Eckhart Mines, Maryland
Census-designated place
Location within the State of Maryland Show map of Maryland Eckhart Mines, Maryland (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 39°39′9″N 78°53′49″W / 39.65250°N 78.89694°W / 39.65250; -78.89694
Country	United States
State	Maryland
County	Allegany
Area [1]
• Total	1.52 sq mi (3.94 km2)
• Land	1.52 sq mi (3.94 km2)
• Water	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2)
Elevation	1,750 ft (530 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	858
• Density	563.73/sq mi (217.70/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP code	21528
FIPS code	24-24825
GNIS feature ID	2629795

Eckhart Mines is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Allegany County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 932.^[2]

Eckhart Mines lies at the southwestern base of Federal Hill, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) east of Frostburg and 0.8 miles (1.3 km) northwest of Clarysville. Braddock Run begins near Eckhart Mines.^[3] The town was founded as a company town for the nearby Eckhart Mines. According to the Maryland Mining Heritage Guide, it was "the first coal company town in Maryland."^[4]

The original owner was George Eckhardt, an immigrant from Germany.

The outcrop of the Pittsburgh coal seam here is known locally as "the big vein" or the "14 foot coal". The Eckhart Mines' location here was the first bituminous coal mine developed in the Georges Creek Valley coalfield, because this is where the National Road (now U.S. Route 40 Alternate) crossed the coal outcrop. The Eckhart operation was known as the Maryland Mining Company, which eventually combined with other companies to form the Consolidation Coal Company (now Consol Energy). The Eckhart operation was the first commercial coal company in the United States.

Demographics

History

In 1780 George Eckhardt secured lots 3644, 3645, 3646, in Allegany County. These lots were patented to him in 1800. He also had surveyed to him lot 3694, which he secured from John Stigler, to whom these lots had been awarded. [2]

A little village sprang up on George's land known as Eckhart Mines, which tradition says was named for him. George was from a German household, his was father Hann Adam Eckhardt (Eckhardt being spelled Eckhardt, Echert, Ekard, among other variations). Hann Adam arrived from Wetteraukreis, Hesse, Germany with George Adam by ship. Here in Eckhart he and his wife Mary (formally Anna Maria) lived, reared their family and died. The family cemetery is still located in the fields not far from the location of the original homestead. Today George Eckhardt's descendants live in various parts of the US from Catawba, North Carolina to Los Angeles California.

A history of Allegany County, page 448, says that "'Eckhart Mines', was a well laid out village 1789, July 12. This mining village is about one and a half miles from Frostburg, is on the Eckhart Branch of the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad in the basin of the Big Savage and Dan's Mt. and is very picturesquely situated." The report given in 1940 is, that there are ten stores there, four of them being general merchandise, several being grocery stores, and two churches, the Baptist and the United Methodist churches. The population was 2300 people.

The first German Lutheran Church built in Eckhart was built of stone on land given by the Eckhardt's. It has long since gone into decay. Eckhart Mines was a mining district and had large beds of very rich coal underneath, but the land was stolen from the Eckhardt family and two of their family members were poisoned. It is now owned by the Continental Coal Company.