The Curtis Creek Iron Furnace, also called Aetna or Etna Furnace, was established about 1759 on the south side of Furnace Branch Creek in Glen Burnie, where Route 10 now crosses. Its location provided access to local iron ore deposits, wood from surrounding forests for charcoal kilns, water power from a one-mile mill race fed by Saw Mill Creek, and water transportation for exporting iron products. During the War of 1812, the furnace supplied eighteen-pound cannon and thirty-two-pound carronades for Commodore Joshua Barney's flotilla, a collection of barges used to defend the shallow waters of Chesapeake Bay against British attacks. According to an account by Sarah Randle in the Baltimore Sun in September 1890, Captain Abner Linthicum's company was often in service, sometimes at Etna Furnace, Curtis Creek, where cannon were cast before and during the war.