The Mineral Resources of Cecil County
Maryland Geological Survey, 1902
Along the northern limits of the county from Conowingo and Bald Friar on the Susquehanna eastward for a distance of about 15 miles extends a series of "barrens" underlain by serpentine, which in many instances has yielded rich deposits of the unusual mineral chromite, an oxide of the metal chromium. As early as 1827 it was recognized by Mr. Isaac Tyson jr., that the black, metallic mineral chromite was the same as that which was bringing a $100 a ton in the European market. It was not, however, until a year or so later that chromite-bearing serpentines were traced into Cecil County and thence across the State boundary into Lancaster county, Pennslyvania. The richest deposit found in all this belt lies just across the State line 5 miles northwest of Rising Sun on the Wood farm. At the surface the ore body was 30 feet long and 6 feet wide and the ore so pure that 10 cubic feet produced a ton of chrome ore averaging 54% chromic oxide. At one time almost all of the chromic ore used in the world over was produced from this single mine, which shipped as high as 400 to 500 tons each month. At first the ore was hauled by wagon to Port Deposit, where it was loaded into vessels and sent either to Liverpool or Baltimore. Later when the central division of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore railroad was built through Rising Sun it was customary to load at that point, shipping the material to Baltimore by rail. This mine was worked almost continually from 1828 to 1881, when operations permanently ceased. There was no work, however, during the years 1868 to 1873. The operations ceased partly because of the dpeth to which the mine had gone, but more especially because the ore could be obtained more cheaply from the rich deposits discovered near Brusn, a small town about 75 miles southwest of Constantinople, which at present supply the chrome ore for the demand of the entire world.
All along either side of the Mason and Dixon Line between Rock Springs, Maryland and Pleasant Grove, Pennsylvania, are a series of abandoned openings which have been made in search of chrome ore. Some of these were successful and have received local names, among which may be mentioned the "Line Pit", which was owned in part and worked by the Tysons; the Jenkins Mine, Low's Mine, owned and for some time worked successfully by Andrew Low and Benjamin Gibson; West [Wet? - MB] Pit and Brown’s Mine. From the very first all of the chrome openings were operated by the Tysons or their product was controlled by the trade conditions which were dominated by them.
Chrome sands were found, some of them of considerable richness, in the stream-beds and valleys of the small streams draining the serpentine area and they have been worked spasmodically for the chrome ore which became concentrated in them because of the indestructible character and weight of the chromite compared with the minerals with which it is associated in the parent rock. The last worked deposit of chrome sand was on a small tributary of Stone Run at a point just south of the State line 2 miles north of Rising Sun. Even this was abandoned in 1900.
The industry which was established in Baltimore through the discovery of the deposits of chrome ore in Maryland has continued even after the local ore had been replaced by that from Asia Minor. Chrome ore has been found also at various points in the United States, notably California, but the American ore in all instances is no longer mined because it is impossible tocompete with the Asia Minor product.
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