Intellectual dwarfs shrink and wither in peril, while the giant mind acquires magnitude in proportion to the dangers which arise and threaten disaster. Without competition and with fair profits on the fuel and the lumber they sent to market, William and Maurice Wurts probably would have continued the coal business on a small scale, and been contented with their primitive mode of transportation, and their limited revenue from the business. At that time, in a single year, six thousand tons of anthracite glutted the markets of aft the cities of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Maurice Wurts, knowing this fact, proposed to send to the city of New York alone one hundred thousand tons annually, and to provide a way to do so, broached the project of scaling the Moosic mountain with a railroad, and constructing a long canal through a rugged and almost unexplored country, from the interior of Wayne county, Pennsylvania, to the Hudson! It is not surprising that the boldness of the proposition caused many who could see but the necessities of the hour to regard Maurice Wurts as wild and visionary, if not absolutely insane.
William Wurts, who readily adapted the views of his brother, undertook to explore a route for the canal, and followed the Lackawaxen Valley and Delaware until he reached the to explore a route for the canal, and followed the the Lackawaxen and Delaware until he reached the Shawangunk. Thus far there was no obstacle which was a bar to the project; but here he met a rocky barrier which seemed too formidable for a communication by water to the point which he wished to reach in the vicinity of the Highlands of the Hudson. In this emergency, he was advised by Abraham Cuddeback, of Cuddebackville, to explore the valley west of the mouutain.* He're he found an abundance of water and everything else favorable except public opinion. The entire route was feasible. When this was ascertained, the brothers determined to devote all their energies to the consummation of their enterprise.* Through their efforts, the Legislatures of Pennsylvania and New York enacted necessary laws. Residests on the route were then asked to contribute toward the preliminary survey, but very generally declined to do so. The Messrs. Wurts then employed Benjamin Wright, who was contidered the best engineer of the country, to locate the canal and road, and make an estimate of the cost of the work.
Mr. Wright made his report in 1824. He pronounced the improvement practicable, and estimated the expense at $1,300,000, a sum so large that its realization seemed almost hopeless, especially as capitalists looked upon the project as a chimera of hobby-riders and hot-brained enthusiasts. After this report greater number of their friends expressed grave doubts as to the sanity of William and Maurice Wurts, and the latter were obliged to decide whether they would abandon the enterprise, and be classed among visionary schemers, or vindicate the wisdom of its conception by securing its completion demostrating its utility. They knew, from the experience of communities older than our own, that a period was approaching when our forests could not be relied upon for a supply of fuel for dense centres of population, and that even then true economy proved that anthracite should be substituted for wood.
*Eager says Maurice Wurts traversed Orange County in search of a practiable route for the canal to Newburgh; but he found the Shawangunk an insurmountable obstacle. Abraham Cuddeback led him to examine the valley into Kingston, where a good route was found. Hollister, who gives a better account of the labors of the Messrs. Wurts, declares that William made the exploration.