After the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad was completed through the New River Gorge in 1873, the region’s rich timber and coal resources could be developed on a major scale because the railroad connected coal mines and sawmills to wider markets. Before branch rail lines were built, however, producers still had to solve the difficult problem of moving goods down to the C&O main line. On the Grandview Plateau in the early 1890s, timber was hauled or "skidded" by wagon to a circular sawmill at Crow, then the milled products were carried by horse-drawn tram cars on narrow-gauge rails to the Grandview clifftop, lowered by monitor to the New River, and ferried across by "boomboats" to Quinnimont.