Maryland Mining Company

The coal was originally transported by flatboats placed together on the headwaters of the North Branch Potomac River.

With the arrival of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in Cumberland, Maryland in 1842, local interests began lobbying for the construction of branch lines leading to the coal mines at Eckhart Mines, and the iron furnaces at Mount Savage, Maryland.

Savage works was finished and operating in December 1844, while Maryland Mining's Eckhart branch entered service in May 1846.

Savage operation fell on hard times, and the Eckhart coal business has always been the more prosperous of the two.

The C&P later became the initial stretch of B&O's main line to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, first via trackage rights and following 1903 by way of lease.

1876 - The Maryland and American Coal Companies start building the George's Creek and Cumberland Railroad (GC&C).

[3] 1907 - Western Maryland Railroad assumes control of the GC&C as part of the George Gould empire (merged into WM in 1917).