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==History==
==History==
[[File:Cunningham Falls State Park - view from the top.jpg|thumb|left|View from the top of Cunningham Falls]]
[[File:Cunningham Falls State Park - view from the top.jpg|thumb|left|View from the top of Cunningham Falls]]
The Catoctin Mountain area around Cunningham Falls is rich in local history. Before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans hunted and fished the area. The area was also quarried by Native Americans for [[rhyolite]] to make projectile points.<ref name=wehrle/> During the 19th century, settlers began to cut down the forests around the area to make charcoal to power the [[Catoctin Furnace|Catoctin iron furnace]]. The [[charcoal flats]] can still be seen in the park. The "charcoal flats" are approximately {{convert|25|by|25|ft}} square areas cut flat into the hillsides and linked by mule trails. They were used to build charcoal kilns. Over two hundred years of, clear cutting and abuse of the forest led to the destruction of the land.<ref name=75th/>
The Catoctin Mountain area around Cunningham Falls is rich in local history. Before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans hunted and fished the area. The area was also quarried by Native Americans for [[rhyolite]] to make projectile points.<ref name=wehrle/> During the 19th century, settlers began to cut down the forests around the area to make charcoal to power the [[Catoctin Furnace|Catoctin iron furnace]]. The charcoal flats can still be seen in the park. The "charcoal flats" are approximately {{convert|25|by|25|ft}} square areas cut flat into the hillsides and linked by mule trails. They were used to build charcoal kilns. Over, two hundred years of [[clearcutting]] and abuse of the forest led to the destruction of the land.<ref name=75th/>


In the 1930s, after years of making [[charcoal]], to fuel nearby iron furnaces, mountain farming, and harvesting of trees for timber, land was purchased by the Federal government, to be transformed into a productive recreation area, helping to put people back to work, during the [[Great Depression]]. Beginning in 1935, the Catoctin [[Recreational Demonstration Area]] was under construction by both the [[Works Progress Administration]] and the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]. The northern portion of the park was transferred to the National Park Service on November 14, 1936, and renamed and reorganized on July 12, 1954, with the southern {{convert|5000|acre|km2}} transferred to Maryland as Cunningham Falls State Park.<ref name=strain/>
In the 1930s, after years of making [[charcoal]], to fuel nearby iron furnaces, mountain farming, and harvesting of trees for timber, land was purchased by the Federal government, to be transformed into a productive recreation area, helping to put people back to work, during the [[Great Depression]]. Beginning in 1935, the Catoctin [[Recreational Demonstration Area]] was under construction by both the [[Works Progress Administration]] and the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]. The northern portion of the park was transferred to the National Park Service on November 14, 1936, and renamed and reorganized on July 12, 1954, with the southern {{convert|5000|acre|km2}} transferred to Maryland as Cunningham Falls State Park.<ref name=strain/>

Revision as of 14:46, 29 January 2016

Template:Geobox

Cunningham Falls State Park is a state park located west of Thurmont, Maryland, USA, on Catoctin Mountain. It features a 43-acre (17 ha) man-made lake and its namesake waterfall, Cunningham Falls. Cunningham Falls is a 78-foot (24 m) cascade, the largest cascading waterfall in Maryland.[1] Catoctin Mountain Park borders the state park to the north. Catoctin Furnace, the remains of a historic iron furnace, can be toured in the park.

History

View from the top of Cunningham Falls

The Catoctin Mountain area around Cunningham Falls is rich in local history. Before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans hunted and fished the area. The area was also quarried by Native Americans for rhyolite to make projectile points.[2] During the 19th century, settlers began to cut down the forests around the area to make charcoal to power the Catoctin iron furnace. The charcoal flats can still be seen in the park. The "charcoal flats" are approximately 25 by 25 feet (7.6 by 7.6 m) square areas cut flat into the hillsides and linked by mule trails. They were used to build charcoal kilns. Over, two hundred years of clearcutting and abuse of the forest led to the destruction of the land.[3]

In the 1930s, after years of making charcoal, to fuel nearby iron furnaces, mountain farming, and harvesting of trees for timber, land was purchased by the Federal government, to be transformed into a productive recreation area, helping to put people back to work, during the Great Depression. Beginning in 1935, the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area was under construction by both the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. The northern portion of the park was transferred to the National Park Service on November 14, 1936, and renamed and reorganized on July 12, 1954, with the southern 5,000 acres (20 km2) transferred to Maryland as Cunningham Falls State Park.[4]

Known locally, as McAfee Falls, after a family of early settlers,[5] Cunningham Falls was apparently, named after a photographer, from Pen Mar Park, who frequently, photographed the falls.[3]

An old homestead can be seen above the falls. There is an abandoned iron, copper, or gold mine, located in the park. The ruins of the third Catoctin iron furnace, owned and constructed by Jacob Kinkel, in the 1850s-1860s, can also, be seen, within Cunningham Falls State Park.

West of the falls, on Big Hunting Creek, lies "Dunkards Trough," a natural rock formation, within the stream, that forms a deep trough, used by an early, German religious group, the Dunkards, for baptisms.[citation needed]

Activities and amenities

Common recreational activities include hiking, hunting, swimming, boating, fishing, and camping. Big Hunting Creek, one of Maryland's premier trout streams, flows through the park.[6]

Further reading

  • Means, John. Maryland's Catoctin Mountain Parks. Blacksburg, Va.:McDonald & Woodward Publishing. 1995. ISBN 0-939923-38-6.

References

  1. ^ "Cunningham Falls State Park". Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  2. ^ Wehrle, Edmund F. (March 2000). "Settling the Catoctins". Catoctin Mountain Park Historic Resource Study. National Park Service. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Miller, Jennifer (2011). "The Demonstration Succeeds" (PDF). The Mountaineer: Catoctin Mountain Park News: Special 75th-Anniversary Edition. National Park Service. p. 4. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  4. ^ Strain, Paula M. (1993). The Blue Hills of Maryland. Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. pp. 257–260. ISBN 978-0915746453.
  5. ^ "Cunningham Falls". The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  6. ^ "Big Hunting Creek". Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved July 15, 2015.

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External links

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