Day 23: The Back Road to Gettysburg

Most recently updated on March 23, 2024

Originally posted on April 11, 2021

At the end of today, we will be standing on one of the most famous battlefields in U.S. history.

However, before we get there, we need to finish off our tour of the South on our way to the Northeast.

On our route, we’ll travel through the narrowest section of any state in our country and check out an auto repair business that is at least partly responsible for our highway littering laws.

First, we depart from Charleston and head northeast on Interstate 79, a freeway that begins in the state capital of West Virginia and can take you all the way to Lake Erie.

We’ll be on I-79 for nearly three hours as we motor up the north-central part of West Virginia.

Just a half-hour out of Charleston, we hit the town of Clendenin, a community of 849 people known for a groundbreaking chemical factory.

The first Anglo settlements here were established in the early 1800s near the confluence of the Big Sandy Creek and the Elk River. It was named after the pioneering Clendenin family.

Timber and coal mining were the principal industries. In 1848, one of the first veins of cannal coal was discovered in the region. The highly flammable ore was used in fireplaces as well as an illuminating gas in lamps and other fixtures. The introduction of kerosene eventually diminished the need for this type of coal, but the town continued to move forward.

The Coal and Coke Railroad arrived in 1893. The area’s first gas well was drilled in 1900.

In 1920, the world’s first petrochemical plant was built in Clendenin. It was the original facility for Union Carbide Corporation. The factory produced synthetic chemicals from natural gas. The plant, along with coal, timber, gas, oil and salt, spurred the city’s economy for the first half of the 1900s.

A few years after it opened, the Union Carbide plant moved to Charleston, but there is a historical marker in Clendenin noting their world first.

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The next two hours on this route take you through the heart of northern West Virginia.

Just before you leave the state, you reach Morgantown, a community of nearly 30,000 residents along the Monongahela River near the border of both Pennsylvania and Maryland. It’s the third most populous city in West Virginia.

Before the Revolutionary War, this was a region populated by Native American tribes as well as British and French settlers.

The Morgan family, including the aptly named Morgan Morgan, were among the initial residents. The town was chartered in 1785.

The first steamboat arrived in 1826 and the first railroad came through in 1886.

The economy has always been reliant on the river and the railroad. Coal fields were active in the 1900s and limestone was dug out of nearby quarries. Manufacturing included glass, petroleum products and chemicals.

Morgantown is home to West Virginia University, a college founded in 1867 with an enrollment of 26,000 students at its Morgantown campus.

In 1975, the U.S. Department of Transportation helped build the Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit system, a driverless $120 million transit program that is still in use today.

There are five stations along the 8.7 miles of track that service 71 self-propelled cars. Riders can hop onto individualized cars and travel from point to point without stopping at another station.

MPRT is the world’s only personal rapid transit system. On an average day, 15,000 passengers will use the system. Most of them are college students. The MPRT is credited with increasing West Virginia University’s enrollment from 10,000 in the 1960s to its 26,000 today.

The college students also keep the median age in Morgantown to 24 years. The median annual household income is about $41,000 and the poverty rate sits at 34 percent, although some of that could be due to the student population.

In 2021, political leaders mounted an effort to save the Viatris pharmaceutical plant in town, which employed 1,400 people.

In April 2021, the West Virginia House of Delegates approved a resolution urging the governor to prevent the factory from shutting down. Among the recommendations was a request to President Joe Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act to repurpose the facility.

Despite those efforts, the manufacturing plant closed on July 31, 2021. The plant was given a critical infrastructure designation that allowed it to reopen for manufacturing purposes. In March 2022, West Virginia University announced it had purchased the site from Viatris. The university is now developing plans to utilize and lease space at the facility.

Meanwhile, a new groundbreaking business has opened in Morgantown. In November 2021, West Virginia’s first medical cannabis dispensary set up shop in town. Medical marijuana was legalized in West Virginia in 2017, but the Trulieve facility in Morgantown was the first to be established. It isn’t the last. The Monongalia County Board of Health approved 20 permits for dispensaries in October 2020. Since then, the Zen Leaf Cannabis Dispensary has opened. At least three others are also in the region.

