Beaver Dam is a flooded marble quarry in

Cockeysville, Maryland Cockeysville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 20,776 at the 2010 census. History Cockeysville was named after the Cockey family who helped establish the town. Thomas Cockey (1676� ...

that has been used as a swimming location since the 1930s. Currently, a 30-acre swim club is located there with two swimming pools, a volleyball court, picnic tables and grills, a creek, and snack house. The 40 foot deep freshwater quarry has floating platforms, two rolling logs, diving and jumping platforms, and a rope swing. The quarry began operation in the 19th century and much of the labor was that of Irish immigrants using hand drills, hammers and chisels. In 1878, Hugh Sisson acquired the property and began using the latest equipment available: steam powered derricks, shovels, and diamond bit drills. Stone was loaded onto wagons and pulled by oxen to the nearby

Northern Central Railway The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad connecting Baltimore, Maryland with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. Completed in 1858, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1861, wh ...

in Cockeysville until the quarry site itself was connected to the rail in 1866. The

dolomitic Dolomite () is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally The term is also used for a sedimentary carbonate rock composed mostly of the mineral dolomite. An alternative name sometimes used for the dolomiti ...

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

, known to geologists as the

Cockeysville Marble The Cockeysville Marble is a Precambrian, Cambrian, or Ordovician marble formation in Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard Counties, Maryland. It is described as a predominantly metadolomite, calc-schist, and calcite marble, with calc-gneiss a ...

, from the quarry was used widely within the eastern United States, including the Washington Monument in Baltimore and the one in Washington, D.C.

Notes

References

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External links

Beaver Dam Swimming Club

Cultural Resources Information
{{coord, 39, 28, 44, N, 76, 39, 25, W, region:US-MD_type:waterbody, display=title Cockeysville, Maryland Quarries in the United States