Harpers Ferry 4/22/2013

As is usual for us when we travel, we were up early, had a cup of coffee, watch the news on TV, dubbed about a bit, got showered and dressed, and then packed up to go. With the trailer, packing up and going is a bit more complicated. But, with practice, I suspect we'll get faster at it. Today, we drove south to Harpers Ferry, WV, a historic town at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. In 1761, Robert Harper established a ferry across the Potomac here, making the town a starting point for settlers moving into the Shenandoah Valley and further west. The area is marked by hills and valleys that we had remembered from our trip this past summer. With spring in full bloom, roads are lined with flowering crabapples, and weeping cherry and pear trees. There is a National Historical Park at Harpers Ferry, and we enjoyed walking the streets of the town, and learning more about the town's history, especially during the Civil War. Due to its strategic location on the railroad and at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, both Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. As a matter of fact, the Civil War was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, which changed hands between the Union and Confederacy eight times between 1861 and 1865.

 

Harpers Ferry

The center of town itself looks much like it did in the 1800s. The National Park has restored some of the buildings to recapture the look of the town in its heyday, with a dry goods store, boarding house, blacksmith,

St. Peter's Church

bookshop, clothing store, confectionery store and more. We hiked up a steep staircase, hand-cut into the stone hill to St. Peter's Catholic Church, at the top of a hill. The church is only open for Sunday Mass. One piece of interesting information was that during the Civil War, the pastor of the church flew a British flag to indicated its impartiality, so it would not be bombarded by either side. In this way, the church became one of the few buildings in town not damaged in the war. We also visited the rock at which Thomas Jefferson stopped on October 25, 1783. He found the view from the rock impressive and wrote that "this scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic". The view of the valley below really is impressive.

Again, the 3 hour drive south had us dealing with nutty people who swerved around us. Our favorite "crazy" today was a van that missed its exit off the interstate, and did a quick u-turn through a construction site, to the amazement of the workers. Yikes. We also had to stop for town workers taking down a giant tree. The road went down to one very small lane. When traffic resumed, we just squeaked through. The weather has been cool, but crisp, with bright blue skies. Tomorrow, we head to Antietam.