Gunton Park: Mystery Solved ( ... well, sort'a)

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On Tue, Jul 11, 2023 at 10:10 AM abram wrote:

> Ye weary searchers for the history of Gunton Park on the Bristol Fast
> Line, desist ye and rest !
>
> There is a Gunton Park in Norfolkshire, England, and that name was likely
> brought to Wythe County by some sore-of-foot Englishman who stopped here
> and squatted at the end of his arduous trek.
>

You might not be far off the mark. A quick search of the Virginia Chronicle
(Library of Virginia online newspaper archives) turned up a handful of
stories that mention Gunton Park. Note the family name in the first one.

*Pulaski County Gains Land.*
[Special to The Times-Dispatch.]

PULASKI, VA., June 5. -- The special commission named by the Circuit Court
to resurvey the disputed boundary line between Pulaski and Wythe Counties
has completed its work and is compiling its report preparatory to submit to
the court for approval. As a result of the resurvey Pulaski County gains
6,458 feet of the original markers. This includes that distance of main
line of the Norfolk and Western Railway tracks and 5,082 feet of side
track, together with the telegraph office and other taxable property of the
company at Gunton Park. The new lines moves the line west of the Gunton
coal operations, the dividing line as fixed intersecting the residence of
W. R. Gunton. The farm of John Oglesby is transferred from Wythe to Pulaski
County in its entirety, as well as parts of other property.

*Richmond Times-Dispatch*, 6 June 1918, pg. 3


This one talks about the expanded anthracite coal mining at Gunton Park.

*Tap Anthracite Coal Viens [sic] In Wythe County*

Two large viens [sic] of pure anthracite coal have been tapped in Wythe
County at the mines near Gunton Park, where it has been mined on a small
scale heretofore. The viens [sic] are five and six feet wide, separated by
all an eight-foot layer of slate, and plans are already under way for
developing them extensively during 1926. It is expected that the mining of
this coal will enable Virginia users to obtain anthracite at much lower
prices than they now pay for the Pennsylvania variety.

Luther R. Fair, mineral land assessor for the State Corporation Commission,
inspected the mine and gave it as his opinion that the coal found is fully
as good as the Pennsylvania coal.

The mines at Gunton Park will be fully equipped and probably 300 or 500 men
will be employed there before the end of the year. An estimate of the
producing ability of the mines places the output at from forty to fifty
cars a day.

*Strasburg News*, Volume 44, Number 27, 5 April 1926, pg. 2



Bruno in Swartzstadt
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