Virginian in 1909--Another "what if"

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
June 22, 1909

VIRGINIAN TO BUILD INTO POCAHONTAS
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Unconfirmed Report Says Contract for Grading Has Already Been Let
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TWENTY-MILE BRANCH TO EXTEND FROM ROCK
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Understand That ??? [Microfilm blurred.  It was a three-digit number.] Men Will be Put to Work Within a Few Days and Line Will be Rapidly Pushed to Completion
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ORIGINAL IDEAS OF THE LATE H. H. ROGERS BEING CARRIED OUT
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    Although the report lacks official verification, it was stated in Bluefield yesterday that the Virginian is clearing the right of way for a branch line from Rock in this county to Pocahontas in Virginia, a distance of about twenty miles.
    It is further understood that the contract for the grading has been let, and that the men will be set to work within the next few days.  It is said to be the purpose of the company to carry the line to completion as rapidly as possible.
    If the statement be true the new road will bring the Virginian into direct competition with one of the Norfolk and Western's best feeders.  It appears to have been the policy of the late Henry Rogers to build his road to the seaboard by the shortest possible route regardless of mountains, valleys, coalfields, leading cities or anything else, and then to construct side lines to the coal fields or to any other locality that promised business.  Several of these branches were under construction at the time of Mr. Rogers' death, and it was a question among railroad men as to whether the new management would carry out the plans of the originator.
    But there has been no cessation in branch building, and it would seem that the original idea is to be carried out.  This, it is estimated, will entail an expense equal to more than half the first cost of the main line.  However, it is admitted by those who claim to be conversant with the situation that it will place the road in direct touch with one of the greatest coal areas in the world.  When the branches under construction and those contemplated are completed, the Virginian will reach both the New River and Kanawha fields, the Raleigh field in the Winding Gulf, the Boone and Logan fields and the great Pocahontas field.  The scheme includes the most important coal territory in Southern West Virginia.
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[Were there ever any Virginian plans to build into Pocahontas?]

Gordon Hamilton
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