History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf
But a particularly marked quarry is a large one, extensively worked for lime, on the property of Mr. Chew, in the first range of hills south of New Windsor. There the strata dip at a moderately high angle, spread from three to five feet in thickness, are quite long, and run deep into the earth. The upper layers are more or less stained with red, in many devices and patterns, while the more deeply-colored blocks are largely invaded by purple, somewhat mixed with green, in zigzag and wavy combinations. These fade out into greenish tints, becoming more blackish as they descend, until the extreme reached is dark gray, variegated, waved, and dappled with black, accompanied by some white. The next very prominent quarry occurs on the farm of Mr. Myers, situated about one mile south of the former. The stone there is of the same excellent quality, takes an equally good polish, and while varying somewhat as to the proportions of red, purple, and pink, presents some wonderfully beautiful patterns of color-figures on either a light or tinted ground. These latter are somewhat noted for the red pipe-clay which passes through them in belts between the layers of marble. This is of the kind that was formerly so much prized by the Indians, and tradition points to their having resorted to these places for their supply of the unwrought material.
From New Windsor to Big Pipe Creek the beds of marble are both numerous and varied. Some of them are small, and set into the earth rather than protruded from the hillsides. But they are none the less rich in stone of fine quality, and of peculiar and curious patterns of deep colors. So little has been the demand for these in the arts of construction and decoration that they have shared the fate of the coarser limestones in being broken and burnt for fertilizers. The farms next to the boundary of Frederick County, along Big Pipe Creek, are well provided with the finer marbles of the Tennessee variety. These have commonly a mixture of reddish brown, with purple, red, and white. Two patterns closely resemble the colored Castile soap, the one having the smaller diagonal spots arranged in loops and bends, while the other has purplish waves of different shades disposed in belts and irregular streaks. Some extremely fine, pure white marbles also occur in this neighborhood, and this region shares with the adjoining parts of Frederick in these treasures which nature has deposited so bountifully for the use of its inhabitants.
The limestones are properly the coarser and softer rocks of the marble group, and often invade the ledges of the more valuable and harder beds, but in general they occupy the outward limits of the belt, more particularly on the east, and yield lime of great strength and permanence as a fertilizer. They are also much used for plaster and building, giving a good surface in plastering of rooms, and forming a tough and durable cement in the construction of brick walls.
Iron Ores. — Every natural division of the State has its peculiar types of iron ore, which are in general not to be met with in places outside. Thus the ores of the mica-slate and talcose belt of Parr's Ridge occur in quartz veins in the hard rocks. The brown haeematites of the midland belt belong to the earthy series, and are confined, rather narrowly, to depressions in the body of the limestone valleys. The carbonates of iron of the hone series are peculiar to the clays of the tide-water belt, while the carbonates of the coalfields are of the black band and ball type. Dozens of other kinds occur within the limits of Western Maryland, but these have not yet proved to be in sufficient quantities nor of the proper quality for commercial purposes. The midland belt possesses immense deposits of brown haematites and smaller aggregations of specular oxide, and of magnetic oxide. Brown haematites abound in Baughman's Valley, and on the west side of Parr's Ridge from the Pennsylvania line to a point five or more miles south of Westminster. This form of ore accompanies the limestone formations, and generally occurs along the margins of the valleys, near the point of contact of the former with the talcose slates. It lies bedded in the brownish or reddish clay soil overlying the limestone. It has attracted a new attention within the last few years, and in consequence the old localities have been revisited, profitable deposits have been reopened, high prices have been realized for neglected ore-banks, and a wide-spread remunerative industry has become established in this region. This widely-known and highly-prized hematite is of the limonite series, dark brown or blackish where oxydized, often ochreous when freshly broken, and with a chalky or earthy aspect when dried. It occurs in nodules, chunks, and masses, varying from the size of a large egg to that of a bushel measure. Pieces, and especially nodules, or shell-like lumps of about the size of a quarter-of-a-peck measure, are quite common and of great interest. These are apt to be mixed with the least portion of earthy or foreign matters, and to yield about sixty-one per cent, of pure iron. They are composed of an outer shell of brown iron ore, simple and clean, more or less rounded, and set all around inside with sharp-edged loops, with bunches of knobs, with slender, tapering, tubular stems, or with blackberry-like lumps arranged in groups. Some of these are of great beauty from the fine gloss and splendid iridescence of their rich, deep purples, blues, greens, and bronze. Frequently they are filled with a series of chambers of a cavernous pattern, coated with a film of glossy deep black. This ore is apt to be arranged in more or less spherical shells, which exhibit a circle or circles of denser minerals wherever the surface is broken across. The lumpy masses partake also more or less of this shelly character, and most of this class of ores show that their development has proceeded in somewhat concentric lines. Most of the diggings thus far pursued have been superficial, very few of them having penetrated below a depth of from thirty to forty feet. The ore is extracted. from beds, seams, or pockets in the limestone, or from spaces in the talcose slates where the limestone formerly existed. These ores seem to be inseparably connected with the limestones. They were originally derived in part from them, and in some places fade into them by almost insensible degrees. Persistent search is constantly revealing new localities in which these ores occur, and wider experience is determining with increased certainty the probability of their presence in large deposits. Similar localities in Pennsylvania have displayed practically inexhaustible stores of this same class of ores, and doubtless some of the beds recently opened in the central parts of Carroll County will prove equally extensive.
A variety of this iron ore has been raised for several years past from a deep shaft opposite Avondale, on the line of the railroad. It has now penetrated to a depth of over one hundred feet, and seems to be incalculably productive. It is placed on the side of a limestone basin, directly next to a high hill of shattered talcose slate. A stream of water runs through the alluvial basin which overlies the white and variegated limestone. The ore is rather less nodular than that from the northern part of Baughman's Valley, and is somewhat lumpy and less coherent than the former. It is, however, a rich ore, and is shipped from the railroad station in large quantities. The same kind of ore has likewise been taken in large quantities from the section lying about two and a half miles west of Westminster, and also near the suburbs of that city. It contains a certain proportion of manganese, and has been worked from almost the first settlement of the region. A brown haematite belonging to the same group has also been found near Brighton, in Montgomery County. The samples thus far exhibited are rather extensively mixed with a gangue rock which holds pockets and seams of the ore in close embrace. It occurs in the metamorphic rocks, and has narrow wedges and layers of limestone spread through the mass. The deposits need deeper excavation in order to prove the value and extent of the metal there present.
The specular oxide (or red oxide of iron") also is found within the limits of Carroll County. The metalliferous range which courses along the east side of Parr's Ridge is the natural resting-place of this form of the metal. The heavy talcose schists near their line of contact with the older archaean rooks are charged with great seams and beds of quartz. In these the pockets and veins of this somewhat silvery-looking oxide occur in great variety and beauty. The highly-polished surface of the metal, as it branches and spreads out through the milk-white quartz, presents a very attractive appearance. Exposure to the atmosphere renders it more black and destroys the luster of its surface. No very extensive deposits of it have thus far been reported, although it is quite widely distributed. It accompanies the copper-bearing veins at Mineral Hill, it has been broken from quartz near Sykesville, and is not infrequent in the rocks near Carrollton Post-Office and southeast of Manchester. It is a difficult and expensive ore to work, because of the hard matrix in which it is imbedded, and has yet to be found in larger masses in order to prove a profitable metal here.
The magnetic oxide of iron is a black or black-gray mineral, often quite massive, and turning to a black powder when crushed in the mill. It is one of the richest of our iron ores, and sometimes yields as much as seventy per cent, of the metal. Much of it is