Bald Friar Quarries

Location: eastern cliffs bordering the Susquehanna River, other quarries to the southeast.

The southeastern Bald Friar quarries on the Maryland Geological Survey 1928 map are otherwise designated as the Weiant workings - MB

A number of small quarries were opened in 1906 at Bald Friar, 1½ miles north of Conowingo, by the Deland Mining and Milling Company, of Havre de Grace.

Talc is the principle output at this locality, and is ground at a mill near the quarries. Feldspar is a secondary product, and is all shipped in the crude state. The quarries in May 1907, consisted of a number of small pits along the upper part of the bluffs bordering the Susquehanna.
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The location of these quarries on the valley slope facilitates the handling of the material, which is carried down by chutes to the flats near the railroad and the river. The quantity of material is probably not sufficient to warrant mining for feldspar alone, but the feldspar forms an important adjunct in the quarrying of talc. (Bastin, 1910)

The talc has been exhausted, and the small amount of feldspar still exposed would not justify mining. (Watts, 1916)

On the hill overlooking the Susquehanna River at Bald Friar, considerable feldspar was quarried over 20 year ago and shipped to Worth Brothers at Brandywine Summit, Pennsylvania. Subsequently soapstone was quarried from the same openings by the Deland Mining and Milling Company for their grinding mill at Bald Friar. A small amount of feldspar was obtained at the same time from stringers and branches of the main dikes that had penetrated the serpentine wall rock. The small amount of feldspar lying about the openings is white in color and free of mica and quartz. The largest opening extends 200 feet in a direction N. 40' W., is 120 feet wide, and was worked to a depth of about 40 feet. A short distance to the southeast is a second large opening over 100 feet long, 50 feet wide and 30 feet high at the upper face. These deposits are practically worked out. (Maryland Geological Survey, 1928)

Openings were made in the cliffs for soda spar, probably around 1900. White albite quarried at Bald Friar was shipped to Worth Brothers, at Brandwine Summit, Pa., for milling. Irregular, pinching and swelling veins of albitite as wide as 15 feet intrude serpentine, which is locally altered to talc schist. The talc zone is commonly 6 to 12 inches wide, and locally pyrite and narrow zones of asbestos are abundant near the pegmatite. The Bald Frier dikes are reported to be free of quartz. Other undesirable minerals, including mica, are rare or completely absent (Pearre and Heyl, 1960).

In the years subsequent to 1906 the Bald Friar quarries were reopened principally for talc, with secondary production of feldspar from stringers and branches of the main dikes. Bastin reported that “the quantity of mateiral is probably not sufficient to warrant minning for feldspar alone, but the feldspar forms an important adjunct in the quarrying of talc.”