Discovery Of Luray Caverns Virginia

Excerpt from History and Description of the Luray Cave, (Illustrated): Including Explanations of the Manner of Its Formation, Its Peculiar Growths, Its Geology, Chemistry, &C.; Also a Map, the Whole So Arranged as to Serve as a Guide The Great Valley of Virginia lies between two elevated ranges - the Blue Ridge on the southeast rising to heights of from 2,000 to 4,000 feet above tide-level, and the North Mountain range on the north-west almost equally high. It is not a continuous plain like some of the western prairies. On the contrary it is of varied surface, a land of hill and dale, well-watered, fertile, and abounding in every variety of mineral and agricultural wealth. Nor is it a single valley throughout. From a few miles south-west of Winchester to a point nearly opposite Harrisonburg it is divided into two subordinate valleys by the Massanutton Mountain - a long belt of ridges of silurian and devonian rocks which withstood the denuding agencies that cleared away on either side so many hundreds of square miles of strata. Both Valleys are proverbial for their beauty and famous for important historical events of which each has been the scene, but our present concern is with the eastern and narrower one. the Luray Valley. This constitutes Page County, of which Luray is the country seat. For the lover of the beautiful in nature it is endowed with innumerable charms. Hemmed in on every side with a rim of blue mountains, it is traversed in its western part by the South Branch of the Shenandoah, a beautiful river known in many a story of battle and guerilla adventure during the civil war. It was upon its banks at Front Royal, near its junction with the North Branch, that the first battle of Jackson's celebrated Valley campaign was fought. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1882.

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Luray Caverns, discovered in the quiet valley community of Luray in 1878, became the main attraction in Page County. In hopes of capitalizing on this new found "Wonder of the World," executives of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad completed the rail from Hagerstown and Basic City to Luray by 1881. Mann Almond drove the final ceremonial spike just north of Deford's Tannery in Luray. With the arrival of the railroad came a new economy supported by passengers, excursionists, lodging, and freight transport. The bulk of these transports were Eureka Mining Company's mineral extractions and Shenandoah's "Big Gem" iron bloom shipments. Luray's own "Mercantile Mile" leading to the caverns was laden with storehouses, offering goods found in larger cities, and the rail brought visitors in droves. The photographers who produced the images contained here did so only as a means of income, but today their work is our visual link to the past.