39 Best Sights in Frederick and Western Maryland, Maryland

Time has returned Antietam National Battlefield, the site of the bloodiest one-day battle of the Civil War, to its tranquil antebellum appearance, with woodlands giving way to sloping cornfields bound by rough-hewn fences. On September 17, 1862, more than 23,000 Union and Confederate troops were killed, wounded, or missing here. The gruesome battle led Abraham Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. A self-guided tour by car follows 8½ miles of well-preserved battlefield including Dunkard Church and Bloody Lane. An hour-long documentary is shown at the visitor center at noon each day, and there is an exhibit of Civil War artifacts. You can also hike the battlefields with an audio tour or accompanied by a ranger. Stop at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum (an extension of Frederick's National Museum of Civil War Medicine), where a re-created operating room and implements used to care for the wounded are displayed.

Doug Bast, a local historian and founder of the Boonsborough Museum of History, never gave up his boyhood habit of collecting unusual curios. Besides extensive Civil War artifacts (including a cannonball), among the quirky finds crammed into this small house are a wooly mammoth tusk, a moonshine still, mummified animals, a piece of the White House discarded during a mid-20th-century renovation, patent medicines, and Geronimo's walking stick.

This park is the starting point for walking and biking the towpath, and taking tours on replica canal boats. Markers set occasionally along the towpath explain the railroad's role in the development of the town and the region's coal industry. There are even mules on hand, since the history of the canal includes these hardy 1,000-pound animals who once pulled canal boats. At nearby Canal Place, you can grab a bite, browse through the small shops, or listen to a summer concert on the water.

By the time you spot the picturesque Casselman River Bridge, you're almost in Grantsville. This single-span stone arch bridge ½ mi east of town was built in 1813; at the time it was the largest of its kind. Though the bridge is no longer in use, it serves as the backdrop for a small state park and picnic area.

Nearly 6,000 acres of thick pine forests, rocky ledges, and magnificent views make Catoctin a true retreat. America's presidents apparently think so, too—Camp David is hidden within the park, although, of course, it is not open to the public. Catoctin also rents rustic cabins built during the era of the federal Works Progress Administration, and there's a dining hall that seats 120 people.

About 6 mi from Catoctin Mountain Park, this preserve/zoo holds more than 350 animals on some 30 acres. The zoo is easily navigated by children, and the tall trees and winding paths make for comfortable walking. Exotic animals here include tigers, macaws, monkeys, and boas. A petting zoo allows kids to mingle with goats and other small animals. Throughout summer there are interactive shows, when the little ones can touch snakes and learn about grizzlies.

From an outstretched hand to a Constellation shaped like a drinking gourd, dozens of images and symbols are woven into this sweeping and remarkable trompe-l'oeil mural, which makes a humble concrete bridge appear ivy-covered and made of intricately carved stone. The public art is the work of nationally known artist William Cochran who used ideas submitted by Frederick residents and others nationwide as inspiration. The bridge and the waterway it spans are part of the multimillion-dollar construction, development, and renovation efforts that revitalized the Carroll Creek Park area. Restaurants offer outside seating along the walkways that flank the creek and bands play during summer festivals. Thousands of visitors now enjoy this area's charms year-round.

Located in the Catoctin Mountains, this state park is a haven for outdoor enthusiasts: there's hiking, fishing, and a crystal clear man-made lake for swimming and boating. The showpiece for many is a 78-foot waterfall (hence the name, although some locals call it McAfee Falls)—the largest cascading waterfall in the state. The park also features an aviary, the historic Catoctin Iron Furnace, campgrounds, and activities such as maple syrup making, and a bird and reptile program for kids. Picnic tables and grills are available, and campsites/cabins can be rented from April through October.

The 1,818-acre Deep Creek Lake State Park hugs the eastern shore of the lake and has a public boat launch, small beach with lifeguards (in summer), and picnic and camping sites. The lake's indigo waters are breathtaking—literally. Even in summer the water can be chilly. At the park's Discovery Center are hands-on educational activities for children, a freshwater aquarium, native animals on display, and a small gift shop. The center is also a staging area for organized outdoor activities, including boat tours.

A full-size model of a triceratops skull welcomes you to the Discovery Station and Hagerstown Aviation Museum, the first hands-on science museum in Western Maryland. Set in a former bank building, the museum allows kids to work the controls in the cockpit of a Cessna plane, squeeze through a model of an artery, and dig in sand for dinosaur fossils. Other popular attractions include a National Institutes of Health–sponsored exhibit on the eye and a model of the solar-powered NEAR spacecraft which traveled more than 200 million miles from the sun to explore asteroids.

Of particular interest is the Emmanuel Episcopal Church and Parish Hall. Built in 1849–50 on the site of the former Fort Cumberland, this historic church was a frontier outpost during the French and Indian War. The Gothic Revival church is built of native sandstone and contains three large Tiffany windows.

Along the Potomac River stands Fort Frederick, the only remaining stone fort from the French and Indian War. Built in 1756 and named after Frederick Calvert, the sixth Lord of Baltimore, Fort Frederick's stone walls protected Maryland's frontier settlers. Today, a visitor center displays artifacts from the French and Indian War and several times a year, staff and volunteers dressed in 18th-century period clothing give visitors a taste of life in the Colonial era. The park also offers hiking trails, skiing, boating, and canoeing.

After more than three decades in a previous location, a new Frederick Visitor Center is expected to open in early 2011 near the new I–70 interchange on East Street. The Tourism Council of Frederick County is renovating the circa-1899 industrial warehouse; as of this writing, construction was well underway. In addition to maps, brochures, and displays highlighting regional attractions and amenities, the new center will boast a 2,200-square foot exhibit area, an orientation film about Frederick County, and expanded restroom facilities. