Catoctin Mountain Park

A Mountain Heritage

On Catoctin Mountain you can read the story of early industry and its effects on the land. It is written in old stone fences, logging roads, and the forest that now covers the land. You can find it along the old Hagerstown-Westminster Turnpike (Md. 77) that crosses the mountains from east to west between the two parks: Catoctin Mountain Park, managed by the National Park Service, and Cunningham Falls State Park, managed by the Maryland State Forest and Park Service (Md. Dept. of Natural Resources).

Indians

Although little evidence remains of those who lived in Maryland before the arrival of Europeans, we do know that many small tribes of American Indians farmed, hunted, fished, and quarried stone for tool-making here. In 1732, as European settlers began to arrive in Maryland’s Monocacy River valley, the Indians were engaged in a series of wars. Catoctin was neutral ground where no Indians lived permanently and were seldom seen. The name "Catoctin" probably came from the Kittoctons, who lived at the foot of the mountain.

Settlers, Slaves and Free Blacks

The first pioneers were second-generation Americans and German immigrants. They had pushed west from Philadelphia until they crossed the Susquehanna River and then turned southwest. They settled along the Monocacy River because of Lord Baltimore’s attractive offer of 200 acres of land rent-free for three years and one cent per acre each year thereafter. In the mid-1800s more Germans and some Swiss and Scotch-Irish pioneers came into the area. Some of these settlers became loggers or charcoal-makers supplying the Catoctin Iron Furnace, the remains of which are in Cunningham Falls State Park. There is evidence of both slaves and free blacks working at the Catoctin Iron Furnace. Other settlers supplied oak and chestnut bark, rich sources of tannin, to the developing tanneries in the Monocacy valley. Farms were established in the high valleys. Today you can find remnants of these old farms – stone fences and cellar pits – as you walk through the forest.

Over the years clear-cutting for charcoal making, stripping of bark for tanning, and logging depleted the resources. Many people moved away, and it was becoming harder for the people who remained to eke out a living.

WPA and CCC

Beginning in 1935 more than 10,000 acres were acquired by the Federal Government and developed as the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area, a Depression-era program to find new uses for marginally productive lands. Work performed in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) still plays an essential role in helping you enjoy your visit. Under the management of the National Park Service since November 14, 1936, and the Maryland State Forest and Park Service since 1954, the land has been allowed to revert to eastern hardwood forest habitat.

Walk the trails among the regrowth of chestnut oaks, hickories, black birches, and other trees. Along the way you may encounter animals that make the parks their home. With a receptive mind and keen eyes, you will learn the stories of Catoctin Mountain.