HISTORIC MINERAL FEATURE

A Brief History of the Copper Mine at Bare Hills, Maryland

by Herbert C. Moore

farm." Apparently a small shaft had Introduction the suburban section known as Mt. NATshington. That portion of the Hills already been made. In similar fashion to a number of In December, 1844, Petherick trans- other eastern U.S. mineral locations, where the chrome mining operations were carried on is near Falls Road, ferred his interest to Isaac Tyson, Jr. the Bare Hills Copper Mine has been This gentleman attempted to hold obliterated by urban development. while the copper mine is on Smith Avenue. Old Pimlico Road connects Watts to his agreement, but Watts, Herbert-Moare, a historian and natu- Falls Road and Smith Avenue. As Bal- perhaps advised that he-h-id madt an ralist who was active with the Nat- unequal contract, treated it as null. ural History Society of Maryland, vis- timore City increased in size, Bare Hills, quite naturally, became closer. Tyson brought suit for specific per- ited and studied the mine during formance. The case was argued by 1934 and 1935. Moore gathered all In the 1860's the Hills were seven miles from the city. three notable lawyers of the time: available historical information and Reverdy Johnson and J.H.B. Latrobe interviewed the last living miners. His Copper was discovered at Bare Hills in the days when Smith Avenue was for Tyson, and T. Parkin Scott for -efforts were preserved in an article a mere dust road. The earliest refer- Watts. The Court decided that the prepared for the Society and pub- agreement was one-sided. Petherick lished in May 1935. At the time of ence appears to be a Maryland law case dated 1848, deciding a dispute (or his assignee, Tyson) could, under Moore's visit, a water-filled shaft and the agreement, use the mine if it were a number of buildings and building which had its beginning in 1844 and 1845. found productive. If found otherwise -foundations were still accessible. however, he could just lag along, do- Mineral specimens,- both copper- ing nothing, and all the time depriv- bearing and non—copper species were "The fact that the company ing Watts of revenue which he might still collectable. By the time Pearre exchanged stock for provisions at be able to get from somebody else and Heyl visited the site during the the general store who knew better how to work it; or preparation and mapping of their re- indicated that was in a weak by using the property for other pur- port* in 1957 circumstances had financial condition" poses. Therefore, the contract was not changed. The main shaft had been mutual. filled and the dumps were being lev- Subsequently it seems, from an iso- eled for a suburban housing develop- Sometime prior to 1844, copper had been discovered on the farm of lated allusion in Scharf, the great ment. No copper mineralization Maryland historian, that Tyson did could be found in the area. Thomas B. Watts, who desired that the deposits should be explored and dally with the mine. Others also en- The Bare Hills Copper Mine is a deavored to mine the copper there. --classic Maryland location, with spec- worked. (In reality, he was the re- versioner, with his mother possessing However, the operations between imen representation in many institu- 1845 and 1855 were carried on none tional and private collections. The ar- a life interest in the land.) Having lit- tle money, and knowing nothing too successfully, although the shaft ticle is being presented here for the was dug to a depth of 350 feet. The interest and enjoyment of our read- about mining, he entered into an drainage of water, always a great ers. We thank the Natural History So- agreement with Thomas Petherick, a mining engineer of some repute, for question at the Bare Hills Copper ciety of Maryland for permission to Mine, and the hoisting of the ore and republish this story. the exploration of the copper on the farm. In the agreement Watts re- waste were handled by means of a small 4-horse-power steam engine. Copper at Bare Hills ceived one dollar consideration and a promise of a full fifteenth part of all The water was drawn up in buckets' The Bare Hills are now located less through a small irregular shaft which than a mile from Baltimore City, near the minerals after the same had been rendered fit for smelting, clear of struck the vein at the depth of 140 *Heyl, Allen V. and Pearre, Nancy C. -Copper, all expenses. Petherick paid Watts feet. Below that point another small Zinc, Lead, Iron, Cobalt, and Barite Deposits in $30.00 "to make an excavation to the opening was made on the dip of the the Piedmont Upland of Maryland" 1965, MD vein about 180 feet. In 1855, Dr. Geological Survey, Bulletin 28. shaft sunk on the copper ore on the .A.0eary IVIATRIXtlft„ "VOLUME '3 er,r4,711

View of the Bare Hills Copper Mine, drawn and printed in color by Schmidt and Trowe, Baltimore engravers, circa 1870. Location at point where Northern Central Railroad crosses Falls Road. (Photo courtesy of the Maryland Histor- ical Society.

