19 Facts About Alexander Arthur

Alexander Alan Arthur was a Scottish-born engineer and entrepreneur active primarily in the southeastern United States in the latter half of the 19th century.

Flamboyant, charismatic, and energetic, Arthur used his prominent American and European financial connections to fund numerous business ventures, most of which were overly ambitious and ultimately failed.

Alexander Arthur was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the eldest son of Alexander and Catherine Allen Arthur.

In 1867, Alexander Arthur joined the 167th Highlander Regiment, and during the same period married his first wife, Mary Forrest.

Alexander Arthur moved several times throughout the following decade, living in Norway and Sweden before immigrating to the US city of Boston in 1879.

Alexander Arthur's plan called for harvested logs to be floated down the Pigeon River in a controlled fashion using a series of logging booms.

Alexander Arthur chose the small community of Newport, near where the Pigeon River exits the high mountains and enters the upper Tennessee Valley, as a base for his logging operations.

However, Alexander Arthur underestimated the volatility of Appalachian Mountain streams, which swell to many times their size after heavy rains.

Alexander Arthur spent 12 hours in the pouring rain directing efforts to save the boom, but it eventually collapsed, and the logs scattered for miles downstream.

In 1885, Alexander Arthur travelled to Cumberland Gap to report on the feasibility of building a railroad in the area, and was impressed by the abundant iron ore and coal deposits in the Yellow Creek Valley, on the Kentucky side of the Gap.

Alexander Arthur initially tried to interest the Richmond and Danville Railroad in establishing an iron production operation in the area, but after failing to do so, he took the initiative himself.

Alexander Arthur then formed the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap, and Louisville Railroad to build a spur line to Middlesboro which would transport the pig iron and coke out of the valley.

Alexander Arthur struggled forward until the Panic of 1893 in the American stock markets brought about a total collapse.

Alexander Arthur named it "Harrogate" after the resort town of Harrogate in England.

In 1888, Alexander Arthur built a large house for himself in Harrogate, and American Association, Ltd.

Alexander Arthur advertised the Four Seasons resort far and wide, but the hotel's remote location and distance from the railroad made it less desirable to the nation's wealthy.

In 1897, Alexander Arthur travelled to Alaska to join the Klondike Gold Rush, and eventually settled in New York.

Alexander Arthur died March 4,1912, and is buried in a family plot in the Middlesboro Cemetery.

Alexander Arthur understood the great wealth that could be obtained from extracting the abundant natural resources of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, but even with million-dollar financing, the lack of technology and inaccessibility of the region proved too much to overcome.