National Park Service – Baltimore Magazine https://www.baltimoremagazine.com The Best of Baltimore Since 1907 Tue, 12 Dec 2023 22:20:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-favicon-32x32.png National Park Service – Baltimore Magazine https://www.baltimoremagazine.com 32 32 Adventures in Allegany County: We’ve Got a Trail for That https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/special/adventures-in-allegany-county-weve-got-a-trail-for-that/ Tue, 28 Mar 2023 15:48:01 +0000 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/?post_type=special&p=139026 Continued]]> Is your idea of fun biking for miles along well-maintained trails, soaking in the scenery? Or perhaps you like learning about history, like the early days of our nation’s roadway and railway systems. Maybe you enjoy the small-town charm of an all-American Main Street, where you can sample the local fare. Or is your answer “all of the above”?

 

Whatever your idea of adventure, you’re likely to find it in Allegany County, “the Mountain Side of Maryland.” With an abundance of outdoor recreational activities, historic sites, and award-winning wineries, breweries, distilleries, and eateries, you’ll find a trail for just about any age or interest in this picturesque part of the state. Here are just a few of the spring and summer trail experiences Allegany County has to offer.

 

Great Allegheny Passage

Connecting Pittsburgh, PA, to Cumberland, MD, the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail offers 150 miles of scenic rail-trail for biking and hiking, with majestic views of Maryland’s mountains. The trail follows the route of the historic Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, and it’s the only location along trail where bikers can ride through a tunnel at the same time as a passing train. The GAP trail links up to the C&O Canal Towpath in Cumberland.

The official trail towns of Frostburg and Cumberland boast Main Street districts full of unique and charming shops, restaurants, and arts and entertainment venues. Be sure to take the self-guided walking tours to admire the architectural beauty and enduring history when you visit.

 

C&O Canal Towpath

The 12-foot wide, nearly level path was built for mules to pull the canal boats along the 184.5-mile canal from Cumberland, MD, to Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Today, the path is maintained by the National Park Service and draws visitors from all over the world looking for scenic biking and hiking.

 

 

Tracks and Yaks

If you’re looking for something fun and different for all ages, try rail biking! Pedal-powered tandem or quad rail bikes take riders along the smooth, steel railroad tracks. This is not a physically strenuous activity since the tracks steer the rail bikes and the terrain is mostly downhill. The Track and Yak excursion includes a 15-mile rail bike trip, a 4-mile float on the North Branch of the Potomac River in a kayak or tube, and a shuttle bus back to Frostburg Depot. Shorter rail bike-only tours are also available.

 

Ice Cream Trail

If your warm weather goals are to sample as many sweet frozen treats as possible, the Ice Cream Trail is for you. From end-to-end, the self-guided drive is just under 55 miles and includes nine stops at local eateries. Or, you can take a break from biking or hiking one of the trails above to pop into one or two of them, such as the Oak Barrel Café, offering soft serve and smoothies, or Frostburg Freeze, family owned and operated for over 50 years, purveyors of the Boston Shake—a hot fudge sundae inside a milkshake or a milkshake poured over a hot fudge sundae, depending on your viewpoint.

 

Mountain Maryland Tap and Pour Tour

If your idea of a treat leans more toward adult beverages, this is your kind of tour. Mountain Maryland’s Tap and Pour Tour was recently named “Best Beer/Wine/Spirits Trail” by Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine. Visit the area’s award-winning wineries, breweries, and distilleries, including 1812 Brewery, the first farm brewery in Allegany County, located on 190 acres where they grow their own hops, and Charis Winery and Distillery, offering award-winning sweet and semi-sweet wines and brandy, as well as seven different oils and balsamic vinegar for sampling.

For even more ideas, destinations, and events, visit our website where you can request a destination guide.

 

Maryland. Be Open.

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]]> Guiding Light https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/artsentertainment/harriet-tubman-visitor-center-opens-on-eastern-shore/ Wed, 03 May 2017 08:30:00 +0000 http://server2.local/BIT-SPRING/baltimoremagazine.com/html/?post_type=article&p=3308

A legend lives on in the low, tidal marsh of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge outside of Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. There, where runaway slaves once navigated the loblolly pines, wispy strands of cattails, and dark inky water to seek safe passage on the Underground Railroad, now stands an archipelago of barn-like buildings to honor the illustrious life of the network’s most noted conductor. 

