🍁 Scenic Harper's Ferry, WV: History, Fall Beauty, Great Outdoors; Jefferson, Washington, John Brown
'Harpers Ferry: Where American history meets the great outdoors,' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 27, 2024. Ed.- Holding secrets of the past, this scenic and historic West Virginia town is the perfect spot for fall's leaf peepers.
Harpers Ferry is known for its picturesque setting, historical significance, and outdoor activities. 🛶
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HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. — Nestled along two converging rivers, with the Blue Ridge Mountains’ precipitous cliffs offering a backdrop, Harpers Ferry has long been praised for its rugged natural beauty. It’s especially gorgeous in fall, when leaf peepers who travel here are rewarded with a seasonal palette of vibrant reds, oranges and yellows, and the weather demands a sweater or jacket to guard against the (welcome) chill.
Thomas Jefferson was definitely a fan. After visiting the W.Va. Virginia town at the height of fall color in Oct. 1783, he wrote that “the passage of the Patowmac [Potomac] through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature.. It is as placid and delightful as that is wild and tremendous..This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic." Named for millwright Robert Harper in 1747, the town soon became one of our 3rd president’s favorite retreats.
And today, the mound of Harpers shale on which Washington stood to survey the water gap below is a popular destination along the Appalachian Trail.
George Washington was more impressed by the small town’s “inexhaustible supply of water,” though for reasons other than today’s passion for tubing, rafting and kayaking on white water. Its gushing natural resources led the former president and wealthy landowner to choose Harpers Ferry for a new national armory in 1796. A somewhat sleepy hamlet was turned into a prosperous industrial village. Between 1801 and 1861, the town produced 600,000 muskets, rifles and pistols for the Army.
Yet this easternmost town in W.Va. didn’t gain national fame until the Civil War. It was here, in 1859, that abolitionist John Brown and his small group of men seized the armory in hopes of starting an uprising in the South against slavery. The raid itself was unsuccessful. His party was surrounded by federal troops, taking heavy casualties, and Brown was hanged in Dec. 1859 after being convicted of murder, treason and inciting enslaved people to revolt. Many believe that it was the “spark” that ignited the Civil War...
https://www.post-gazette.com/life/travel/2024/09/27/harpers-ferry-west-virginia-vacation-civil-war-history-hiking/stories/202409290038
Harper's Ferry, located at the confluence the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers on the border of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, just inside the Shenandoah Valley.
- Visit historic Harper's Ferry for culture, adventure and breathtaking views. Tour the 19th c. town, explore the intertwining rivers and see the remnants of the Civil War era arsenal, the industrial canal locks and the landmark John Brown's fort. Top it off with shopping & dining.