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.