Logging in the Shenandoah Valley

Nestled in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley lies the small hamlet of Cornwall, Virginia. Nowadays a sleepy town frequented by Skyline Drive tourists and retired suburbanites, Cornwall was once the epicenter of the logging industry in the Shenandoah Valley. Cornwall as a lumber giant began when the South River Lumber Company was incorporated under the laws of Virginia on March 27th, 1916. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Whitmer-Steele Lumber Company of Pennsylvania. With Whitmer-Steele's exhaustion of their Pennsylvania tracts, the company looked to expand elsewhere. West Virginia, North Carolina, and even the west coast were considered but Virginia was chosen due to the large tracts of lumber, specifically chestnut, available for harvesting. These tracts, located in Rockbridge, Nelson, and Amherst Counties, were previously owned by the Buena Vista Extract Company in nearby Buena Vista, Virginia and were purchased by Whitmer-Steele in the 1910's. To extract the cut lumber, The South River Lumber Company would construct and employ a narrow gauge steam railroad to operate out of Cornwall, Virginia, where the new lumber mill was to be built. Cornwall was chosen due to its proximity to the Norfolk & Western Railway's Shenandoah Line stretching from Roanoke to Hagerstown. It it interesting to note that this railroad first appeared in numerous ledgers as the Irish Creek Railway though it should be noted this name was no longer referenced after 1920.

Construction of the route began soon after the milling equipment arrived in late 1916. All of the equipment was transported from Whitmer-Steele's defunct mills in Pennsylvania for reuse, this included the first few locomotives. Interestingly, the railroad was constructed as a narrow gauge, 3' 6" foot line, instead of the more common 3' foot narrow gauge width. Whitmer-Steele had used Climax locomotives in their lumber operations in Pennsylvania and so continued to utilize these geared engines on the South River Lumber Company. The operations of the South River Lumber Co peaked around 1925 during the roaring 20's as the country's economy grew exponentially. It is recorded that by 1925, the company's railroad operations had stretched to around 57 miles in total. These 57 miles included the "main line" from Cornwall east and branches such as the Big Bend Creek Branch, Blue Ridge Branch, and Brush Mountain Branch, among many others.

Factors such as the Great Depression and a devastating chestnut blight during the 1920's and 30's severely curtailed operations. Lumber that would be incredibly valuable today was practically given away during this time and Whitmer-Steele began to plan to close the mill and railroad. In 1938, the railroad was extended into Crabtree Falls in Nelson County where the last of the lumber tracts were located. In September of 1938, the last of the lumber was harvested and the remaining serviceable locomotives were placed for sale. Only one engine would go on to to work again. By 1943, all assets of the South River Lumber Company had been disposed of except for Climax locomotive #3. Rumor has it that #3's cab is the only remaining piece of the South River Lumber Company to remain in Cornwall today. When all was said and done, the South River Lumber Company processed over 100 million board feet of lumber cementing itself as the premier lumber company of the Shenandoah Valley.