Before we leave, we want to make note of one famous residents of Morgantown.

Actor Don Knotts, who won five Emmys for playing Barney Fife on the 1960s Andy Griffith Show, was born here. A statue of Knotts was unveiled in downtown Morgantown in 2016.

Following the Old Road

Morgantown is just 10 miles from the Pennsylvania border and Interstate 79 is headed straight there.

Instead, we turn east and jump on Interstate 68 through this final corner of West Virginia.

In a half-hour we cross over into Maryland, a state not large in area but high in income.

Maryland comprises slightly more than 12,000 square miles, placing it 42^nd among states. It also stretches from the Atlantic coast to this panhandle that reaches West Virginia.

The state does have more than 6 million residents, putting it 19^th among states, just behind Missouri. One of the main reasons is Baltimore with a population of nearly 560,000 people, ranking it 31st among U.S. cities.

The state has an ethnic mix of residents with 48 percent listed as white and 31 percent listed as Black. Another 11 percent of Maryland’s residents are categorized as Hispanic or Latino with an additional 7 percent listed as Asian.

Maryland has a median annual household income of $98,000, one of the highest among all states.

That wealth is not evenly spread. For example, the median annual household income in Annapolis is $97,000 compared to $58,000 in nearby Baltimore. The poverty rate in Baltimore is almost 20 percent compared to less than 10 percent statewide.

The western panhandle is also more rural with lower wages, especially compared to the communities close to Washington, D.C., and along the Chesapeake Bay.

The territory was founded in 1632 by George Calvert, the first baron of Baltimore, and his sons. They named the community after Queen Henrietta Maria. The state became one of the few predominately Catholic regions in what was mostly Protestant colonial America.

In the 1760s, the boundary drawn to create the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania later became known as the Mason-Dixon Line, an important divider between slave and free states.

In 1791, Maryland ceded some of its land to help form the District of Columbia.

Although it was a slave state, Maryland did not secede during the Civil War. Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri were the other slave states that stayed with the Union.

The early economy of Maryland was plantation-based and focused on tobacco. After the Civil War, it became more industrialized, utilizing its seaports, railroads and European immigrant population. Ship building and metal works turned Baltimore into a major city. In the early 1800s, Baltimore was actually the third most populous city in the country, behind only New York and Philadelphia.

Maryland has also used its proximity to Washington, D.C., to its economic advantage. It has Fort Meade as well as a number of research and medical facilities, most prominently Johns Hopkins and Walter Reed medical centers.

Maryland is considered to have the best educated workforce in the country, but it still has a diverse manufacturing sector. The Port of Baltimore is ranked 20th in the country in terms of tonnage.

The state also has a healthy commercial fishing sector with its 3,190 miles of shoreline along the Atlantic coast as well as in and around Chesapeake Bay. It is among the top in the harvesting of blue crabs.

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A half-hour after we cross the border, we reach Grantsville.

This town of less than 1,000 people sits in the far northwestern corner of Maryland at an altitude of 2,300 feet in the Appalachian Mountains.

It was initially an Amish and Mennonite settlement that began around 1770. Daniel Grant and his family settled here in 1796.

The town grew quickly as The National Road, also known as the Cumberland Road, was built. The road was the early 1800s version of a highway. It was constructed between 1811 and 1834. It traveled 620 miles from Cumberland, Maryland, to Illinois. The route went through Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana, among other towns.

It was the first major road funded by the federal government and became the main thoroughfare for people heading westward. It was also used to transport goods from the East Coast to the middle of the country. That included livestock such as cattle, sheep, hogs, horses and even turkeys.

The states assumed control of the road in 1835 and charged tolls, the lowest fees for people walking and the highest for covered wagons.

Grantsville was a stop for stagecoaches and covered wagons. Businesses opened along the town’s main street to accommodate the travelers. One of them was a blacksmith shop that was open 24 hours a day to repair horseshoes.

