The young men should not emigrate to the West or the South. They have a better country at home. Make small farms. Fertilize them with manure, lime and clover. Do not bake, burn and exhaust them with patent stimu- lants which add nothing and sap the life. Build neat houses; big barns; straight fences; plant vegetables, fruits and berries; keep the best breeds of horses, cattle, hogs and sheep; aim to make a good living first and money afterwards. They will make a good living and money; and what is better, they will make Tygart's Valley, the surrounding mountains, and the whole county the pride and the wonder of the State.
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