On the fourth day of our bike tour, we crossed the river from Maryland into the picturesque town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. From the bridge we could see the confluence of two great rivers: The Potomac and the Shenandoah.
The town was made most famous in 1859 when abolitionist John Brown sought to organize a slave insurrection. We visited the John Brown Museum which contained artifacts and information about the uprising. Brown and his followers seized the Harpers Ferry armory in the hopes of using its weapons to arm the insurrectionists. As the park brochure explained, “The raid failed, with most men killed or captured. Brown’s trial and execution focused attention on the issue of slavery and propelled the nation toward civil war.”
The buildings in the Lower Town have been preserved as as part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. They include an old boarding house, dry goods store, and tavern. John Brown’s Fort has been moved a block away, but is still intact.
We also learned from our visit that the small town played a big role in other events of US History. George Washington chose the town as an armory, and local factories in the early 1800’s produced rifles with interchangable parts. Meriwether Lewis built the boat for his expedition with Clark at Harpers Ferry. The Confederate General Stonewall Jackson forced the Civil War’s largest surrender of Union troops at nearby Bolivar Heights. And after the Civil War, Storer College was founded in Harpers Ferry to educate former African American slaves.
Harpers Ferry is a cross roads for bikers, hikers, and tourists who want to delve into that history. We walked up a small segment of the Appalachian Trail to Jefferson Rock. We had to agree with Jefferson in 1783, who described the the commanding views of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers at Harpers Ferry, “In the moment of their junction they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea…The scene is worth the voyage across the Atlantic.”
Click on any of the photo thumbnails below to see the full size photos from Harpers Ferry.