William H. Keener acquired a small provements were made, such as a From March, 1864 to March, 1865, interest in the mine, and in 1858, he suitable dressing house for the ore 700 tons were taken from the mine, purchased a controlling interest. Cap- (84 X 45 feet), an office, smith's shop, and the shaft was dug 50 feet deeper tain Edward Powers, his superinten- carpenter's shop, magazine, dwelling to the 650 foot level. During the dent, abandoned the combined use of for the captain, and four blocks of month of May in 1864, 80 tons of ore shaft and slope, widened the slope, miners' houses, each measuring 50 were brought to the surface by 25 _ancLextended it to the_surface. feet, -miners,- and in June, I-864, 40 men

In 1860 the Bare Hills Copper Min- In 1864 the mining company had were employed at the mines. There- ing Company was incorporated by an a capital stock of $500,000 in 100,000 after, until 1867, the average was 25 Act of the General Assembly of Mary- shares of $5.00 each. All stock was men, 9 for exploration and 16 to land. Later, in 1864, the company apparently sold at the time or within work the ore. was reorganized with Keener as pres- a short period, for two dividends or A resume of the period 1863 to 1865 ident, and work commenced on a the total capital stock were declared shows: in 1863-432 tons producing greater scale. Up to 1864 the shaft, before 1866. The working capital 2,352 lbs. of copper were mined with which was not vertical but on an in- however, was not absorbed at the a value of $21,558; in 1864,-700 cline of 45 degrees, had been dug to outset as was so often done. Further- tons, valued about $54,300; in 1865 a depth of 590 feet. The new system more, $25,000 was loaned on good about 75 tons a month. In June, 1864, of pumping and hoisting was effected security. Before 1864, Keener had ex- a dividend was declared of 21/2 per- by a steam engine cylinder with two plored the levels and exposed easy ac- cent— $12,500., on the capital stock of boilers, 25 feet long and 31 /2 feet in cess to enough ore, so it was not nec- $500,000., and in December, another diameter. An ore crusher was at- essary to spend a great deal in sinking of 4 percent, or $20,000. tached to the engine with a pair of the shaft. Weed in "Copper Deposits of the rollers 18 inches in diameter and 14 During the first two months of the United States" writes that Dr. inches in length, and three jigger ma- new company's operations, over 175 Lehmann, once chemist at the Balti- chines of the oblong type were used, tons of ore were mined. Only 12 min- more Copper Works, reported yearly for sifting. Other very important im- ers were working at the time. shipments prior to 1864, as varying 95

mine. This reservoir, used for dress- or concentrates. From 1866 to 1887 between 2000-2500 tons of 15-20 the shipments gradually lessened, av- percent ore. Inasmuch as the records ing the ore, flooded the mine and eraging about 50 tons a month of 18 of the Baltimore Copper Works were stopped work for some time. (This - percent "cobbed ore." At that time destroyed by fire and his figures are flood is described vividly in the Amer copper was worth about 15v a pound. mostly from memory they are prob- ican and Commercial Advertiser of ($54.00 per ton). The gross valuation ably not as accurate as the ones given July 24, 1868. Several people were drowned in Baltimore City, while at from 1864 to 1887 was then about by the copper mining company. $1,750,000. for 32,500 tons of 18 per- The records between 1865 and Ellicott City over 30 persons lost their cent material. 1868 seem not to exist. In July of lives.) In 1880, according to the Tenth this latter year, a great cloudburst, The water was pumped out, and Census report, the mine yielded 17 mentioned by Scharf and other Mary- the mines functioned intermittently tons of concentrates, from which land historians as the worst one ever from 1867 to 1887. The shaft during 1,275 pounds of copper were pro- experienced in Baltimore flooded this period reached 900 feet in depth, duced. The mine was undoubtedly much of the section around Jones inclining under Smith Avenue. For 'dying' in the 80's. In the same year Falls and the Patapsco River. It the ten year period of 1866-1877, the the Mineral Hill Mine near Finks4urg, washed away half a dozen bridges, in- annual output averaged from 800 to Maryland, yielded 164,640 pounds of cluding the bridge at Mt. Washington, 1,200 tons of "cobbed ore", averaging copper—quite a difference. and broke the dam which stored the 18 per cent copper. This represented " ore In the late 1890's the mine was op- water that was pumped out of the 1000 to 1500 tons of "hutched

Chloritic paragneiss, small feldspar --- Prospect pit, no porphyroblasts mineralized rock X X • Granite Hornblende-epidote-chloritic gneiss and if schist and a little magnetite pegmatite

Mine Captain's house 4

X Prospect pit(?)

