IN COUNTRY

45 Years: Harpers Ferry National Park

the georgetowner

June 2008

In 1944 Harpers Ferry was designated a National Monument. Over the next two decades the National Monument grew and evolved. About 800 acres in the state of Maryland, as well as the former Storer College campus, were among significant lands added to the site.

Formal recognition of the site’s new and enhanced status was put into motion by West Virginia U.S. Senator Jennings Randolph. Senate bill S-18 reached the desk of President John F. Kennedy in the spring of 1963. On May 29, 1963, the President’s forty-sixth and final birthday, he signed the legislation creating Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

Today, forty-five years later, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park encompasses over 3,700 acres of land along with 150 classified historic structures in three states--Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, and serves over 250,000 visitors per year.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in and around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and the park is managed by the National Park Service.

The park includes land which marks the site on which Thomas Jefferson once said, “The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature” after visiting the area in 1783. The park today includes Civil War battlefield sites from the Maryland Campaign of September 1862, when the town was captured by Confederate forces. The land changed hands at least eight times during the war, but Union forces abandoned the town immediately after Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, burning the armory and seizing 15,000 rifles.

A multi-state coalition of agencies is planning the 150th Anniversary of John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry. The raid was staged from Washington County, Maryland in October, 1859. Brown was captured, and later tried. He was hanged in December 1859.

For more information about the park, see: www.nps.gov/hafe.

For more information about the planned 150th Anniversary of John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry, see: www.johnbrownraid.org. Several anniversary activities are already listed on the web site.

Tangier Island History Museum Named a Chesapeake Bay Gateway

Tangier Island History Museum and Interpretive Cultural Center has officially joined the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network (CBGN). Captain John Smith discovered the island, which he named “Russells Isles” on his 1607 voyage. Since that time, many of the island’s day-to-day activities have centered on boats and access to the water.

“The Tangier History Museum is honored to be designated a Gateway. The opportunity to experience the unique and disappearing way of life on an isolated island is precious,” said Dr. Neil Kaye, President of the Museum.

The Tangier History Museum serves as a visitor’s center for the island and volunteers can direct visitors to a History Trail, Nature Trail and Water Trail.

“Linking the places people value to an understanding of the Chesapeake Bay as a watershed system is an integral part of the effort to conserve and restore the Bay environment,” said John Maounis, Superintendent of the National Park Service (NPS) Chesapeake Bay Program Office. “We are proud to add Tangier Island History Museum to the Network and encourage folks to spend some time exploring it and the other Chesapeake Bay Gateways.”

To learn more about CBGN, visit www.baygateways.net