The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-10-29

see winch cOulQ nrSL get TO CumDer-
land. The railway won the race and
in that year, 1912, the real coal min
ing history of Maryland begun.
Oddly the first mining exploration
in those mountains had not been in
search of coal at all, but of iron. The
mines which old Governor Spottswood
had developed in Virginia and his
FORCES in that wilderness had encour-
aged the Adventures north of the Po-
| tomac, and furnaces were springing
up along the Chesapeake country.
They needed iron ore in greater guam
titles and, sure enough, Western Ma
ryland's mountains produced it.
At Mount Savage, for example, was
produced enough ore to warrant put
ting up not only a smelling furnace,
but forge, and there was rolled the
first steel for Maryland's new rail-
roads. 1t was no 130-pound rail such
as that on which 1881 locomotives
thunder along, but modest, thin iron
strap, which was nailed to the wooden
stringer as a surfacing for the light
railroad vehicles of that day. The
next development was to widen this
strap and work it downward at both
edges into a sort of U-shape, to fit
over the edge of the stringer; several
ancient segments of this Urail are
still proudly exhibited at Mount Saw
age.
By 1920 the coal mines of the neigh
borhood were producing far more fuel
than the little smelters and FORCES
needed, and people on the seaboard
were asking why they could not get
| from the Frostburg country some coal
like that which was coming down the
Susquehanna from the Pennsylvania
mines.
Coal was soon Forthcoming, but get
ting it to market was something else.
1t was hard stuff to handle by long
distance trucking, especially over the
poor roads of that day. See how, in
this day of hard roads and powerful
motors, the heavy trucks still puff la
boriously up the long inclines, and
imagine, if you can, the adjurations
which an 1920 driver must have en-
ployed to get his horses up Sideling
Hill.
1t did not take them long to find an
easier way of hauling coal, with the
Potomac River right at Cumberland.
| The canal was nowhere in sight, and
through much of the year the Poto-
mac had, and still has, more rocks
than water, but in the spring freshets
there was plenty of water for light
draft vessels, and of this the thrifty
mountaineers were not slow to take
advantage. They simply transferred
their coal by wagons to Cumberland
and through the winter stacked it well
up on the shore, near the mouth of
Wills Creek. Alongside they hauled
timber, and when they had nothing
else to do they worked the timber into
the right shapes and sizes and put
together great fat-bottomed barges.
Everyone in the neighborhood did
it. Farmers found plenty of idle time
in the winter, and put it in at boat
making, even planning a barge trip
in the first freshet, which would allow
them time to drift down to tidewater
and get back to the farms before the
moist soil should be workable. Old
fellows too rheumatic to dig coal or to
| trudge with their teams over the
ridges were able to tap with ham,
mer or even to swing a small adze.
Youngsters eager to see tidewater
labored gayly at the boats in hope of
a reward in the form of trip to
Washington.
Out of all this there developed, as
B. S. Randolph points out in his his
tory of Maryland collieries, stand
ard one-time boat, strong enough to
carry its cargo on one voyage to mar
ket if the boatman was skillful and
cautious, but purposely not much
stronger than needed, for the craft
was destined to make only that one
voyage.
When the rains and thaws had suf
ficiently raised the surface of the
Potomac there was high excitement at
the mouth of Wills Creek. The final
calking and pitching was attended to,
the barges were floated, the coal was
loaded, and away sailed the first ships
of the fleet. Immediately more con-
struction was started, and more load
ing, and thus the coal was hurried off
to tidewater market as long as the
pile remained and as long as the
river was navigable. The bargemen
found their market, sold the cargo of
coal to the best bidder, knocked the
J frail bargeS to pieces if desired and