BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area

MD -- Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.145.47.253 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

[1] SOLDEL_161010_002_STITCH.JPG

[2] SOLDEL_161010_003_STITCH.JPG

[3] SOLDEL_161010_004_STITCH.JPG

[4] SOLDEL_161010_005_STITCH.JPG

[5] SOLDEL_161010_006_STITCH.JPG

[6] SOLDEL_161010_007.JPG	[7] SOLDEL_161010_013.JPG	[8] SOLDEL_161010_022.JPG
[9] SOLDEL_161010_025.JPG	[10] SOLDEL_161010_033.JPG	[11] SOLDEL_161010_036.JPG
[12] SOLDEL_161010_040.JPG	[13] SOLDEL_161010_043.JPG	[14] SOLDEL_161010_046.JPG
[15] SOLDEL_161010_049.JPG	[16] SOLDEL_161010_052.JPG	[17] SOLDEL_161010_054.JPG
[18] SOLDEL_161010_057.JPG	[19] SOLDEL_161010_060.JPG	[20] SOLDEL_161010_063.JPG
[21] SOLDEL_161010_066.JPG	[22] SOLDEL_161010_069.JPG	[23] SOLDEL_161010_072.JPG
[24] SOLDEL_161010_076.JPG	[25] SOLDEL_161010_079.JPG	[26] SOLDEL_161010_082.JPG
[27] SOLDEL_161010_084.JPG	[28] SOLDEL_161010_088.JPG	[29] SOLDEL_161010_091.JPG
[30] SOLDEL_161010_094.JPG	[31] SOLDEL_161010_097.JPG	[32] SOLDEL_161010_100.JPG
[33] SOLDEL_161010_105.JPG	[34] SOLDEL_161010_107.JPG	[35] SOLDEL_161010_115.JPG
[36] SOLDEL_161010_119.JPG	[37] SOLDEL_161010_130.JPG	[38] SOLDEL_161010_136.JPG
[39] SOLDEL_161010_138.JPG	[40] SOLDEL_161010_146.JPG	[41] SOLDEL_161010_151.JPG
[42] SOLDEL_161010_167.JPG	[43] SOLDEL_161010_171.JPG	[44] SOLDEL_161010_175.JPG
[45] SOLDEL_161010_180.JPG	[46] SOLDEL_161010_184.JPG	[47] SOLDEL_161010_187.JPG
[48] SOLDEL_161010_190.JPG	[49] SOLDEL_161010_194.JPG	[50] SOLDEL_161010_195.JPG
[51] SOLDEL_161010_198.JPG	[52] SOLDEL_161010_201.JPG	[53] SOLDEL_161010_204.JPG
[54] SOLDEL_161010_207.JPG	[55] SOLDEL_161010_209.JPG	[56] SOLDEL_161010_212.JPG
[57] SOLDEL_161010_214.JPG	[58] SOLDEL_161010_218.JPG	[59] SOLDEL_161010_225.JPG
[60] SOLDEL_161010_229.JPG	[61] SOLDEL_161010_232.JPG	[62] SOLDEL_161010_236.JPG
[63] SOLDEL_161010_239.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SOLDEL_161010_007.JPG: Welcome to Soldier's Delight Natural Environmental Area! Soldier's Delight Natural Environmental Area (NEA) is located along the largest remaining serpentine barren in the eastern United States and features a unique and protected natural ecosystem. The area supports over 39 rare, threatened or endangered plant species, as well as, rare insects, rocks and minerals. Soldier's Delight is designated as state wildlands by the Maryland General Assembly. Wildlands are limited areas of land or water which have retained their wilderness character, although not necessarily completely natural and undisturbed, they have features of interest worthy of preservation. Native Americans, kept large areas of Pennsylvania and Maryland as "barrens" through their land clearing and fire-hunting, methods that they employed for at least 10,000 years. It remains a mystery why this area received the name Soldier's Delight. The name may be a reference to soldiers from nearby Fort Garrison, who hunted and patrolled in the area.
2. SOLDEL_161010_022.JPG: Soldiers Delight Chrome was first discovered in the United States in Baltimore County circa 1808. Isaac Tyson, Jr. operated chromite mines at Soldiers Delight and in other serpentine barrens and from 1828 to 1850 his mines produced almost all the world's chromium. The unique beauty of this area is enhanced by rare plants and animals.
3. SOLDEL_161010_033.JPG: Buddle Operation Chromite was mined at Soldiers Delight from the 1820s to 1880s and again between 1915 and 1917. A "Buddle" was used for placer mining. Because chromite is tweice as heavy as normal sand, water rushing through the buddle separated the serpentine sand and other materials from chromite sand. In the picture above, the man in back of the wagon is off-loading sant mined from local streams. The two men working on each side of the buddle are shoveling the impure chromite sand into the trough to wash the impurities back into the stream leaving only pure chromite. It was then removed from the buddle and placed in barrels to be taken to Baltimore Chrome Works for processing. The picture below shows HORACE TRIPLETT working the buddle at Soldiers Delight. According to the "Bureau of Mines," chrome is the most important commodity shipped into the United States today. It is used for many different things including paint pigments, makeup, stainless steel, photography and vitamins.