The Casselman Inn was opened in 1842 and still sits in the center of town.

The importance of the road faded after 1870 as the railroads took over. The roadway regained some popularity in the 1920s as automobiles became more common, but since then most of the road has been overtaken by highways, in particular U.S. Route 40.

Nonetheless, the National Road had a major impact on Grantsville and the next two towns we visit along this freeway corridor.

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Frostburg is just 20 minutes east of Grantsville along Interstate 68.

The town of nearly 7,000 people is named for the family that helped settle it, but it could just as easily have been named after the weather.

Frostburg sits at 2,075 feet elevation along the Allegheny Front, a part of the Allegheny Mountains section of the Appalachians.

The front forms part of the Eastern Continental Divide that separates the Mississippi River watershed from the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Basically, water on the western side of the front flows toward the Mississippi Valley while water on the eastern side flows toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Due to its geographic location, Frostburg is wetter and colder than most places in Maryland. It snows here as early as November and as late as April. In an average year, about 80 inches of snow will fall.

The first settlements started a few years before construction on the National Road began in 1811. The Frost family built one of the first homes here in 1812. Stagecoach service began in 1818.

Coal became a main industry, especially after the railroads were built.

Frostburg also began producing fire bricks in the 1860s. The bricks, which are mainly used to line fireplaces and furnaces, were made from the high grade fire clays in the region. The Big Savage Fire Brick Company, now known as the Mount Savage Fire Brick Company, was formed in 1902 and is still one of the biggest suppliers of fire bricks on the East Coast.

The town is also home to Frostburg State University, which opened in 1902 with 57 students and now has an enrollment of 4,800 students. Those young college attendees keep the city’s median age at 22 years.

The college also must help with the ethnic mix. Most of the towns along this route are more than 90 percent white. Frostburg is 78 percent white with a Black population of 13 percent.

The Thrasher Carriage Museum downtown features modes of transport used here in the 1800s, including milk wagons, sleighs, carts and funeral wagons.

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We take our modern form of virtual transportation another 15 minutes east on Interstate 68 to reach Cumberland, a town along the Potomac River across from the tip of West Virginia’s eastern panhandle.

Native American tribes lived in this region for centuries. It was part of the Great Indian Warpath trails.

The town was settled in 1750 as a trading post. Fort Cumberland was built in 1754. It served as a headquarters for Lieutenant Colonel George Washington and General Edward Braddock during the French and Indian War.

Cumberland expanded quickly when it became the eastern terminus for The National Road. The town was a major supplier for people traveling to the Ohio Valley and other lands of the Louisiana Purchase.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Cumberland in 1842. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal arrived in 1850. Cumberland was the western terminus for this waterway that meandered all the way to Washington, D.C. The community became a center for goods being transported from the Midwest to the nation’s capital.

At one point, Cumberland was the second most populous city in Maryland, behind only Baltimore. However, its industries declined after World War Two as development became more focused on coastal areas. The city’s population has fallen from nearly 40,000 in 1940 to 18,000 today.

Before the Civil War, Cumberland was a final stop on one route of the Underground Railroad. Fugitive slaves hid beneath the floor of Emmanuel Episcopal Church and then followed a 200-yard tunnel to the edge of the woods, where they trekked the final four miles to freedom in Pennsylvania.

Cumberland is also the final stop on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Park. The 184-mile-long park along the Potomac River stretches from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, where the canal ended when it was operating between 1828 and 1924. There are campsites about every 10 miles along today’s route. The towpath is popular with runners, hikers and bicyclists.

One of the oldest businesses in town is Caporale’s Italian Bakery. The shop was founded in 1906 by Italian immigrant August Caporale. It celebrated its 115th anniversary in October 2021.

A well-known actor calls Cumberland his hometown.

William H. Macy was born in Miami but grew up here. He graduated from Allegany High School, where he was junior class and senior class president.

A “Waist” Land and Highway Litter

We continue east along Interstate 68 for another 40 minutes until we hit the town of Hancock, a community of 1,500 people that holds a special place in U.S. geography.

