Excerpt from West Virginia Geological Survey: County Reports and Maps The following report includes a discussion of the resources, geology, economic wealth, soil and climate of the Parkersburg area, and is the third in series of county reports of the Survey. The geology of the area presents a marked-contrast to that of the Wheeling area. Most of the surface rocks belong in the high est series of the Carboniferous the Dunkard. The rocks are mostly red shales and sandstones, with limestone strata marked by limestone nuggets or thin shaly layers. The most important mineral product is not coal, but Oil and gas. In this area came the earliest Oil development in the stat and these three counties are today among the leading oil and gas counties of the state. There is probably no Pittsburg coal in the area that will ever be of economic importance, and over most Of the area it is entire ly absent. There-is a small area of Upper Freeport coal in the vicinity Of Horseneck near boundary line of Wood and Pleas ants counties. There is another small area of the Kittanning coals in the Volcano district, both deposits located on the anti cline known from an early day as the Oil Break. The only other coal of even local importance is the Washing ton which has been mined here and there by farmers either in shallow hillside entries or by stripping in stream valleys. It is thin and slaty and could hardly be included in the coal supply of the state. This coal is very persistent over the area and would be available for such local use. At many places. On account of its poor quality and shallow thickness, it was not thought important to estimate total tonnage. 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.