Editing Buena Vista, Virginia (section)

===Early history===
One civil war survey from 1863 lists a half dozen buildings on the site of what is now Buena Vista, including the Paxton and Majors properties and lists both as having mills along the Maury River, then called the “North River“.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1863 |title=Library of Congress online map collection |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/gvhs01.vhs00331/?r=0.725%2C0.232%2C0.087%2C0.127%2C0&st=image |website=United States library of Congress}}</ref> The city itself was founded by Benjamin C. Moomaw in the late 1800s, and originally consisted only of a simple [[tannery]] at the intersection of two railroads and a canal. The [[Richmond and Alleghany Railroad]] and the [[Shenandoah Valley Railroad (1867–90)|Shenandoah Valley Railroad]],<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book| title=Virginia, a Hand-book: Giving Its History, Climate, and Mineral Wealth, Its Educational, Agricultural, and Industrial Advantages| author1=Whitehead, T.| author2=Virginia. Dept. of Agriculture| author3=Virginia. Board of Agriculture| date=1893| issue=v. 81-893| publisher=Everett Waddey Company| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MSQzAQAAIAAJ| page=177| access-date=2014-10-16}}</ref> stood alongside the [[James River Canal]] that had been used to transport materials from the Atlantic ports of Virginia to [[Lexington, Virginia|Lexington]] since the 18th century,<ref>[[Maury River#History]]</ref> but by the founding of the city had been converted for the distribution of water power.<ref name="books.google.com"/> After opening the tannery, Moomaw opened a [[pulp mill]] and a [[canning]] factory. In 1882 Appold & Sons Tannery opened, and the first public school opened in 1885.<ref name="buenavistavirginia.org"/>

In 1893, the town was described as "one of the many new towns that seem to have sprung up as if by magic in some parts of Virginia." In that same year, they passed a law banning the sale of alcohol, effectively making it a dry town. Previous to 1889 none of the 600 dwellings, churches, stores, hotels and other buildings in the town had been built "but where are streets and all that goes to make a booming city the reapers that year gathered a luxuriant crop of wheat."<ref name="books.google.com"/> In December 1888, Moomaw wrote the Buena Vista Prospectus to organize a town and began selling stock. "It took only 30 days for all the stock to be sold for a total of $400,000. With the sale completed, it was time to lay out the town and begin recruiting people and industries."<ref name="buenavistavirginia.org"/> On February 22, 1889, a large deposit of [[iron ore]] was reportedly discovered that resulted in a boom of economic activity that lasted until March 4, 1892.<ref name="buenavistavirginia.org"/> In just those three years the community grew extensively, adding a new brick school house, an opera house, two churches, a luxury hotel, a new [[Masonic Lodge]] (Buena Vista Lodge No. 186),<ref name="grandlodgeofvirginia">{{cite web|url=http://www.grandlodgeofvirginia.org/lodges/186/history.asp|title=Lodge History - Buena Vista Lodge No. 186|publisher=grandlodgeofvirginia.org|access-date=2014-10-16|archive-date=2015-02-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203201211/http://www.grandlodgeofvirginia.org/lodges/186/history.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref> a paper and pulp mill, a saddle factory, a [[cashmere wool|cashmere]] mill, two brick and clay works, a wagon works, two banks, an egg crate factory, an electric light plant, a furniture and chair factory, a boiler factory, an iron furnace and steel factory, a glass foundry, and several wood and lumber establishments.<ref name="books.google.com"/>