4. SOLDEL_161010_054.JPG: Warning Private land keep off Maryland Chrome Corporation
5. SOLDEL_161010_060.JPG: In the 1870s, miners from Soldiers Delight attended services at Ward's Chapel on what is now Highway 26 and Ward's Chapel Road. The dark stones are ultramatfic rocks.
6. SOLDEL_161010_063.JPG: Serpentine was used in the construction of this church on Mt. Vernon Place in Baltimore.
7. SOLDEL_161010_066.JPG: "Fort Garrison" Tradition asserts that elements of this stone house in nearby Owings Mills are the remains of Oldton's Garrison Fort, built in 1694. John Oldton, a local landowner, was captain of a small ranger company which patrolled this area of Maryland to monitor Native American activity. The soldiers of Oldton's garrison may have had something to do with the origin of the name "Soldiers Delight."
8. SOLDEL_161010_084.JPG: We Can't All Be Ninjas Turtles ARE NOT disposable toys. They will get big, and require a lot of time, care and money. Children, people on chemo and those with immune deficiency diseases are AT RISK for Salmonella. It's ILLEGAL to sell baby turtles or turtles caught in the wild. Zoos, nature centers and wildlife rescues WILL NOT take them. BUY ACTION FIGURES OR OTHER TOYS INSTEAD.
9. SOLDEL_161010_091.JPG: Red Dog Lodge Built in 1912
10. SOLDEL_161010_097.JPG: Red Dog Lodge once served as a hunting lodge and a temporary home. It was built in 1912 by Frederick A. Dolfield and Watson E. Sherwood and probably named for someone's Irish Setter. Both men had farms near Soldiers Delight and eventually had local roads named after them. When the stone bridge was completed a big entertainment for the farmers and residents of Soldiers Delight was announced in the newspaper and the celebration was held on New Year's Day 1913. The Dolfields and their friends would drive out from Baltimore on weekends and for vacations to relax, hunt, and entertain guests. The lodge contained a large sunken hearth, chimney and a wood-stove. Guests slept in the attic, which had a two-window dormer and was accessed by a hinged stairway. The front porch at the time had a roof and there was a sleeping porch on the side opposite the chimney. The lodge featured a wrought-iron chandelier, kerosene lamps, and had 4-foot wainscoting above wide wooden floorboards. Outbuildings included a carriage house, a "two-holer" outhouse, and a "maternity" house. The porch is constructed from Setters Quartzite, whereas the remainder of the lodge appears to be a local schist or gneiss. It is not constructed from the local serpentine, which is not durable.
11. SOLDEL_161010_100.JPG: During World War I Frederick Dolfield bought out Sherwood's interest and with other investors created the Maryland Chrome Corporation to mine valuable chromite for the war effort. In the fall of 1917 he employed John H. Buxton, Jr. as mine superintendent. John, his wife Ruth, and two young daughters Carolyn and Margaret lived in Red Dog Lodge while the Choate Mine was being prepared again for active chrome mining. The blue "graniteware" used by the family is on display in the Visitors Center. After the War, the Choate Mine closed, but the Dolfields and friends continued to use Red Dog Lodge for their enjoyment. By the 1940s their usage had waned and they permitted the Edward Hibline family to enjoy the use of the lodge in exchange for keeping an eye on it. Later, the lodge fell into severe disrepair and was vandalized until being restored to its present condition by Soldiers Delight Ranger E. Vernon Tracy during the 1970s.
12. SOLDEL_161010_115.JPG: Serpentine Grassland and Oak Savanna Ecosystem