The town sits in what’s known as the “waist” of Maryland.

That’s where the state narrows to just 2 miles wide between Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It’s the smallest non-vortex border in the country. This section of land connects Maryland’s panhandle with the rest of the state.

Hancock sits right in the middle, one mile from Pennsylvania and one mile from West Virginia.

The Mason-Dixon Line is its border with Pennsylvania and the Potomac River is its border with West Virginia.

Native American tribes lived at this northernmost bend in the Potomac for centuries.

The town began as a trading post after the first settlers arrived in the 1730s. It’s named after Edward Joseph Hancock Jr., who fought alongside General George Washington in the Revolutionary War. The Hancock family operated a ferry along the Potomac.

In the late 1700s, Hancock was the westernmost outpost of the original 13 colonies.

The community grew into a stagecoach stop and then expanded more after the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was finished in 1850. Irish immigrants, in particular, were attracted to the area.

In the mid-1800s, hydraulic cement was quarried here. Bark was also gathered for sale to tanneries and dye works. In addition, sand was mined to help produce glass, pottery and tile.

In 1886, E. P. Cohill planted orchards on the hills surrounding the town. Hancock became a leading regional fruit producer into the 1970s.

The Western Maryland Railroad arrived in 1905, linking the town to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad over in West Virginia. The railroad operated until 1976.

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Our final stop in Maryland is Smithsburg, a town of 3,200 residents that’s just west of the Camp David presidential retreat and unwittingly played a big part in the nation’s highway beautification programs.

Interstate 68 ends at Hancock, so to get to Smithsburg, we hop on Interstate 70 and head east. After a half-hour, we jump on Highway 66 north. After another 10 minutes, we reach our destination.

Smithsburg was founded in 1813 by Christopher Smith, a stone mason who bought a plot of land here when he was in his 60s. After a few years, Smith started selling pieces of his acreage. By 1820, more than 130 people lived in the settlement named after its founder.

During the Civil War, it served as a “hospital town” taking care of wounded soldiers. It was also the site of a skirmish between Rebel and Union troops in July 1863 as Confederate General Robert E. Lee was retreating after the Battle of Gettysburg. A cannonball from that fight is still lodged in the wall of a home.

The town grew along with the railroads and advances in agriculture. It remains a farming community with apple orchards and dairy farms.

What put Smithsburg on our map was an incident that happened in late 1963.

President Lyndon Johnson, his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, and their daughter, Lynda, were reportedly driving from Camp David through Smithsburg when the motorcade went past a mass of junk along the highway.

The source of that pile of metal and trash was the nearby Elwoods Auto Exchange. Lady Bird apparently ordered the presidential car to stop. She marched up to Elwoods Grimm and, according to reports, “gave him a piece of her mind” for “ruining this beautiful landscape.”

After that incident, Mrs. Johnson went on a campaign to keep the nation’s highways clean. Two years later, Congress approved the Highway Beautification Act and President Johnson signed it.

The law limits billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising along the country’s highways. It also contains a provision to screen off junk yards that might be visible from the roadway.

Steel, Snack Foods and Sacrifice

Out of Smithsburg, we head north on Highway 491, reaching the Pennsylvania state line in less than 15 minutes.

We can now officially proclaim that we’ve entered the Northeast.

The Dutch made the first attempt at settlement in this region in 1631. Swedish immigrants came along in 1638 and established New Sweden.

The state came into existence in 1681 when William Penn was given a royal land grant by King Charles II to repay a debt owed to Penn’s father, Admiral William Penn. The territory became known as Pennsylvania, which means “Penn’s Woods.” It’s the only one of the original 13 colonies that doesn’t have a shoreline along the Atlantic Ocean.

Pennsylvania was the second state to join the newly formed United States. It did so on December 12, 1787, just five days after Delaware became the first state.

It got its nickname “The Keystone State” from the fact it was in the middle of the 13 original colonies and held a key position in the economic and government development of the United States.

