Tony and I were in the Clear Spring, MD area driving to Fort Frederick State Park and saw sign for…read moreC&O Four Locks for Canal 49. It's a dead end road. There is a small narrow dark tunnel to the entrance. There area is lovely. There are a couple of empty houses are out there. A nice park area to walk around, hike, ride bikes or stroll around. There is a boat landing there also for the Potomac River.

The Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland is where the Battle of Antietam took place on…read moreSeptember 17, 1862. This is considered to be the bloodiest single day in American history with over 23,000 casualties. The site includes lots of landmarks and monuments. Today, it is preserved as a peaceful park where visitors can learn about the battle by walking or driving around the sites. It had a pivotal role in leading to the Emancipation Proclamation. We took the driving tour which had numerous sites where you could see monuments and buildings that describe key parts of the battle. More than one person had suggested that we should go and see the cemetery. I will tell you I am very glad that we did. It was hard for us to find as I missed a turn on the driving tour of the battlefields. It is relatively easy to find as it is on the south side of Main street just on the east side of the city of Sharpsburg. It is located on the south side of the majority of the antietam battlefield sites and memorials. There is parking right along the street and entrance is right off the street. There is a church with restrooms right inside the gate. The restrooms were open but the church was not when we visited. It is not very large for the amount of civil war soldiers that died during the battle. You can walk it fairly quickly but I would suggest taking a little time here to honor the fallen. I particularly liked the sayings that equal a poem when put together. It's mostly well kept with the grounds well maintained except for a pavilion that looked a little overgrown. There is a walkway that circles a statue called the Private Soldier Monument. This is a large granite statue of a Union infantryman facing north toward the battlefields. Overall, I found the visit a very moving place for the fact that a lot of those buried are unknown soldiers and I definitely recommend it for anyone visiting the area to learn about the battle and the civil war history.

This marker is located just west of the Conococheague Creek bridge and points out the history of…read morethis road that predates the Civil War. It has the same text on both sides and reads, "The Bank Road. (The Cumberland Turnpike Road). The portion of this highway from the west end of the Conococheague bridge to Cumberland (40 miles) was built between 1816 and 1821. The Banks of Maryland financed it by purchase of the stock." The Department of Transportation has an excellent look at the history of the road at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/bankroad.cfm that is worth a read. It's interesting to think about how things used to be before the superhighways were built with asphalt and concrete. We take it for granted that we can zip along at 70 miles an hour uninterrupted. [Review 15132 overall, 634 of 2021, number 607 in Maryland.]

This marker is located along SR 63 at the Maryland and Pennsylvania border at the end of Mason…read moreDixon Road. Mason Dixon Road is in Pennsylvania at this point. The marker reads, "Mason and Dixon Line. 105th Mile Stone. 500 feet beyond this point, on private property, this stone is located. It bears the coat of arms of Lord Baltimore and William Penn. The 104th mile stone and 103rd mile stone bear the letters M and P Maryland-Pennsylvania and are located along the Maryland edge of this road." Adjacent to this sign is a triangular rock that has seen better days and has an empty beer can. The line itself separates four US states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (part of Virginia until 1863). It was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware in Colonial America. The dispute had its origins almost a century earlier in the somewhat confusing proprietary grants by King Charles I to Lord Baltimore (Maryland) and by King Charles II to William Penn (Pennsylvania and Delaware). The largest, east-west portion of the Mason-Dixon line along the southern Pennsylvania border later became known, informally, as the boundary between the Northern free states and Southern slave states. This usage especially came to prominence during the debate around the Missouri Compromise of 1820, when drawing boundaries between slave and free territory was an issue, and resurfaced during the American Civil War, with border states also coming into play. The Virginia portion of the line was initially the northern border of the Confederacy, until West Virginia separated from Virginia and joined the Union in 1863. It is still used today in the figurative sense of a line that separates the Northeast and South culturally, politically, and socially. Maryland's charter of 1632 granted Cecil Calvert land north of the entire length of the Potomac River up to the 40th parallel. This spot is at 39.72141 north and -77.7682 west. It's about 20 miles from here to the 40th parallel. So someone is wrong. [Review 15133 overall, 635 of 2021, number 608 in Maryland.]

This marker stands on Duke Street just over the bridge from Maryland into West Virginia and points…read moreout the history of Jefferson County. The marker reads, "Formed in 1801 from Berkeley. Named for Thomas Jefferson. Home of Generals Gates, Darke, and Charles Lee. Here four companies of Washington's men organized. Shepherdstown was strongly urged as the seat of the National Capitol." It's not all that far fetched. There was a time that West Virginia was Virginia and it's on the border with Maryland. Much the way that Washington DC is on the border between the two states. Jefferson County is located in the Shenandoah Valley in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and is the easternmost county of the U.S. state of West Virginia. Jefferson County was established on October 26, 1801 from Berkeley County because the citizens of southeastern Berkeley county felt they had to travel too far to the county seat of Martinsburg. Charles Washington, the founder of Charles Town and brother to George Washington petitioned for a new county to be formed. It was named for Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States. [Review 15605 overall - 57 in West Virginia - 1109 of 2021.]

I did not have an opportunity to visit the Fort but I did spot this historical marker in Clear…read moreSpring that points the way. The fort is about 6 miles from here, so this is less a historical marker and more of a billboard advertisement. The fort does look way cool https://www.yelp.com/biz/fort-frederick-state-park-big-pool and it's bookmarked for a future visit to this spot on the Potomac River. The marker reads, "Fort Frederick. Maryland State Park. Colonial stone fort built 1756 for Province of Maryland by Governor Horatio Sharpe to protect frontier against French and Indians after Braddock's defeat. Detention camp for British prisoners 1776-1783. Occupied 1861-18862 by Union troops. George Washington was here July 1756 and June 1758." [Review 15129 overall, 631 of 2021, number 605 in Maryland.]

Jack's Mountain Covered Bridge, Circa 1890 at 75 feet long…read more The Jacks Mountain Covered Bridge is a historic covered bridge in Hamiltonban Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1890, and is a 75-foot-long, Burr truss bridge with narrow horizontal siding and a tin covered gable roof. The bridge crosses Tom's Creek. This is the only bridge in Adams County that is opened to vehicular traffic, this bridge has red lights at each end.

This marker near the Potomac River and the line between Maryland and West Virginia points out the…read morehistory of a local who grew up here and the house that provided some history in the Civil War. The marker reads, "Ferry Hill Place. Built in 1812. The boyhood home of Colonel Henry Kyd Douglas, a member of Stonewall Jackson's staff. September 18, 1862, federal troops occupied these premises and confined the Douglas family, June 18, 1863. Headquarters of Confederate Major General Edward Johnson, en route to Pennsylvania." The house itself is not open to the public though the grounds are. It is managed by the National Park Service. "Ferry Hill Place has stood for two centuries above the Potomac River and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, participating in and watching history pass by. In the 18th and early 19th century German settlers migrated from Pennsylvania south into Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, where they then farmed the rich soil. These settlers crossed the Potomac using Packhorse Ford and later Blackford's Ferry below Ferry Hill. Come the 1830s the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal crossed this north/south route, tapping the river waters to provide a controlled water transportation route into western Maryland." [Review 15603 overall - 648 in Maryland - 1107 of 2021.]