BS&C in 1909-- Extension

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
October 5, 1909

WILL CARRY PASSENGERS INTO WILDS
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Ritter Lumber Co. Completing Extension of Railroad Into Buchanan County
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INTENTION TO ULTIMATELY REACH TOWN OF GRUNDY
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Concern Owns 11,000 Acres of Timber Lands in Section.  Has Five Band Plants in Operation and Will Increase Equipment
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MARKET CONDITIONS BETTER THAN ANY TIME SINCE PANIC
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    The Ritter Lumber Company, the largest lumber corporation operating in this part of the country, is completing an extension of its narrow gauge railroad known at the Big Sandy and Cumberland, running at present from Devon, on the Norfolk and Western, eighty miles west of Bluefield, to Blackeye, up Knox Creek, to a point within six miles of Grundy, the county seat of Buchanan county, Va.  The new stretch of road is almost fifteen miles in length, and it is said to be the intention of the company to ultimately extend it to Grundy.  Hitherto the road has been used for lumber and log hauling and general freight purposes, but with the completion of the new construction a passenger service will be put on.
    The Ritter people own a vast tract of timber in this section of country, amounting, it is said, to almost 11,000 acres, and in addition to its use as a logging road, the Big Sandy and Cumberland furnishes outside connection for the product of the Ritter mills in the neighboring country.  The company now has five band plants in operation between Devon and Blackeye, and it is stated that the manufacturing equipment may be increased in the near future.
    When the recent massacre of Mrs. Betty Justin and five members of the Meadows family occurred at Hurley, Va., which is on the Ritter road, the management of the company shut down its several plants and turned out its 300 employees on full pay to search for the murderers.
    Local market conditions are decidedly better than they have been since the panic, according tot he lumbermen who make Bluefield their headquarters.  There has been a very perceptible increase in the demand for export stuff, but the best gains have been made in the domestic trade.
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Gordon Hamilton
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