Industry is the manufacture,production,and sale of
goods. Manufacturing was not always done in huge factories. Even before the Europeans entered present-day West Virginia,hoes,tools,housing,and
hunting weapons were used. The first pioneer industries were cottage industries,industries that started in the home but most
pioneer families consumed what they produced,they sometimes had extra items to sell.
Salt was the first major industry to form in West Virginia. Natives processed
salt from springs in central West Virginia for centuries. The Indians followed bison and deer to the salt licks. There the
Indians got the white substance,salt,for their own use. Sometimes the Indians used the salt in trade as a form of money,
just as they did with animal skins. Springs near the surface of Earth had a mixture of salt and water called brine. The
industry began when the Indians set up boiling pots, evaporated the water,and found the salt that remained.
West Virginia has two types of salt deposits. The northern region of the
state has rock salt,small solid masses of salt found deep below Earths surface. The central area of the state contains
brine. At first, the settlers used the Indian method to obtain salt. In 1792,Adam OBrien cut a trail from his cabin in Sutton
to the salt lick at Bulltown so that the settlers in the area could use the lick. As the market for salt increased in
the trans-Allegheny region,but the production methods changed.
The axes,hoes,saws,kitchen utensils,and other tools used on the frontier
were made of iron. Because iron products weighed so much,it was very hard to transport many of those products over
the mountains or oceans. Once iron ore was discovered along the Ohio,Monongahela,and Potomac rivers, small furnaces were
built to melt the ore to try to seperate the iron and make all of the iron tools that they needed.
Just like the slat industry, the timber industry is developing naturally
in West Virginia. The state has a big variety and a good supply of trees. Actually, more than 75% of West Virginia is
covered by forests, and it is the third most forested state in the Union. There are nine state forests covering more than
79,500 acres in West Virginia-Cabwaylingo, Calvin Price, Camp Creek, Coopers Rock, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Kumbrabow, Panther
and Seneca. Three national forests-Monongahela, George Washington, and Jefferson- 1,072,919, which is more than 21 million
acres of forestland. Only Maine and New Hampshier have more forested land. Some trees in the state are
so large that their hollow trunks provided homes for early settlers or army deserters like the Pringle brothers. Some of the
early settlers,especially the farmers,considered the forested areas a bother because the trees had to be cleared from
the land before building or farming could take place.
West Virginia is blessed with a great supply of mineral resources.
Minerals substances that occur naturally in the Earth. The three most important minerals found in West Virginia are coal,natural
gas,and petroleum. Those minerals are recovered through a process called extraction,that invovles mining or drilling. West
Virginia also contains a number of minerals that dont have fuel in them,including clay,sand,gravel,and stone. In 1999,
the value of the minerals without fuel was $150million.
The pottery and glass industries have been around for centuries
in West Virginia. The clay,limestone,and gravel found in West Virginia are important to the pottery industry that began in
Morgantown in 1785. Other earthenware businesses were established in Wheeling, Wellsburg,Huntington,PadenCity, Ravenswodd,
and Parkersburg.
One of the newer industries in West Virginia is the electricity-producing
industry. Coal produces more than 99 percent of the electrical power generated in West Virginia. There are thirteen coal-fired
electricity-generating facilities owned by utility companies located in the state. Emphasizing the connection between coal
and electricity the Coal Association adopted the slogan Coal Keeps the Lights On. Nationally more than 56 percent of electricity
is generated from coal.
West Virginias salt industry
West Virginias timber industry
West Virginias coal industry
