Old maps and type size

Recently, I saw an1882 map showing railroads of Virginia and Kentucky. It was interesting to see the font size given to towns at that time and to see the number of towns that exist today that weren’t on the antique map.

On that map, neither Bluefield names appeared, even though both had one: the Virginia-side town was Graham and the West Virginia one was Higginbotham Summit. Tazewell, the county seat, was then Tazewell Court House, while the name "Roanoke" had already replaced Big Lick.

However, none of these places received the recognition that Rocky Gap in Bland County did. The town across East River Mountain from the Bluefields was in bold, large font, showing its importance as a junction of rail lines that ran north to Pittsburgh and west to Cumberland Gap and beyond, and east to Angel’s Rest (now Narrows), and on through Rocky Mount to Norfolk.

Looking at a recent map, you will see that something happened during the last 120 years to alter town names and their significance. Today, you have to look hard to find Rocky Gap, for its name is as tiny as its population. The railroad tracks have been taken up and replaced with Route 61, Wilderness Road and Interstate 77.

In the 1880s, the center of business activity moved across East River Mountain, when entrepreneurs descended upon the region to make their fortune in coal. If they were going to get wealthy, a railroad was necessary to get the "black diamonds" from the mountainous, isolated place to the markets. That railroad was the Norfolk and Western. Its rail lines changed the Southwest Virginia map forever.

Bypassing Rocky Gap, the tracks ran west out of Roanoke to Radford up to Bluefield, W. Va., on to Graham (now Bluefield), Va., the junction where the trains then went north into West Virginia or west to Norton.

Along the lines, towns began to appear on maps. Some were created from scratch; others blossomed with a dramatic population increase. When the tracks came through, Graham could count its population in the thousands instead of hundreds. Graham’s growth was nothing compared to what happened a few miles away over the state line in a broad, flat bottomland.

Almost overnight, a city grew up around the huge field that the railroad company filled with railroad tracks, shops and a roundhouse. That city was Bluefield, W.Va., "Capital of the Black Diamond Empire" and headquarters for N & W’s (now Norfolk Southern) Pocahontas Division.

Businesses and services that arrived with the railroad and coal industry included: mining, banking, construction, groceries, retail stores and hotels. Passenger trains brought in business people because roads were bad or nonexistent. A passenger train schedule from Nov. 18, 1894 hangs in the Eastern Regional Coal Archives of the Craft Memorial Library in Bluefield, W.Va.. Seven years from the time the Bluefields didn’t show up on a railroad map, 12 passenger trains stopped daily at the Graham station.

Graham, because of its location, was dominated by the new city, a short seven-minute train ride away. A "Bluefield Daily Telegraph" article in 1974 reported that the Virginia-side town anticipated becoming the main hub for the N & W, but when local landowners raised the price of their land, officials took their business to the West Virginia side. In his book, "Bishop: Virginia and West Virginia," Terry Mullins found information that could support this. He states that Graham "was advertised as a new city which would be unparalleled in the south for reaching the extensive markets of the coalfields."

Stuart McGehee, an N & W historian, professor, and a Director of the Eastern Regional Coal Archives, sees it differently. "The N & W chose empty places to construct so that buildings wouldn’t be in the way." He compared the choice of the West Virginia site to the company’s decision to build its headquarters at an empty place to the east. That place was named Big Lick, which became Roanoke, a city at the junction of two major valleys.

According to McGehee, Bluefield, W.Va., also had a geographic advantage— a big one that made it a perfect main hub between the coalfields and the markets. It had a broad, flat field with a natural hump in the middle. All the water on the east side flowed to East River; water on the west side flowed to the Bluestone. N & W could use this hump for gravitational switching of trains on either side. Trains would also use gravity to pull the coal-filled cars down to Norfolk.

The decision to put the main train yard at Bluefield gave that city big, bold letters on the map, second to Roanoke whose distinction was greater. Graham had smaller letters than its more famous sister, but larger than Rocky Gap’s.

Over the last 50 years, coal has gradually dwindled in importance, occasionally emerging, but never gaining its early prominence. While the railroad continues to play an integral role in the area’s economy, towns have had to scramble to find ways to keep their bold letters and font size on maps.

It’s one reason that commerce and trade have moved away from the railroad to hug the flanks of U.S. 460 that runs through the Bluefields. On July 21st, the Washington Post ran a story written by Lin Weeks. He wrote, "Like Kansas City and Texarkana, the twin towns sit side by side, straddling the state line. But the West Virginia city is the dominant force."

That may be debatable. Much of the new business is coming to the Virginia town. Two major shopping centers have been built; one is in renovation, and other businesses along with a surgery center are certain. The decision to locate in Virginia instead of West Virginia is complex.

Virginia’s business laws are friendlier; the town’s local leaders have had vision. Realizing that coal and the railroad do not drive the economy, they have made the difficult decision to move new commerce near the highway and away from the railroad where Main Street is located. A challenge for all the towns that once depended on coal and the railroad is to continue to grow so that their font size won’t shrink on future maps.