•N , 11*%,„ To several Site of blacksmith shop I I shallow -3 prospe Miners' homes \ ct pet s /,'fite of 'boiler ,v \ X a73.3- ,'/4and engine house \\\Hpfnblet.ipe "-- \•s, t • // \ \ schist 222,ar j of ore \ \ float V, dressing // EXPLANATION \10/1-13ftsf: x buildings I/ -\ Site of powder \I el 7 ‘shafts or prospects / house \\ Inclined shaft I I cy X? DUMPS i Main or Keener shaft \ \ \\ ■ Weathered outcrops \`‘. 1...-er Bottom of inclined shaft _of homblendesichiStY \ . . . magnetite in area ‘‘,1`...„.. - — east of dump --..., - - - - I I Inferred underground workings, projected in shaft Prospect pit(?) X Homblende-chlorite schist and quartz on dump Caved adit

Small open pit or trench

X Prospect pit 3 Mine dump

0 50 100 110 2?) FEET I Position of lower mine a drifts not known Building Location and position of mine shafts and underground \ workings are very approximate from available data. \ Underground workings projected from longitudinal i---Approximate position of base of shaft section in 1865 Annual report of the Company, and inclined 45 degrees Building site reported depth of shaft in 1887 (Moore, 1935) Map of the Bare Hills Copper Mine from 1957 projection made by Heyl and Pearre. ' 96 • MATRIX • -.0V1 1-:' d, _ •