In the 1800s and 1900s, Pennsylvania’s economy centered on steel production as well as logging, coal mining, textile factories and other industrial manufacturing.

Today, the steel industry has faded, but Pennsylvania is still a leading coal producing state. About 70 percent of its agricultural income is general by livestock and livestock products with milk being the number one commodity. It’s also one of the leading states in egg production. Crops include apples, corn and nursery products. During our two days in the state, we’ll visit a town known for its mushrooms.

An insect known as the spotted lanternfly is causing some havoc in Pennsylvania’s agricultural industry. The pest from Asia was first discovered in the state in 2014. The insect feeds on the sap of a variety of plants and trees, including grapevines as well as maple and birch trees.

State officials say the lanternfly could have a significant impact on industries such as viticulture, nurseries, fruit trees and timber. They estimate the invasion could cost the state’s economy $325 million as well as the loss of 2,800 jobs.

A report in August 2020 said lanternfly sightings were up 500 percent from the year before. In March 2021, eight more counties were added to the lanternfly quarantine, bringing the total to 34 in Pennsylvania. In June 2021, the state began spraying freeways, railways and other transportation rights-of-way in an effort to control the insect as the summer egg hatching season gets under way.

The state also urges residents to simply stomp on the insects if they see them as well as destroy any egg nests they see.

Despite all these efforts, the lanternfly problem continues. The insect has been spotted in more than 50 Pennsylvania counties and there are now more than 40 counties under quarantine due to the lanternfly.

One industry the insect is not directly affecting is snack foods.

Pennsylvania is known as the “snack food capital of the world.” It leads all other states in the production of pretzels, potato chips and candy. Auntie Anne’s Pretzels began as a market stand in Downingtown. The Just Born company, which produces candy such as Hot Tamales, Peeps and Mike N Ike, is centered in Bethlehem. During our travels tomorrow, we’ll stop in at two locations with strong ties to the snack industry.

Gambling was legalized in Pennsylvania in 2004. There are now 17 casinos operating. In 2018, the state started granting licenses for sports betting. In 2019, online gambling was established. There are now eight online casinos in the state.

Pennsylvania has grown quite a bit since the days of William Penn.

Its 13 million residents make it the 5^th most populous state, despite the fact it’s only 33^rd in terms of size.

Before we leave this state, we’ll visit a community where a famous nuclear power plant looms as well as some small towns known for clocks and chocolate. Of course, we will also spend some considerable time in Philadelphia with its rich history.

First, however, we need to pay homage to a bloody battlefield that helped turned the tide in the Civil War and was the scene of one of our nation’s most famous presidential speeches.

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Gettysburg is only 20 minutes up Highway 116 from the Pennsylvania border.

The town of 10,000 is best known for the crucial battle that happened in its fields in July 1863.

Before that famous fight, Gettysburg had a successful manufacturing history.

The beginnings of the town emerged in 1736 when the family of William Penn purchased land from the Iroquois tribe. Many of the initial residents were immigrants from Northern Ireland who were fleeing from persecution.

The community was established in 1761 when Samuel Gettys built a tavern for soldiers and travelers. His son, James, laid out the town 25 years later.

In 1858, the Gettysburg Railroad arrived. By 1860, the town had 2,400 residents and 450 buildings, including carriage manufacturers, shoemakers and tanneries.

Then, the Civil War erupted.

By July 1863, Confederate forces led by General Robert E. Lee had advanced to the outskirts of Gettysburg. It was the farthest north any Southern army had reached. The hope was to be victorious here and then head toward places such as Philadelphia and New York.

The Battle of Gettysburg took place over three days from July 1 to July 3. Lee’s 75,000 troops had some initial successes, but they were eventually defeated by the Union’s Army of the Potomac and its 82,000 soldiers commanded by General George C. Meade.

Lee retreated across the Potomac River. Meade was criticized for not pursuing him more aggressively.