More than 20 years in the making, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center opened in March with a celebration that included Tubman’s descendants, who offered extensive input on the center’s creation. “They still have the tenets of faith and family,” says assistant park manager Angela Crenshaw. “That is our focus here with these exhibits.” 

Managed by the Maryland and National Park services, the 15,000-square-foot state-of-the-art visitor’s center serves as a gateway to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, a scenic stretch that runs from the Chesapeake Bay through Philadelphia with stops at local landmarks related to Tubman’s life. 

“This is such an important story,” says Alan Reed, president of Baltimore-based GWWO Architects, which designed the center. “We said to ourselves, we want everything—the architecture, the materials, the experience of moving through the exhibits—to somehow relate back.”

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The buildings themselves represent different stations along the Underground Railroad, while the exhibits revolve around a symbolic “view north.” Through a barn wood gateway, the exhibit faces toward floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook a thick forest to the north, before taking tangled twists and turns, similar to those that runaway slaves likely faced during their escapes. 

“It was never a simple journey,” says GWWO senior associate Chris Elcock. “In the exhibits, you find yourself bouncing around, and when you get to the end, you go back the way you came, because that’s what Harriet did. But you’re going to be changed. Each time she returned, she had new information, so she could be a better conductor.”

 The exhibits span Tubman’s courageous life, from her childhood as a slave in Dorchester County to her extraordinary efforts in the Civil War to her late-life role in the women’s suffrage movement. There’s a wall honoring some of the 70 people she helped rescue, and a mural featuring an iconic illustration from Jacob Lawrence’s 1968 children’s book, Harriet and the Promised Land. Throughout, slavery’s terror stands in stark contrast to the region’s natural beauty and Tubman’s unwavering sense of faith.  

One of the most serene yet stirring elements is a life-size statue of Tubman, who will eventually replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill, making her the first female and African-American on American currency. She is seated on a church bench beneath faux stained glass windows and a quote by Frederick Douglass, another Maryland slave turned abolitionist. “The midnight sky and silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and your heroism,” he wrote in an 1868 letter to Tubman. 

Out here, beneath the pines, we now bear witness, too.

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]]> ​Assateague National Seashore Turns 50 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/community/assateague-island-national-seashore-turns-50/ Fri, 06 Mar 2015 16:21:00 +0000 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/?p=69538 Continued]]> After eight inches of snow, it may seem like an unlikely time to highlight the upcoming golden anniversary of one of Maryland’s landmark beaches. But actually, it was on this day, March 6, in 1962, that the infamous Ash Wednesday storm that year provided an “unexpected opportunity,” in the words of the National Park Service, for the Department of the Interior to acquire the remaining unprotected portion of Assateague Island and set it aside as a national seashore.

Two decades earlier, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had set aside the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Virginia’s southern end of the island. However, according to the National Park Service, most of Maryland’s northern portion of the island—which includes 32,000 acres of marine and estuarine waters—had been purchased for private development.

Residential construction, roads, and other infrastructure work were well underway, according to the story, when the powerful Ash Wednesday nor’easter washed over the island, destroying most of the development.

Ultimately, President Lyndon Johnson, with his signature, officially established the Assateague Island National Seashore on Sept. 21, 1965. The Dispatch of Ocean City recently recounted the events here.

Assateague is one of the largest and last remaining Mid-Atlantic barrier islands largely untouched by development. The state of Maryland manages two miles of the Maryland portion of the island as Assateague State Park. The National Park Service, which says it’s planning special events this year to commemorate the national seashore’s 50th anniversary, reports that more than 2 million visitors took in the island last year.

Oh yes, about the horses. According to the National Park Service, those “wild” horses are, in fact, feral horses, which means they are descended from domestic horses that have reverted to an undomesticated state. And not to worry, they’re plenty tough to bear the winter—even this one. Local folklore, the NPS goes on to explain, has it that the Assateague horses are survivors of a shipwreck off the coast of Virginia.

More likely, but not as good of a story, the horses were brought to the island by late 17th-century mainlanders. Either way, don’t miss an opportunity to visit them once the snow melts. This July marks the 90th anniversary of the annual “Wild Pony Swim” from Assateague Island to Chincoteague Island.

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