Our Iron Ores.
Under the caption of “West Virginia Iron,” the Wheeling Intelligencer says:
In the eastern part of the State the greatest possibilities at present are in the vicinity of Charlestown and Martinsburg, where large territories have recently been purchased with a view to developments in the near future. In a letter from Captain John Howard, late of the Coal and Iron Company of Pennsylvania, he says of the strata of iron in this section of the State, and in Jefferson county, W. Va., and Clarke county, Va., in particular, that the outcrop is on the Potomac river, about eight miles from Charlestown. At this point the ore was mined in colonial days, and from time to time since to supply the furnaces in that vicinity. The mine is now being worked, the shipments being about 1,000 tons a month. This ore is brown hematite. Other mines have recently been opened in this vicinity.
The same strata makes its appearance about two and a half miles from Charlestown, where the surface soil is full of wash ore. There is an immense deposit of iron at this point.– One and a half miles south of this deposit is the Maltby Ore Bank, referred to in Maury’s report in the following language:
“In Jefferson county, on the east bank of the Shenandoah, is located Malthy’s ore mine. This is one of the most valuable mines in West Virginia and gives promise of an abundant supply of excellent quality.”
Cold short hematite ore is here in great abundance, and in conjunction with ore (red short hematite) mined on the west side of the river was used by the Lockhart furnace, located here, in manufacturing iron of a superior quality as late as 1858, and more recently has been extensively worked by Mr. C. S. Malthy, of Baltimore. Mr. Clarke in the letter referred to above, says that in Pennsylvania these valuable ores, located in the same iron belt, are becoming exhausted and are now being shipped from Jefferson county to furnaces in that section.
