Iron Builds America

When European settlers discovered the Patapsco Valley, they found abundant natural resources in a landscape where Susquehannock and Piscataway Indians hunted and fished among elk, black bear, bison, gray wolves, and deer. Settlers recognized the valley's fertile, iron-rich soil, fast-flowing streams, and deep shipping channels leading to Chesapeake Bay and beyond, and beginning in the late 1700s the area became a center of Maryland's industrial revolution as iron, paper, grist, and textile mills spread through the valley. Entrepreneurs dammed the river and diverted its flow to power water wheels that ground wheat into flour and hammered iron into tools, while factories and villages were cut into hollows and steep hillsides. Factory employees lived in modest company-built homes, paid rent to their employers, and often relied on company-owned stores, schools, and churches. This area was the heart of an early 1800s iron-milling town. During the colonial period, raw pig iron was shipped from Elkridge to England in exchange for British-made products, but as the American Revolution neared, local industry began producing goods for use in America. Caleb Dorsey's iron forge made musket parts for the American militia, and the Ellicotts' Avalon Iron and Nail Works made rails for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. These industries helped win American independence and helped ignite Maryland's industrialization.

Arbutus, Maryland · United States