When the shooting finally stopped, there were 7,000 dead soldiers – 3,900 on the Confederate side and 3,100 on the Union side. A total of more than 10,000 troops were listed as missing and another 33,000 were wounded. There was one civilian casualty. Jennie Wade, all of 20 years of age, was killed when a stray bullet struck her while she stood in her kitchen.

The residents of Gettysburg had to clean up the mess after the soldiers departed. They had to care for 20,000 wounded men as well as bury thousands of bodies that were left in the fields.

This was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and perhaps its most crucial. Had the Southern forces won, the War Between the States might have been much different.

Overall, the South was significantly outgunned. About 2 million soldiers fought for the North during the war, compared to 750,000 for the South. In addition, the more industrialized North was able to produce more ammunition and artillery than the agriculture-based South.

However, a victory at Gettysburg by Confederate forces could have prolonged the war and even perhaps led to some sort of cease-fire instead of a Union victory.

President Abraham Lincoln recognized the importance of this battle.

He arrived via the Gettysburg Railroad on November 19, 1863, and delivered his famous two-minute Gettysburg Address. Lincoln ended the short speech saying, “we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Gettysburg pulled itself together after the war.

In the first half of the 1900s, the furniture industry kept residents employed. The Gettysburg Manufacturing Company was among the outfits that did well until the 1950s. The Gettysburg Railroad lasted until 1942.

The economy now is driven by tourism, mostly by the monuments to the Civil War battle.

On today’s route, we approach Gettysburg from the south.

Before we get to the Civil War memorials, we stop by a famous presidential home.

President Dwight Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, purchased their estate southwest of downtown in 1950. Eisenhower used the 690-acre farm as a retreat during his presidency from 1953 to 1961. He also met here with foreign leaders, including Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev, French leader Charles De Gaulle and British prime minister Winston Churchill.

Former Gettysburg Mayor Theodore Streeter said Eisenhower first came to Gettysburg in 1918 as an Army major overseeing a tank training camp.

“He and Mamie fell in love with the place and as soon as they could they bought a farm outside Gettysburg,” the mayor told 60 Days USA in spring 2021.

Eisenhower lived at the farm after he left the White House until his death in 1969. He raised cattle, including Black Angus steers.

The estate is now the Eisenhower National Historic Site. It’s managed and preserved by the National Park Service.

There are a number of historic spots after you leave the Eisenhower estate and head toward downtown Gettysburg.

The first major one is the Gettysburg National Military Park. The fields where the July 1863 battle was fought are part of this acreage.

Next up is the Gettysburg National Cemetery, where 3,500 Union soldiers are buried. President Lincoln delivered his famous address at the dedication of the cemetery.

Finally, there is the Gettysburg Museum of History, which contains artifacts from not only the Civil War but World War One and World Two.

Streeter told 60 Days USA in spring 2021 that the most popular tourist stop is the battlefield site, although many visitors are pleasantly surprised to see a downtown full of shops and restaurants.

The former mayor said Gettysburg itself is a “tight knit community” where families go back generations, many before the Civil War. Bill Troxell, the late long-time mayor, had ancestors who were one of the town’s founding families.

Streeter said the community is actively involved in local government and lively debates occur over important issues. One of the biggest was a plan to build a casino and racetrack just outside town. Over the past decade, a local developer tried three times to get his proposal approved. Streeter said not only did local residents join the debate, but the city received letters from all over the country from people who had an opinion on such an establishment near one of the nation’s best known historic sites.

“One thing about Gettysburg is that everybody in the country feels like they have a voice in our government,” Streeter said.

The former mayor and his wife have lived in Gettysburg for more than 30 years and have no plans to leave, even though Streeter’s final term ended in December 2021. He was replaced by Rita Frealing, the city’s first female and African-American mayor.

Streeter and others in the community like the small town feeling and the abundance of nearby outdoor venues for activities such as hunting and fishing.

“We’ll be here until they carry us out,” Streeter said.

We’ll sit a spell in Gettysburg ourselves as we end Day 23.

Tomorrow, we slice through the southern portion of Pennsylvania on our way to Philadelphia.