The Maryland Mining Company is a historic

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

producer and

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

company that operated in Allegany County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, United States. The company was based in Eckhart Mines, Maryland; the location in Braddock Run was among the first

bituminous coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...

mines developed in the

Georges Creek Valley Georges Creek Valley is located in Allegany County, Maryland along the Georges Creek. The valley is rich in wide veins of coal, known historically as "The Big Vein." Coal was once extracted by deep mines but is only mined today through surfac ...

History

This region saw significant industrialization, with the first

pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with silic ...

to be smelted at Mount Savage, Maryland to the northwest by the Maryland and New York Coal and Iron Company. Coal mining began in Eckhart Mines after "

The Big Vein The Big Vein refers to a thick seam of bituminous coal discovered in the Georges Creek Valley of Western Maryland in the early 19th century. This coal vein became famous for its clean-burning low sulfur content that made it ideal for powering oc ...

" was opened in 1820. The coal was originally transported by

flatboats A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...

placed together on the headwaters of the North Branch Potomac River. As part of its operations, the company built the Potomac Wharf Branch rail line from Wills Creek, west of Cumberland, between 1846 and 1850, as an extension to its

Eckhart Branch Railroad The Eckhart Branch Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Cumberland, Maryland area in the 19th century. The company was a subsidiary of the Maryland Mining Company of Eckhart Mines, Maryland. The railroad operated from 1846 to 1870, when ...

. The Cumberland Coal & Iron Company, chartered in 1850, purchased the Maryland Mining Company's mines and railroad in April 1852, including the village of Eckhart. With the arrival of the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O) in Cumberland, Maryland in 1842, local interests began lobbying for the construction of branch lines leading to the coal mines at Eckhart Mines, and the iron furnaces at Mount Savage, Maryland. The B&O didn't want to invest into branches for political as well as financial reasons. Eventually the Maryland & New York Coal & Iron Co. chartered and built its own

Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad The Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad (C&P) was an American railroad which operated in Western Maryland. Primarily a coal hauler, it was owned by the Consolidation Coal Company, and was purchased by the Western Maryland Railway (WM) in 1944. ...

with the purpose of connecting with, and hopefully later selling out to, the B&O near the Cumberland Narrows. The line to the Mt. Savage works was finished and operating in December 1844, while Maryland Mining's Eckhart branch entered service in May 1846. Throughout the following years, the Mt. Savage operation fell on hard times, and the Eckhart coal business has always been the more prosperous of the two. The C&P later became the initial stretch of B&O's main line to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, first via trackage rights and following 1903 by way of lease. Eckhart Jct. was established just west of the Narrows, Mt. Savage Jct. a few miles to the north.

Timeline of the railroad

1845 - Mount Savage Coal & Iron Company (later

Maryland & New York Coal and Iron Company Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

) completes the

Mount Savage Railroad The Mount Savage Railroad was a railroad operated by the Maryland and New York Coal and Iron Company of Mount Savage, Maryland between 1845 and 1854. The 14.9 miles (24 km) rail line ran from Frostburg to Cumberland, Maryland. History The r ...

, from Mt. Savage furnaces to Cumberland, with branches. 1846 - Maryland Mining Company completes the

Eckhart Railroad The Eckhart Branch Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Cumberland, Maryland area in the 19th century. The company was a subsidiary of the Maryland Mining Company of Eckhart Mines, Maryland. The railroad operated from 1846 to 1870, when ...

, from Eckhart Mines, Maryland to Wills Creek (Eckhart Junction). 1850 -

Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad The Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad (C&P) was an American railroad which operated in Western Maryland. Primarily a coal hauler, it was owned by the Consolidation Coal Company, and was purchased by the Western Maryland Railway (WM) in 1944. T ...

(C&P) is chartered. 1850 - Eckhart Railroad completes the Potomac Wharf Branch into Cumberland. 1853 -

Georges Creek Coal & Iron Company The Georges Creek Coal and Iron Company is a defunct coal mining, iron producer and railroad company that operated in Maryland from 1835 to 1863. Iron furnace The company was formed in 1835, and chartered in the state of Maryland on March 29, 183 ...

builds the

Georges Creek Railroad The Georges Creek Railroad was a railroad operated by the Georges Creek Coal and Iron Company in Western Maryland. The railroad operated from 1853 to 1863, when it was acquired by the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad (C&P). History Georges ...

between Lonaconing, Maryland and

Piedmont, West Virginia Piedmont is a town in Mineral County, West Virginia, United States. It is part of the Cumberland, MD- WV metropolitan statistical area. The population was 716 at the 2020 census. Piedmont was chartered in 1856 and the town is the subject of '' ...

. 1863 - C&P acquires the Georges Creek Railroad after purchasing the Mt. Savage Railroad. 1870 - C&P absorbs Eckhart Railroad. 1876 - The Maryland and American Coal Companies start building the

George's Creek and Cumberland Railroad The Georges Creek and Cumberland Railroad (GC&C) was a railroad that operated in Maryland from 1876 until 1917, when it was merged with the Western Maryland Railway (WM). The main line ran from Cumberland to Lonaconing. History The GC&C was cre ...

(GC&C). 1879 - The Pennsylvania railroad in Maryland company completes its line between the Pennsylvania State Line and Cumberland. 1888 - Pennsylvania railroad in Maryland and the Georges Creek and Cumberland Railroad were merged into the Georges Creek and Cumberland Railroad. 1907 - Western Maryland Railroad assumes control of the GC&C as part of the George Gould empire (merged into WM in 1917). 1939 - GC&C abandoned west of Eckhart Junction. 1944 - WM acquires C&P. 1953 - C&P formally merges with WM. 1982 - State Line Branch abandoned. These railroads were built by the iron and coal companies in the early 1840s, in anticipation of connecting with the B&O Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, both then under construction to Cumberland. Some of these

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

mine roads owned and operated their own equipment, while others were operated with early B&O motive power and rolling stock. By 1870, all of the lines were absorbed into the Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad, which was itself absorbed into the Western Maryland system.

References

* Tom Robertson, "Frostburg", Arcadia Publishing 2002, * Mellander, Deane. Rails to the Big Vein, the Short Lines of Allegany County, Maryland, January, 1981, Potomac Chapter, NRHS, Inc. * Mellander, Deane. Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad, 1981, Newton, NJ: Carstens Publishers, Inc., . * Stakem, Patrick H. Eckhart Mines, the National Road, and the Eckhart Railroad, 2011, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Maryland Mining Company Coal companies of the United States Defunct Maryland railroads History of Cumberland, MD-WV MSA Mining in Maryland Predecessors of the Western Maryland Railway Railway companies established in 1836 Railway companies disestablished in 1852 1836 establishments in Maryland American companies disestablished in 1852 American companies established in 1836