Harper's Ferry, W.Va.

Harper’s Ferry, in West Virginia, is a study in confluence. The town is situated on a point at the joining of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, and lies just where three states abut. The town’s history is a fascinating linkage between the American Revolution and the U.S. Civil War. Even the town today mixes government and private enterprise: There is a dividing line smack in the middle of town, one side of which is owned by the U.S. Park Service, the other by private land owners. But the most compelling story of Harper’s Ferry’s centrality to the mingling of powerful forces is its locus at the violent intersection of slavery, state’s rights, and human freedom.

Donna and I made the beautiful, hour-long drive to Harper’s Ferry yesterday, out I-70 West and then Rte. 340 West. You wind along the Potomac River on Rte. 340 and in the space of five minutes you pass through Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The road is on a bluff and you can look down at the scores of brightly covered “rafts” – really either oversized inner tubes that fit a few people or inflatable boats that hold larger parties – for whitewater rafting. Conditions were more lazy than exhilarating, as the water was moving slowly.

We parked at Harper’s Ferry National Historic Park and took a five-minute shuttle bus ride into town. A recording on the bus gave us a nice overview of the town’s history and was timed to point out ruins of old bridges and buildings along the way.

A little history

Recognizing the young country’s need to defend itself against aggressors, George Washington selected Harper’s Ferry, then part of Virginia, as the site for an armory. The rivers would provide power for the armament factories, and its strategic location made it seem protected against attack. The president also held large amounts of nearby land, and perhaps saw the opportunity for increased property values as the town developed.

Meriwether Lewis, commissioned in 1802 by Thomas Jefferson to explore the land west of the Allegheny Mountains, began his adventure, with William Clark, in Harper’s Ferry.

The rifle factory there perfected the process of manufacturing identical, interchangeable parts, cutting the time needed to craft a gun from days to a couple hours. The expression “lock, stock and barrel” refers to the ability to produce and assemble quantities of the rifle’s three main parts.

Most famously, abolitionist John Brown led a slave revolt in 1858, with the intent of seizing the armory and arming a band of escaped slaves for violence against pro-slavery interests. The raid was unsuccessful and Brown was captured and hanged, but the attack brought to the fore the schism between southern slaveholders and northern anti-slavery sentiment, leading to the Civil War.

A couple factoids about Harper’s Ferry and the Civil War:

During the war, 12,500 Union soldiers surrendered after Confederate forces surrounded them in the hills above town, the largest surrender of U.S. forces until World War II.
Railroads were brought through the town because of its strategic value (and continue to operate today). During the war, railroads surprisingly supplied both Union and Confederate forces.

Town’s tragic past

It seems the town was never meant to succeed. A succession of devastating floods repeatedly destroyed many of the town’s buildings, bringing an end to the arms factories and leaving the town to languish. Later, an enterprising businessman opened a brewery --shortly before the enactment of Prohibition. Floods and fires continue to periodically cause severe damage to the town.

The town today

Harper’s Ferry is beautiful, with many of the buildings away from the water still standing, and still sits at interesting crossroads: The Appalachian Trail runs directly through town, which is roughly at the midpoint of the 2,200-mile hiking path, so you get to see intrepid walkers making the trip of a lifetime (if you sense a bit of jealously here, you are correct).

You can walk out onto an abandoned rail line (actually part of the Trail) to look out onto the two rivers teeming with those rafters. And an active rail line runs parallel and near the old abandoned one.

The Park Service’s side of town is like Colonial Williamsburg, with guided tours, re-makes of the shops and factories, and demonstrations of Civil War-era life. You can walk along the Shenandoah, and even to the water’s edge (or in it, as we saw one family), and there are little signs explaining what was there in times past and since washed away: A dormitory, a brig, a store.

From our table at lunch at Potomac Grill, on the private side of the invisible dividing line, on a patio with a spectacular view of town, we saw not one but two enormous CSX freight trains trundle by, their sounds taking me back to childhood visits to Clarksburg, West Virginia, where I loved hearing the screeching of wheels on rails, the rumbling of loaded cars, and the haunting, plaintiff whistle the coal trains made hugging the mountain across the creek from Aunt Amanda’s house.

It was a wonderful visit, with spectacular weather, and I got to share it with the love of my life. All in all, a perfect day.

Below are more photos.