Just an hour’s drive northwest of Washington, D.C., West Virginia’s Eastern panhandle offers a quiet respite in an amazing landscape. Jefferson County, West Virginia, is easily accessible by car or by rail from Washington or Baltimore. From the center of the Appalachian Trail to the rivers that divided a nation, there are wonderful opportunities to take in significant historic venues while enjoying outdoor excursions.
The Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers converge at Harpers Ferry, home of Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, and offer some truly spectacular rafting and floating opportunities. Rafting and river tour outfitters like River Riders Family Adventure Resort have both white- water and flat-water opportunities for tubing, rafting and kayaking on the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.
To say the hiking here is spectacular is an understatement. The Appalachian Trail crosses over the Potomac River into West Virginia at Harpers Ferry, where the Potomac and Shenandoah meet. The highlight of this section of the trail is the view of the historic town of Harpers Ferry. Hikers then follow the ridge for three miles along the Potomac and across a railroad bridge. In town, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters includes a visitors center with exhibits, activities, and a hiker lounge.
Harper’s Ferry National Historic Park
Among the most popular hikes in Harpers Ferry NHP is a visit to Jefferson Rock, along the Appalachian Trail. This is a short but steep half-mile trek that rewards hikers with spectacular views of Harpers Ferry, the surrounding mountains, and the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. History tells us Thomas Jefferson stood on the outcropping on October 25, 1783, and described the view from the spot as a scene, “worth a voyage across the Atlantic.”
The Maryland Heights Trail is a strenuous 4.5-mile out-and-back hike that is popular for is outstanding cliff view of Harpers Ferry and the Shenandoah Valley. Take breaks on the steep climb to learn about Civil War history. An additional spur along the way takes hikers past Civil War artillery batteries and breastworks, through boulders to the Civil War Stone Fort.
Harpers Ferry National Historic Park is the site of John Brown’s Fort, where he and his followers barricaded themselves during the final hours of their ill-fated raid in 1859. The event proved to be a flash point that ignited the Civil War. During the war, Harpers Ferry became a significant battleground that changed hands eight times between Confederate and Union forces.
In the largest on the site, Stonewall Jackson captured 12,700 Union troops in the Battle of Harpers Ferry—the biggest surrender of U.S. soldiers during the war. After the war in 1865, Freewill Baptists started a primary school for freed African Americans in what is now known as Lockwood House. Two years later the school became Storer College, founded to train African American teachers, but was open to all. At the dawn of the 20th century, W.E.B. Du Bois, in response to his account of failing separate-but-equal policies and failing civil rights efforts, sent out a call for “organized determination and aggressive action on the part of men who believed in Negro freedom and growth,” and opposition to “present methods of strangling honest criticism.” In August of 1906, what became known as the Niagara Movement held its first public meeting in the United States on the campus of Storer College.