Hike and Learn: Nearby Family Paths with a Scholarly Side

Fri., May 30, 2008

Hiking into History at Antietam National Battlefield (Sharpsburg, Maryland):

A number of our region’s most interesting hikes are located in Civil War battlefield parks. In a quiet often very scenic setting, they tell a story of courage and, sadly, of awful carnage. This is true of the 2.5-mile Snavely Ford Trail. Especially lovely at this time of year when the wildflowers are in bloom, the wooded path winds along racing Antietam Creek paralleling the route of Union troops trying to outflank a Confederate force led by Gen. Robert E. Lee. As you learn at the Visitor Center, the day-long battle at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862 proved to be the bloodiest day of the Civil War. As many as 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing. The loop route begins at Burnside Bridge, where for most of the day fewer than 600 Georgia sharpshooters held off a Union force of 12,000 under Gen. Ambrose Burnside. You walk on the Confederate side of the creek; Union troops were opposite searching for a way to cross. They found it at Snavely Ford. At the ford, the trail leaves the creek, climbing uphill fairly steeply on the path followed by Union forces. Without the roar of battle, you might spot wild turkey, beaver, owls and other wildlife. May is a particularly good time to spot as many as 70 species of birds, including raptors. Details: 301/432-5124, www.nps.gov/anti.

Explore an Appalachian Homestead at Shenandoah National Park (Front Royal, Virginia):

The 1.2-mile Fox Hollow Trail is an introduction to the Appalachian homesteaders who once lived on the park’s ridges and slopes. The trail is just outside the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center at Mile 4.7 from the Front Royal entrance gate. When Congress authorized Shenandoah in 1926 about 450 families still farmed small, mostly worn-out plots on its slopes. Game was gone, and most of the timber had been cut. Many people sold out and moved to resettlement communities at the foot of the mountains. But others had to be forcibly evicted plot by plot. The park was dedicated on July 3, 1936 as a mountain retreat for the growing urban population of the East. The Fox Hollow Trail, a loop, introduces you to these mountain families. Pick up a trail guide at the Visitor Center. Beginning in 1837, four generations of Foxes farmed 450 acres on the east slope of Dickey Ridge. The trail to their home site drops gently down the mountain past a huge pile of rocks, a symbol of the labor required to cultivate this unpromising homestead. Trees now tower where corn once grew, adding to an already pervasive aura of isolation that the Foxes must have sensed. The trail passes the family cemetery, where the most prominent tombstone reads, “Lemuel F. Fox, died May 24, 1916, age 78 years. Gone but not forgotten by his daughters.” A few paces away is the farm’s water source, a small cold spring that still bubbles from the ground. Details: 540/999-3500, www.nps.gov/shen.

Identify the Trees at Catoctin Mountain Park (Thurmont, Maryland):

When hiking the park’s 1.5-mile Hog Rock Nature Trail, a loop that winds through eastern hardwood forests, you wouldn’t know that the park’s slopes once were denuded by logging. In the 1930s, at the height of the Depression, the U.S. Government acquired the land. The park was built by the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps and reforested. The work provided jobs for the unemployed. At first the park served as a camping and recreational area for federal employees. One of the camps became Camp David, the presidential retreat. Then the National Park Service took over in 1936. All of this you learn in the Visitor Center, where you should pick up a trail guide. The guide directs you to marked posts along the route, naming the trees along the way. Expect to see shady maple, oak, beech, hickory, dogwood and American chestnut, as well as mountain laurel and other shrubs. Hog Rock offers a splendid ridge top view of the Monocacy Valley far below. Hog Rock is believed to have acquired its name when hogs fed on the acorns dropping from the trees. You might consider relaxing with a picnic lunch at the rock, as my wife and I did awhile back. Details: 301/663-9330, www.nps.gov/cato.

Stroll Into the Colonial Past at George Washington Birthplace National Monument (38 miles east of Fredericksburg, Virginia):

Most of us in this area are familiar with Mount Vernon, George Washington’s plantation on the Potomac. But his birthplace at Pope’s Creek Plantation, 38 miles east of Fredericksburg, is considerably less known. It is preserved as George Washington Birthplace National Monument. Unlike Mount Vernon, nothing original remains except a few foundation blocks and grand river views of the Potomac. And yet the 550-acre park—recreated in part as a colonial farm—does a fine job of exploring our first president’s origins. His great grandfather John, an English seaman, was the first Washington to land in America in 1657. He prospered, bequeathing his descendants rich lands along the Potomac. George lived here until his father died when George was 3. His brother inherited the plantation, but George returned frequently to learn the skills of riding, hunting and farming. Begin your visit with a mile-long loop of the colonial farm, beginning at the Visitor Center. Tour the Memorial House, a colonial style farm house similar to one that might have stood on the property in 1732. Visit the reconstructed farm buildings and a large herb garden. Horses, cattle and sheep graze in the pasture. Continue on to another one mile Nature Trail. It winds among colonial tobacco and corn fields now grown over with loblolly pines and Sweet Gum trees. At an incline of the trail, note the ditches—they were colonial drainage ditches. A trail guide encourages you to see how the colonists changed the look of the land; even then they faced a problem of erosion. Look for white tail deer, wild turkeys, snapping turtles and American bald eagles. Details: 804/224-1732, www.nps.gov/gewa.

Take in the New Visitor Center on a Hike at Gettysburg National Military Park (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania):

A brand new Museum and Visitor Center with greatly expanded Civil War exhibits opened last month (April 14, 2008) about 200 yards down the road from the old center. The old center, located on a prominent portion of the battlefield area, will be torn down. After checking out the new facility, stroll the nearby one-mile High Water Mark Trail. A few months ago, I took California visitors to Gettysburg and they thought the trail saved them the necessity of driving the tedious (for youngsters) 18-mile Self-Guided Auto Route. On foot, you see the battlefield from the perspective of the troops. The Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, was the deadliest battle of the Civil War, with more than 50,000 casualties: 10,000 killed, 30,000 wounded and 10,000 missing or captured. At the High Water Mark on Cemetery Ridge you see where the South briefly penetrated the Union lines. When the South was driven back, it lost the battle—the beginning of the end for the Southern cause. The High Water Mark Trail loops the area where Union forces waited on Cemetery Ridge for the attack known as Pickett’s Charge. On July 3, Gen. George Pickett’s 12,000 Confederates marched down from Seminary Ridge (easily visible) and advanced across the slender valley separating it from Cemetery Ridge. A Union force of 7,000 posted around the Copse of Trees, The Angle and the Brian Barn—all seen on the trail—drive them back. In one hour, the Confederates suffered 5,000 casualties. The next day, the Southern army began its retreat to Virginia. Details: 717/334-1124, ext. 8023, www.nps.gov/gett.