erated again. A number of Mt. Wash- ington residents became stockholders Minerals of the Bare Hills Copper Mine in an unsuccessful company. Very lit- by Charles W. Ostrander tle was done—in all, six carloads of ore went to a New Jersey smelting Many interesting minerals have been found at the well-known Bare Hills company. The fact that the company Copper Mine, located on Smith Avenue about one mile east of Old Pimlico Road. exchanged stock for provisions at the This mine was in operation, somewhat intermittently, from the middle of the general store, as well as for the ser- last century up to the early 1900's. vices of a mason who erected foun- The ore-bearing rock is metagabbro (homblende gneiss), bordering on the dations, indicated that it was in a serpentine rock of Bare Hills. Little remains to show that the mine once existed except the extensive dumps now badly weathered, the water-filled shafts, and weak financial condition. According foundations of the old engine house. to the stockholders and one former Of the ore minerals collected at this location the most important is CHAL- director who were interviewed "there COPYRITE, which occurs in brassy yellow masses, the specimens now found in were some honest officers of the com- the surface dump being badly weathered. As yet we have found no crystals of pany and some dishonest ones." In this mineral at the mine. BoaNrrE is found in a massive state often associated any event, the stockholders lost their with the Chalcopyrite. It is easily recognized by the iridescent coating on the sur- money. face of the mineral from which the name "peacock ore" originated. During this last venture, new ma- Sometimes one sees a soluble coating of a bluish-green mineral surround- chinery, an air compressor, and other ing the Chalcopyrite. This is cHALc.ArrrxrrE, a product of the oxidation of the equipment were set up. One nearby former minerals. AzuRrrE, another mineral formed by the oxidation of copper, resident states that after all the is found but rarely. It occurs as a blue stain on rock. MALACHITE, which is easily recognizable by its dull green color, is also found staining the rocks. It can be money was gone, coal, which kept commonly seen on the rocks in the small stream which runs through the mine the steam engine going, could no dumps. It was in solution and was deposited on the rocks. longer be purchased; the mine filled mAGNErrrE occurs in heavy black crystalline masses and in small octahe- up with water again and has re- dral crystals. This mineral is easily identified by its magnetic properties. invioNrrE mained so. After this last disastrous is found as a rusty brown coating on the ores of which it is an oxidation prod- enterprise the property was mort- uct. gaged and sold. It came into the Two minerals of the Amphibole group seem to be the most prevalent ma- hands of the present owner who is a terial on the dump, the reason for this being that they comprised the greater part resident of Washington, D.C. of the waste material from the mine. The most common of this group is ACTI- Another phase of history is pre- NouTE which is found in greenish to brown lamelar masses.*. Much similar to which occurs in the same form but has a lighter brown color. sented by men who were workers in this is TREMOIXTE pLAGloc.LAsE (Na, Ca feldspar) is found in small white crystals, usually be- or above the mine many years ago. ing associated with HORNBLENDE. In small radiating pistachio-colored crystals in In this connection, credit should be Feldspar and Calcite is found EpmcrrE. Small crystals of black TOURMALINE are given Mr. J. Doheny, who worked in also found on the dump. cm.oRrrE is found as a decomposition product of the the mines as a boy in 1866 and 1867 silicates. Garnet (ALmANDrrE) occurs in minute red crystals in the feldspar. STIL- and Mr. Joseph Bums, who now lives BITE occurs rarely as a drusy lining of rock, cavities. where the old copper house near the *The mineral in question has been observed in other collections under the labels of Cum- siding at Bare Hills' Station once ex- mingtonite or Bronzite-Enstatite, but optical analysis has shown it to be Actinolite. So far isted. He formerly lived in _the old no trace of the other two minerals mentioned above has been found. miners' houses not far from the Reprinted from the Bulletin of the Natural History Society of Maryland Vol. 5, No. 12, Au- mines. Also Mr. George Gambrill, gust 1935. who worked above the copper mine as a boy, and who later performed the masonry work referred to earlier and candles, either stuck in clay on stood, a hundred yards or so from the Mr. J. Starr, who worked there in the their stiff hats, or placed on a nearby mine. 80's. rock. A wooden cart with an iron frame The period of greatest prosperity The ore was mined by using a ham- was pulled up a three-foot-gauge was apparently in the 1860's. In those mer and black blasting powder. Later track by a cable on a drum that was days, however, wages were not high. the air drill came into use; air was run by the engine. It took four to five The miners received about $1.50 a pumped down a pipe to the appara- minutes for a load to reach the top, day, the surface men $1.25, and the tus. Dynamite was not used in the because the cable moved slowly on boys-50(t. The surface men and boys earlier days. Instead they used blast- the drum. After the ore arrived at the worked a day shift of ten hours. ing powder with a fuse, which was surface, the solid pieces of copper The miners worked in three shifts put in a- hole. If the hole was wet, were removed. The "dead" or dregs of eight hours each, and since it they made a paper cartridge. The rock were thrown away, the remainder was always 'night' in the mine, it foundation of the old powder house crushed, and then it was given to the mattered not at all. The miners used is still where the house itself once boys to sift. Next, the copper concen- P'.74:5,;= - 14Pri FALL-1994-• • "MATRDC

