Maryland Panhandle - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 984

10. Fort Frederick State Park
Reached viaashortside triponRte. 56,FortFrederick isthesole survivorofalongline of
sturdy forts that were sprinkled along the length of the Maryland Panhandle in the 1700s.
Their purpose was to keep encroaching French colonists and their Indian allies away from
the settlers trying to carve homesteads out of the wilderness. Fort Frederick, a great stone
structure poised above the Potomac River, has massive walls 17 feet high and 4 feet thick.
Inside the barracks uncomfortable iron beds and plain stone walls evoke the nearly mon-
astic austerity of a soldier's life in the old days. The fort—serving variously as a strategic
supply base, a refuge for settlers, and a prisoner-of-war camp—figured in three major con-
flictsofU.S.history:theFrenchandIndianWar,theRevolutionaryWar,andtheCivilWar.
11. Hagerstown
To continue the drive, take Rte. 56 west and then turn north at Big Pool to Indian Springs.
FromtheretakeRte.40eastthroughrollinggreencountrysideandpasturestoHagerstown.
More than two centuries ago, a young, starry-eyed German named Jonathan Hager fol-
lowed his true love (so it is said) across the Atlantic Ocean to America. They married and
settled in the middle of the wilderness in a limestone house with a great stone fireplace.
Young Hager named the village that grew up around them Elizabeth Town, though every-
one else called it Hager's Town. Their old house—furnished with buffalo hides, split-oak
baskets, and other frontier decor—still stands today as a reminder of the depth of the re-
gion's historic past.
Several miles east of town—via Rtes. 64 and 77—lies Catoctin Mountain Park, which
harbors one of the nation's most carefully guarded enclaves—Camp David. Unless you're
the president, you probably won't visit this secluded mountain retreat, which Franklin D.
RooseveltchristenedShangriLa.Butyoucanstillenjoythedensewoods,intriguingnature
trails, and trout-filled streams that surround it.
From Hagerstown the drive rambles south on Rte. 65 past farms, hollows, and waving
fieldsofcorntoSharpsburg,afriendlyvillagetodaythatabutsagrim-reminderoftheCivil
War.