Virginian in 1911--Bluefield

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
March 10, 1911

MAY MEAN COMING OF VIRGINIAN
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Prominent Business Man's View of the New River Power Project
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OF EVEN MORE BENEFIT THAN COALFIELD TROLLEY
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Strip of Land That Has Been Acquired at Glen Lyn Indicates Possibility of Tunnel Being Driven at That Point
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RIGHTS-OF-WAY SECURED ON NEW RIVER AND BLUESTONE
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    With a possibility of a trolley line to the coalfield [Note 1] and an enormous electrical plant, a gas company which will supply this city and Graham, and probability of reduced freight rates, and the further assurance that additional macadam streets are to be laid this year, comes the rather gratifying, even if startling, statement of a prominent Bluefield business man, who said last night that he is of the opinion that the New River Power Project and Development Company [Note 2] is a ruse by which it is planned that the lines of the Virginian Railway may enter Bluefield and the Pocahontas coalfield.
    This news, welcome, if true, comes here as a great surprise and the statement is based on the fact that attorneys who represented the Virginian Railway in its early days have been located here for some time and a company which recently secured a charter at Richmond was styled the New River Car Company.  The possibility of stretching a certain franchise secured by the new company which provides for a car line of no specific character also gives rise to the opinion that the Virginian Railway is to enter Bluefield through some devious route not yet known.  It is known, however, that a company has been securing rights-of-way along the New River and the Bluestone and the narrow strips of land which were taken have led some people to believe that this land was not secured by a company which planned to build a power plant, unless that power plant was to consist of a double track line of railway on which steam engines could be operated.  A strip of land has been acquired at Glen Lyn which would make it appear that a tunnel may be built at that point.
    It is also a well known fact that the Virginian Railway has filed maps showing proposed lines, with the county clerk at Princeton [Note 3], and at other county clerks' offices.  It may be that all the projected work may mean that the Virginian is to at last enter Bluefield and this city will have two railroads.  It is doubtful if the trolley line could perform a greater service but both would be welcomed.
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(1) For months in 1910--1911 articles and editorials in the Bluefield newspaper advocated a trolley line from Bluefield into the coalfield.  Reportedly the N&W was in favor of such a competitor because a trolley line would allow the railroad to discontinue local passenger trains, which interfered with coal and other freight trains on the busy Pocahontas Division.

(2) This company was formed ostensibly to develop hydroelectric plants along the New River, but it also bought the power house and streetcar lines of the Bluestone Traction Company in Bluefield.  The company later became the Appalachian Electric Power Company.

(3) I wonder what Virginian records may still be in existence in these County Clerks' Offices.

Gordon Hamilton
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