April 13

If you are ever driving on US30 in the Laurel Highlands, be sure to stop at the Pie Shoppe in Laughlintown. Buy any of their baked goods. I like their apple fritters and cinnamon rolls, but everything is tasty. I had to get some calories before stopping at Flight 93 NMem in Shanksville. The park roads open at sunrise, so I had the place to myself (I will get the Passport stamp at a later date, since I am always on this road going between VA and OH). Since the Tower of Voices is right at the entrance, stop there first before proceeding to the VC. A “flight path” platform allows a visitor to see the progression of the plane’s final moment. Then drive down to the area near the crash site. Park in the lot, then walk to the Wall of Names. Other placards are in the area, providing more details of what happened that day. Only family members of those killed are permitted to go behind the Wall of Names to the ground where the crash happened. As with the American Revolution and Pearl Harbor, our country will never forget 9/11.

And we should never forget our country’s Civil War, also known as the War Between the States. Many battlefields are protected by the NPS, and Antietam is one of those. The North Woods, West Woods, Cornfield, Sunken Road, and Lower Bridge are now burned into our history books. The self-guided auto-tour takes you to all the major points of battle. Clara Barton came with wagon loads of supplies to help the wounded. This was the beginning of the American Red Cross. A marker is placed at the Cornfield, where she set up camp after the battle. I saw five vans of congregants singing in Dunker Church. It is great to see a building with such history still being able to serve people in the 21st century. The auto-tour stops at Antietam National Cemetery. The cemetery stopped taking bodies in 1953. The state of the headstones is poor, but most of the soldiers interred here are from the Civil War, so the stones are a good 120 or so years old. A man who was proudly wearing a FDNY cap provided an interesting story as we were looking at Lower Bridge (now known as Burnside Bridge, since General Burnside ordered three attacks to take the bridge and force a Rebel retreat). He pointed to a photo which showed Union soldiers standing above grave markers of Confederate soldiers, near the bridge. He said there used to be a photo in this location which showed dead soldiers, pre-burial, not the current photo with markers. But Union soldiers were then buried in national cemeteries, while Confederate soldiers were buried where they were found, with no markers, and no names. Therefore, to this day, farmers who cultivate the corn fields of Antietam will unexpectedly uncover corpses when plowing.

Harpers Ferry Road connects Antietam with Harpers Ferry, if you like driving on winding backcountry paths. Once at Harpers Ferry, be prepared to pay $20 to put your car in the VC parking lot where one catches the free shuttle down to Lower Town. This is where most visitors head, though the park has areas in Maryland and Virginia. Once you are done with walking around the sites in Lower Town, you can stop in any of the restaurants for a nice meal, or peruse the quaint shops. The John Brown Fort looks brand new. Foundations of the Arsenal and other buildings can be viewed. The AT cuts through the park, and passes the Jefferson Rock, where Thomas Jefferson stood on October 25, 1783. Jefferson was amazed at the view, calling this area a reason for sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. Today there were hundreds of school kids checking out the rock, Lower Town, and The AT. The inside of the Bookstore was a bit quieter than the street. Inside was a woman who was placing all the Passport Stamps into one of the NPS-approved big professional binders. The serious stampers in the Passport program use these big binders. She and her husband are up to about 160 parks, with plans to keep visiting more. I like situations such as Harpers Ferry because four parks (Harpers Ferry, The AT, Potomac Heritage, C&O Canal) come together at one location, therefore all the stamps are in one location. And the Underground Railroad came through here as well, which was another stamp in the Bookstore.

We are thankful for the hard work of many people to even have a Monocacy NB park. Commercialization over the years took much of the land on which the battle was fought. Heck, just to the north of the park boundary by the Visitor Center is a huge Target with other stores. And I-270 cuts right through the area where the Confederates attacked from the northwest. Buildings on three farms (Best, Worthington, Thomas) which were standing in 1864 can be viewed up close. All require different distances of gravel road to access. Only a couple of monuments can be found on the battlefield. The highlight is the New Jersey Monument (the 5th stop on the 5-stop auto-tour), which was erected 43 years after the battle. 180 members of the NJ 14th Regiment attended the ceremony, to honor the 140 of their comrades who did not survive. The VC has one of those audio-visual dioramas which details the troop movements during the battle. Again, every park which commemorates a battle, should have one of these.

Catoctin Mountain Park is home to a secret. Camp David is part of the park. This is the Presidential retreat. When the President comes to Camp David, some of the park is closed, to help with security. I wound up having to take a detour off the Central Park Road, because of two roads being closed today, but I do not know if it had anything to do with a Presidential visit. 18 years ago when I visited with my family, we did see Secret Service and helicopters. A park ranger told us President Bush would be arriving soon. Sorry, I was not able to get any photos of Camp David today.

Anyway, the park is a “get away” from the busy I-70/I-270/US15 corridor. Once you get back up in the hills on Central Park Road, you are hard pressed to think there is any civilization in any direction. The three camps which the CCC constructed are still here, and people can reserve the buildings. One building is a full-size gymnasium. I never knew the NPS owned such a facility.

This area was known for moonshine, back to the 1700s. Famers in the area learned quickly they could make more money by converting their rye and corn into whiskey, and shipping that to market, instead of shipping rye and corn to market through these hills which had very poor roads. So, everybody had their own public still, that is until 1791 when the new Excise Tax was introduced. At that point all the stills went “underground”. The Blue Blazes Whiskey Still trail takes a visitor to the site of an old still.