trates were put in a trough and very emphatic about this point). This LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: washed by water that was pumped up was especially true in the early period Bridgewater Titanites from the mine and stored in a surface of the mine's history. So far as can be While browsing through a little- reservoir. ascertained, no slaves were used in used old book in my library, I came The ore, in the earlier period, was working the mine before the Civil across the original owner's signature taken by horse and wagon through a War. Certainly not in Tyson's time, for on the title page in the old-fashioned natural cut in the hills to Bare Hills he was a strict advocate of abolition- way. What are the odds, I wonder, of Station, where a copper house and a ism. Old residents do not remember finding Dr. Forwood's signature in my siding were located on the Northern ever seeing free Negroes thereabouts. tiny library concurrent with re- Central Railroad (formerly the Balti- The ruins of the old engine house, searching his titanite discovery? He more and Susquehanna). Old resi- the foundation where the air com- continues to reach me over the years! dents do not recollect the copper pressor rested, the foundations of the house and siding as being there in the old powder house, the old reservoir Carter Rich 70's so this route through the hills (about 75 feet X 20 feet) where the Aldie, VA was probably abandoned in the 60's. water was stored, a water-filled shaft, The siding was about a mile from the the old office, the captain's house, a mine. A hundred yards from where few houses in which the miners lived, it once stood, specimens of copper and the mine dumps are about all were found by Mr. Burns and the that is left on the surface to show writer. The ore that was sent to the what once was a busy mine. Carter Rich's excellent article on copper house near the siding was the Bridgewater titanites brought transported to Canton. At a later date References back interesting memories on my the ore was taken down Smith Av- 1. First and Second reports of P.T. Tyson, State having acquired one of the specimens enue to the Mt. Washington Station, Agricultural Chemist, to Maryland House Carter illustrated (figure 3, left crys- instead of by the old route. of Delegates, January 1860-1862. 2. Maryland Law Reporter-7 Gill, p. 124, 1848. tal) momentarily as mineralogist for Most of the miners lived around 3. Overbeck, Robert W., The Copper Ores of Ward's Natural Science Establish- Bare Hills. Six or seven of the old Maryland." J.H.U. Dissertation, 1915. ment. About 1985, Larry Conklin of miners' houses were still in existence 4. Weed, Walter Harvey "Copper Deposits of New York City was an exhibitor at and occupied a few years ago, and the the Appalachian States" 1911 U.S.G.S. the Rochester Mineralogical Sym- old mining company office is now Bulletin 455. 5. Keyser, R.B. 'Maryland, Its Resources, In- posium, as was Ward's. Each of our used as a dwelling. As for amuse- dustries and Beginnings" 1893 Prepared cases contained objects of interest to ments, old miners declared with a for the Board of the World's Fair, Chicago customers we had: Larry's Bridge- sigh, that whiskey was one of the pgs.- 112, 114 and 120. water specimen and Ward's' large very few. 6. Exposition of the Baltimore and Cuba polished Brenham, Kansas pallasite No laws had been passed in the Smelting and Mining Company, 1845. (Con- meteorite slab. The exchange was temporary references to copper and prices). third quarter of the last century re- 7. Howard, G.W. "The Monumental City" made as part of a package of other garding child labor. Two of the men 1873, Baltimore p. 225; advertisements. specimens and the mentioned speci- from whom information was ob- 8. Scharf, J.T. "History of Baltimore City and mens went to the "customers' at- tained worked as boys, dressing the County" 1881 pgs. 343, 422, 772, 773. tending the show. The titanite was ore on the surface of the mines. Mr. 9. Report of the Bare Hills Mining Company 1864. exchanged with Steve Chamberlain Doheny, who was eleven years of age 10. Prospectus of the Bare Hills Mining Com- for various educational minerals. I when he worked at the mine, said pany 1864. understand that Steve resisted nu- that there were at least 10 other boys 11. The Annual Report of the Bare Hills Min- merous offers from a variety of inter- between the ages of 12 and 18 work- ing Company, 1865. ested collectors until a few years ago ing there at the same time. He was 12. Report of the Guilford Mining Company and it could only be wrested from his (N.C.) May 1860. (Contemporary copper the youngest. Most of the boys had prices). collection when his collecting objec- stopped school in the fifth or sixth 13. Oreknob Prospectus 1873 (Contemporary tives turned to be more firmly focused grades. He says that boys were fired information relative to copper.). on New York State specimens. Al- daily, by old Captain Cooper for var- 14. The Maryland Copper Company of Carroll though specimens can be long "dor- ious pranks and then, as they started and Baltimore Co., 1860. mant" in collections, they do some- 15. Tenth U.S. Census, Vol. 15 pgs. 798, 977, to leave, were called back. The cap- 978. times flare into life and these minute tain, he added, was superstitious 16. Clark, William B. and Mathews, E.B. moments are as interesting, to some, about whistling in or near the mines, "Maryland Mining Industries- 1908 MD as the details of the original speci- believing accidents would follow. Geological Survey. mens' discovery. Fortunately, there does not seem to 17. Prospectus of the Mineral Hill Mine, Car- be a record of any. roll Co., MD, 1860 (Valuable contempo- Vandale T. King rary reference.). Rochester, NY Practically all of the miners were 18. Prospectus of the Springfield Copper Mine, Irish. (Every person interviewed was Carroll Co., MD, 1853. continued on page 129 MATRIX: A Journal of the History of Min- erals is a quarterly publication, owned, copy- righted and published by the MATRIX Pub- lishing Company, PO Box 129, Dillsburg, PA 17019-0129. The MATRIX Publishing Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Meadowview MATRIX Graphics Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation. The THE HISTORY OF MINERALS MATRIX Publishing Company is dedicated ex- A JOURNAL OF clusively to the publication of mineralogi- cal/historical subjects, and as such, solicits projects to be published. Newly authored works are welcomed for evaluation. 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