Revisiting Harpers Ferry

Wednesday Oct 11

We had one more day and at least two places to visit-Harpers Ferry and Monocacy Battle field. In the end, we spent time at Harpers Ferry, the Appalachian Trail office  and Storer Normal School. Parking is non-existent in Harpers Ferry so we took the shuttle bus.  We stopped at several exhibits and learned about Storer Normal School.  Being a teacher, I was interested in the school's history so we spent time exploring the campus.  We didn't get to Monocacy.

The Battle of Monocacy (also known as Monocacy Junction) was fought on July 9, 1864, approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) from Frederick, Maryland, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 during the American Civil War. Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early defeated Union forces under Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace. The battle was part of Early's raid through the Shenandoah Valley and into Maryland in an attempt to divert Union forces away from Gen. Robert E. Lee's army under siege at Petersburg, Virginia.^[1] The battle was the northernmost Confederate victory of the war. While the Union troops retreated to Baltimore, Maryland, the Confederates continued toward Washington, D.C., but the battle at Monocacy delayed Early's march for a day, allowing time for Union reinforcements to arrive in the Union capital. The Confederates launched an attack on Washington on July 12 at the Battle of Fort Stevens, but were unsuccessful and retreated to Virginia.

Storer College was a historically black college located in Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Established as a normal school to train black teachers, it operated from 1865 until 1955. Established after the American Civil War with the help of philanthropic Baptists from New England and, especially Maine, it lost state funding after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the United States Supreme Court that said segregated public schools were unconstitutional. The state decided to fund other facilities that could offer more education.

The defunct college's former campus and buildings were acquired by the National Park Service, authorized in a 1962 appropriation, as part of what is now called the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. At the same time the NPS began to develop this facility for use as one of its four national training centers.

Hard to read the notes.

I think this was a dorm.

One of the museum volunteers in Harpers Ferry told me about the Storer Normal School. She had attended a reunion of sorts the weekend before.  Several graduates also attended and shared stories.  One told of being a football player who threw the pass that won the only game in the school's history. A cheer leader was also there. I learned that a white man from Sanford, Maine, funded the start up of the school.

This was probably a classroom.

One person we talked to suggested we go to the Appalachian Trail office for information since their office was in  one of the old  Storer buildings.  This office was even more interesting to me because I have climbed Mt Katahdin, the trail terminus, twice. The mountain is  6 feet short of being a mile high so there is a  six foot rock pile at the top that we all added a rock to.  No one in the office could talk about Storer School.

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, generally known as the Appalachian Trail or simply the A.T., is a marked hiking trail in the Eastern United States extending between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine.^[1] The trail is about 2,200 miles (3,500 km)^[a] long, though the exact length changes over time as parts are modified or rerouted. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy claims that the Appalachian Trail is the longest hiking-only trail in the world.^[2] More than 2 million people are said to do at least one day-hike on the trail each year.^[3]