History along the Route of the JFK 50-Mile Hike Run: from A to Z A Boonsboro: Founded in 1792 by George and William Boone, cousins of frontiersman Daniel Boone, this town has been the starting point of the John F. Kennedy Memorial 50-Mile Hike/Run since its inception in 1963. B Washington Monument: On July 4, 1827, the citizens of Boonsboro built a 32-ft.-high, crock-shaped stone monument on the Blue Rocks of South Mountain. It was the first structure built to honor our country’s first president. C The National Road: Originally called the Bank Road because it was funded by various banks along the way, today’s Route 40A became part of the National Road when Congress approved funds in 1818 to extend this road from Cumberland, Maryland to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois the country’s first federally-funded highway project. D Old South Mountain Inn: The Mountain House here was once a tavern along the National Road. Across the road stands Dahigren Chapel, built in 1882 by Madeleine Vinton Dahigren for Catholic worship services. E Battle of South Mountain: On September 14, 1862, about 10,000 Confederate soldiers under Gen. Robert E. Lee defended three mountain passes Turners Gap (where today’s Route 40A crosses), Fox Gap (where today’s Reno Monument Road crosses), and Cramptons Gap (at today’s Gathland State Park) against the advance units of Gen. George B. McClellan’s 80,000-man army. Lee had split his 40,000-man army to capture Union troops in Harpers Ferry (see Battle of Maryland Heights, M on next page), and defended South Mountain here to buy time for his divided army to rejoin him near Sharpsburg where the Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17, 1862. F Reno Monument: Just off Reno Monument Road at Fox Gap is a stone monument that marks where Maj. Gen. Jesse Reno was killed during the battle of South Mountain. After the Civil War, a Union veteran of this battle became a miner in Nevada and founded a town there that he named for his beloved General Reno, Nevada. G Gathiand State Park: Scene of fierce fighting during the Battle of South Mountain in 1862, the Cramptons Gap area was bought by reporter George Alfred Townsend (pen name: Gath) in 1884. In 1896 Townsend organized the construction of the War Correspondents Arch here to commemorate correspondents and artists of the Civil War. H Appalachian Trail: Completed in 1937, this 2,157-mile trail stretches from Mt. Katahdin, Maine to Springer Mountain, Georgia. Thirteen miles of the JFK-SO traverses this famous footpath; please be courteous to its hikers. I Weverton: Today’s tiny village is a vestige of a once-thriving industrial town founded by Casper Wever in the 1 830s. Water from the Potomac River powered mills here for 50 years before floods and finances closed them down. J B&O Railroad: Started in Baltimore on July 4, 1828, the B&O Railroad reached this area by 1834, and went all the way to Cumberland, Maryland in 1842. Today the tracks are part of the CSX Rail Transportation System. K C&O Canal: Also started on July 4, 1828, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal began in Washington, D.C. the ~‘race was on for the best transportation link to the west. The C&O Canal also reached this area by 1834, but construction problems prevented it from reaching Cumberland until 1850. The C&O Canal ceased operations in 1924 and today is preserved as the 185-mile-long C&O Canal National Historical Park. Twenty-six miles of the JFK-5O Miler a marathon length in itself follows this park’s towpath where mules once pulled canal boats. L Harpers Ferry: Founded in 1733 as a ferry crossing over the Potomac River, Harpers Ferry became famous for it privately-owned and federally-funded gun factories and arsenals from the 1790s through the l850s that attracted John Brown’s ill-fated raid in 1859 to gather arms for a slave rebellion. During the Civil War, Harpers Ferry’s armories and arsenals were destroyed as the town changed hands 8 times between Union and Confederate forces. Today, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park preserves much of the historic town and the surrounding mountains Bolivar Heights (WV), Maryland Heights (MD), Loudoun Heights (WV & VA), and Short Hill (VA). M Battle of Maryland Heights: From September 10-12, 1862, three separate Confederate forces totaling 30,000 soldiers, marched from Frederick, Maryland to surround the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry. On September 13, a battle was fought on rock-strewn Maryland Heights (most of these hills were denuded by the charcoal industry before the Civil War). The Confederates won this battle along with skirmishes on Loudoun Heights and near Bolivar Heights and forced the 12,500-man Union army into Harpers Ferry under a relentless Confederate bombardment. N Harpers Ferry Road: Note the road across from the canal here: On the night of September 14, 1862, about 1,500 Union cavalrymen made a daring middle-of-the-night escape from a Confederate trap by dashing their horses across a bridge and up this road to Sharpsburg. The next day, the remaining 11,000 Union soldiers surrendered the largest U.S. troop surrender until WWII. On September 16, most of the Confederate troops marched up this road to rejoin Gen. Robert E. Lee outside Sharpsburg for what would be the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. 0 Fort Duncan: Union troops built this fort and others on Maryland Heights in 1863 to protect Harpers Ferry. P Potomac River: Draining much of the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Potomac River’s headwaters start in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. George Washington envisioned the Potomac as the Gateway to the West. Q Antietam Aqueduct: Triple-arch stone aqueduct built in 1833 to carry the C&O Canal over Antietarn Creek. R Millers Sawmill: This quiet riverside community once bustled with milling activity. In mid-September 1862, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee stationed his Chief Engineer here to keep watch over the level of the Potomac River since Lee knew he may need to ford his army across the river here if the Battle of Antietam went against him. S Packhorse Ford: Just upstream from Millers Sawmill is a double V-shaped ford (shallow crossing place) in the Potomac River. This ford has been used by American Indians, German and Scotch-Irish pioneers traveling from Pennsylvania to Virginia, and Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in their retreat from the Battle of Antietam. T James Ramsey Monument: As you approach the Route 34 bridge (also called the James Rumsey Bridge), look across the Potomac River to Shepherdstown which was chartered as Mechlenburg in 1762. The tall monument visible in the town from the C&O Canal towpath is a monument to James Rumsey, who was George Washington’s Chief Engineer for the Potowmack Canal Company that pre-dated the C&O Canal. Rumsey was also the first inventor of the steamboat. In 1787, Rumsey demonstrated his steamboat along the Potomac here before hundreds of cheering witnesses along the riverbanks 20 years before Robert Fulton demonstrated his steamboat on the Hudson. U Killiansburg Cave: On September 16-18, 1862, hundreds of Sharpburg citizens came here to seek refuge under these cliffs from the Battle of Antietam. The cave entrance is visible from the C&O Canal towpath. V Snyders Landing: This riverside community was once a tie-up point for canal boat owners from Sharpsburg. W Taylors Landing: Community was first called Mercersburg, for the first president of the C&O Canal company. X Dam #4: This 18-ft.-high masonry dam was one of 7 built on the Potomac to provide water for the C&O Canal. V Downsville: Founded in 1852, this typical crossroads village has changed little over the past century. Z Williamsport: The Williams brothers who founded this town in 1786 proposed to George Washington that this area would make a good location for our national capital before the Georgetown, Maryland site was selected in 1790. Williamsport was especially prosperous during the C&O Canal’s heyday from the 1840s to the 1880s. Since 1980 Springfield Middle School here has been the finish line of the John F. Kennedy Memorial 50-Mile Hike/Run.