13. SOLDEL_161010_180.JPG: Serpentine Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area (1,700 acres) protects most of the largest undeveloped mass of serpentine bedrock in the eastern United States. This type of bedrock is unusually high in magnesium and iron, which contribute to its brownish green and scale serpent-like appearance. This bedrock originated hundreds of miles from here, about 500 million years ago. It formed as magma moved up from deep in the Earth and became part of the ocean floor. Then, by complex movements of the surface of the Earth, it was moved beyond the ocean and became part of the North American continent. Thus, Soldiers Delight NEA is an island of oceanic rock very different from the continental rocks surrounding it. Serpentine bedrock is broken down quickly by rainfall, so most of it washes away leaving a shallow layer of rocky soil; the prairie-like grassland covers this soil. The other soil type, a sticky red clay, is easily found by the abundance of native oaks on it, especially blackjack oak and post oak. A large number of rare and endangered species occur in Soldiers Delight NEA, in large part because of the different chemistry of this oceanic rock. Serpentine is sometimes used as a decorative building stone, and it was an historic source of chromium ore. During the 19th century, the area that is now Soldiers Delight was one of the largest producers of chromite in the world.
14. SOLDEL_161010_190.JPG: Attention Trail Users Help stop the spread of this invasive plant: Waxyleaf basketgrass This invasive species destroys native forests and damages wildlife habitat, potentially changing our forest significantly.
15. SOLDEL_161010_201.JPG: Choate Mine Air Shaft In front of you is the Choate Mine air shaft. This vertical shaft intersects the main underground workings at a depth of 30 ft. Note the distinct light angels of the 5' x 8' rectangular shaft. Think of how difficult would have been to excavate by hand. Providing a mine with a second opening such as this supplies natural air circulation for ventilation. Hoisting or pumping equipment was mounted on the old concrete foundation visible on the far side. DANGER! Old mine shafts and openings are unsafe. DO NOT ENTER!
16. SOLDEL_161010_209.JPG: Choate Mine Slope Entrance This is the main entrance for the Choate Mine. You may notice the timber posts supporting the roof to the left just inside the entrance. The amount of mine workings visible depends on the seasonal fluctuations of the water level. The mine is 165-200 ft. deep on a 20 degree slope. It fans out approx. 160 ft. inside with stopes, or working areas, in several directions. The lens of chromite (a mineral used to create bold paints and dyes) mined was approximately 2 ft. thick. The Choate Mine, which originated during the 1830s, was most productive after the Civil War. It was closed in the 1880s and reopened briefly during WWI. The mine produced an estimated 3,000 tones or more of chromite during its near century of operation. DANGER! This mine is unsafe due to deteriorated roof conditions. DO NOT ENTER
Wikipedia Description: Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area is a nature reserve near Owings Mills in western Baltimore County, Maryland, USA. The site is designated both a Maryland Wildland (1,526 acres) and a Natural Environment Area (1,900 acres) and is part of the Maryland Wildlands Preservation System. The site's protected status is due to the presence of serpentine soil and over 39 rare, threatened, or endangered plant species along with rare insects, rocks and minerals. ...

History
The early colonial records of Maryland describe the area as a hunting ground for Native Americans. In 1693, rangers in the King's service from a nearby garrison patrolled the area calling the land Soldiers Delight. In the 18th century, King George II made gifts of land grants upon Maryland's earliest settlers in what was then Soldiers Delight Hundred.

During the American Civil War, Soldiers Delight was the scene of minor short-term fights between the Maryland Volunteers of the Confederate Army and the regular troops of the Union Army. After the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, the great estates of the early families were reduced to many small farms and individual properties.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].