Natural Resources of Upshur County
The soil of Upshur County is of a rich sandy loam. There are many rich creek bottoms on which are grown sugar cane and other crops. The soil is also suited for the growing of many kinds of fruits and vegetables. Many farmers are beginning to go into the livestock business and the county is being changed to a land of dairies and truck farms, and other wide farm diversifications.
The lumber industry is still important in Upshur County. Many small mills are located over the county. During the first few years of the twentieth century, there were nearly one hundred sawmills in Upshur County at one time.
In the early part of 1931, oil was discovered in southeastern Upshur County, and there are over one thousand producing wells in the county now. This industry brought great wealth into the county as well as increased the population by several thousand. The communities of East Mountain and Union Grove have changed from peaceful farming communities to busy oil field villages. Where their schools had from fifty to seventy-five students, and two or three teachers, they now have four or five hundred students and eighteen to twenty teachers.
Iron ore has been found near the surface in different parts of the county. One deposit, near Ore City, contains between 80 and 120 millions of tons of ore. In addition to this one big deposit, there are several smaller ones. When this ore is developed, in the opinion of many, the county’s profit will be greater than the profit from the thousand oil wells now producing, because of the many more men employed and the time necessary to complete the excavation and mining of the ore.