Mount Savage is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in Allegany County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 873. A small blue-collar community, Mount Savage lies at the base of Big Savage Mountain in the Allegheny Mountains, between the cities of Frostburg and Cumberland. It began as a small farming settlement in the mid-19th century, but it was not until 1844 that the region was put on the nation's map with the pressing of the first

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () 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, forming much of Earth's o ...

rail in the United States. After this claim to fame, Mount Savage became the fifth largest city in Maryland. Named as the headquarters for the Mount Savage Railroad and later the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad (C&P), the area was deemed an industrial center. In addition to the rail businesses, Mount Savage attracted a foundry, two brick refractories, and several local merchants. In this company town, the industries shaped the economy and topography of Mount Savage, building housing for workers and donating land for schools, churches, and other public buildings. It was a cultural melting pot attracting English businessmen and Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Italian, and German workers. With this diverse mix of cultures, the identity of Mount Savage was molded into a close-knit community. Despite the loss of the industries to the region, Mount Savage continues to celebrate its hard-working traditions. The Mount Savage Historic District was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1983.

Early history

The name origin of Mount Savage is derived from a land surveyor, Thomas Savage, who happened to be traveling through the area in 1736. The Archibald Arnold family later settled "Arnold's Settlement", now Mount Savage, around September 30, 1774. The town is the oldest in Allegany County to have a group of the same family to pioneer a town.Anonymous. "Arnold's Settlement." Heritage Press. Vol. 1, No. 8 (1972), p. 1. The Arnolds were Catholic farmers originating from southern Maryland.Charles Carney. "The History of Mount Savage." University of Maryland, May 1967. The Arnold family settled northeast of the current town, along a Native American trail which was later known as "Turkey Foot Road". The Arnolds established a hotel, "Arnold's Hotel", which welcomed the pioneers who were heading out west towards the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

Valley. They also had a self-sustaining farm which became part of the present-day Glen Savage Dairy Farm. The site of the hotel is along an 1804 alteration to the Turkey Foot Road. The Arnold family eventually owned most of the land of the present-day Mount Savage, Archibald sometimes purchasing at a time. Some areas of land that Arnold purchased were documented only as "Move About", "Tomahawk" and "Durbin's Neglect". In the early 19th century Mount Savage was primarily a self-sufficient farming community with no real need to embark onto enterprises with neighboring towns or industries. Mount Savage was the only town west of Cumberland with a Catholic church, so many families from neighboring states and towns traveled there for

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

. Upon completion of the National Road, settlers headed west by the thousands, flooding the Cumberland-Mount Savage area and calling attention to Mount Savage's mineral wealth.

Industrial history

The Maryland and New York Iron and Coal Company was incorporated in 1837. This important company was established by an Englishman, Benjamin Howell, who was one of the many travelers along the National Road. The company built the Mount Savage Iron Works, which utilized the iron ore that was abundant in the Mount Savage area. Following the construction of blast furnaces in 1839, the company built the Mount Savage Railroad in 1844 to connect the town to Cumberland and with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). The company produced about 200 tons of iron a week in 1845. The Mount Savage works was the only company in America to manufacture heavy railroad iron at that time. With the flourishing industry upon Mount Savage,

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

, brick,

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and locomotives were also being manufactured and transported to neighboring towns and states by way of the new railroad system. The most prosperous coal mines were the Eckhart Mines, located southwest of Mount Savage, which produced

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 coal seam, ...

. The Mount Savage railroad system became the main supplier to the B&O as well as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. By 1852 the iron works was considered to be the largest in the United States. By 1864, the Union Mining Company was established in Allegany County. This company controlled most of the clay and brick exports. Little Mount Savage had officially grown into a legendary, American industrial center. The iron works faced competition from facilities in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

region. The company's rolling mill was shut down in 1868 and the blast furnaces ceased operation c. 1870.Allen, Jay D. (1970)
"The Mount Savage Iron Works, Mount Savage, Maryland: A Case Study in Pre-Civil War Industrial Development."
Graduate thesis,

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

. The brick works continued to operate successfully and became the principal industry in the town through the late 20th century. The C&P Railroad acquired the Mount Savage Railroad in 1854, and built shops to manufacture locomotives and other rolling stock in Mount Savage in 1866. The railroad operated through the mid-20th century.

Demographics

As of the 2010 census, there were 873 people in 338 households living within the boundaries of Mount Savage. 236 of those were family households. The racial makeup of Mount Savage was 96.4%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.6%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.1% Asian, 1.3% some other race, and 1.6% two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.6% of the population. There were 338 households, out of which 32.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.3% were headed by married couples living together, 11.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.2% were non-family households. 26.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% were someone living alone who was 65 years or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.10. In Mount Savage the population was spread out, with 23.1% below the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 27.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65 and older. The median age was 40.3. 49.5% of the population was male and 50.5% of the population was female. For the period 2007–11, the median household income was $47,098 and the median income for a family was $48,833. The median income for male full-time workers was $53,153 versus $19,953 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for Mount Savage was $18,636. 3.7% of families and 7.1% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

Geography

Mount Savage is located at an elevation of in the valley of Jennings Run in western Allegany County. Mount Savage Run flows into Jennings Run in Mount Savage. Maryland Route 36 runs through the community, leading southwest to Frostburg and east to Cumberland. Sampson Rock, the summit of Big Savage Mountain, rises to the west of the village.

Historic sites and museums

* Mount Savage Museum & Historical Park * Union Mining Company Office Building * C&P Railroad Office building * Remains of the iron furnace where the first iron rail was rolled

References

External links

Mount Savage Historical Society

{{authority control Census-designated places in Allegany County, Maryland Populated places in the Cumberland, MD-WV MSA Census-designated places in Maryland