Skidders and Boomboats

Skidders and Boomboats. . , While early explorers knew about the rich timber and coal resources in this region, it took the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad through the New River Gorge in 1873 to open the area up to major logging and mining operations. The C&O provided the key connection for coal mines and sawmills to get their products to market., But coal mines, sawmills, and other entrepreneurs were on their own when it came to transporting their products down to the C&O main line. Before the construction of branch rail lines, getting those goods to market could be quite complicated., Timbering operations here on the Grandview Plateau in the early 1890s involved hauling or “skidding” the timber by wagon to a circular sawmill at Crow. Milled products were then hauled by horse-drawn tram cars on narrow-gauge rails over to Grandview clifftop, then lowered via monitor to the New River, and finally ferried across the river via “boomboats” to Quinnimont.