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 new field of labor, and another month found them comfortably settled at Nootwyck. It was a fortunate time. The village was being boomed by "The Consolidated Iron-Mining Company" which employed several hundred men. The town had been bonded for the Valley Railroad and the route surveyed. Prospects were good, for with this valley opened up to the outside world, its wonderful resources would be developed.

But oh, the uncertainty of human plans! Fifteen years had passed; the iron mine had long since shut down; the coal mine was unsteady and the Valley Railroad, after tunneling the mountain, penetrated to Elmdale—a short distance south of Nootwyck—and stopped. People along the promised line were powerless, and with the apathy born of repeated disappointments, they submitted to the inevitable.