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By PAUL DIMING .Intern WriterA Union’soldier, known only as . Watson, started, the remarkable ehaintofevents. An isolated farm on M^Creek in Pulaski County supplied.'1 the setting. A fortune was spent and lost, all for a handful of red** collored rocks in a knapsack.The story is told by firelight every summer to hundreds of young boy scouts attending Camp Ottari and Camp Powhatan. The story-teller is an older man who speaks with a slow, but distinct Southwest Virginia accent The man who dons a uniform, and a wide-brimmed campaign hat each Sunday night to tel! the story once more, is B. G, Richardson, a retired ranger of the 16,600 acre Blue Ridge Scout Reservation. *After a hearty “Hello ail you Scouts and Scouters,’* Big Gary” Richardson begins his tale. The story starts with a Union soldier from Philadelphia he calls Watson at the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain in Dublin, Virginia. According to Richardson, three young officers served together with Watson at the battle. AH threesoldiers who were from Ohio; Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, Lieutenant William McKinley and Corporal James Garfield became U. S. President after the war.Although the South was forced to retreat, the North did not win a major victory. The northern troops suffered high casualties and remained at Dublin to regroup. After an., inventory was taken, they found that many deserters had fled with horses and amunition into the country side. The northern generals did .not need the men as much as they wanted the expensive horses and' amunition. A scouting party, which included Watson, was sent after the deserters who fled through Pulaski County.Before the outbreak of the war, Watson worked for the John Wood and Sons, Iron Manufacturing Company and was familiar with the various metal ores. On his way throughthe Mas; Creek area of Pulaski County, Watson picked up a few pieces of rock and examined them for traced of iron ore. He threw several specimens, which, appeared to contain iron ore, into 4iis knapsack for testing after the-war-.The cocks Watson carried with him from Pulaski County in Virginia were assayed by chemists in Philadelphia and were found to contain iron. The soldier of war and fortune told his employees 4‘There’s mountains full of this stuff down there.” Watson added that the other raw materials for melting iron ore into pig iron; limestone to use as a flux, wood for' making charcoal, and water were present in the area also. The company was ‘intrigued , with the possibility c? a large mining operation in Virginia and dreamed of mining.other metals including tin, silver and ' Ven gold. 4A group of men were sent down to test for other metals as well as iron, These men recommended that John Wood and Sons investigate purchasing the farms in the area and developing the mineral rights there. Consequently, the company bought up 100 farms of various sizes and converted the parcels into one tract. According to Federal Judge Ted Dalton, the funds sent down from Philadelphia to buy the farms was one of the largest amounts of reconstruction money flowing into the soutl) from the north after the war.The construction of a smelting furnace was begun, on the banks of Max Creek in 1667, two years after the Civil War ended. Across the creek, a large white frame bouse, called the King House, was built to house the superintendent. A row of smaller white frame houses were consturcted further down the stream to house foremen anduther white collar workers. South from the furnace, log cabins were built to house the Mack workers who provided most of the heavy, labor. , — By 1869, pig iron was beiWg manufactured on ttw land,
Newspaper Details
Pulaski Times Journal
Pulaski, Virginia, US
Sun, May 23, 1976
Page 28
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
NA, 12 Feb 2020
Other Publications Near Pulaski, Virginia
The Pulaski News
Pulaski Times Journal
Pulaski News Review
Pulaski Staunton News Leader
Pulaski Southwest Times
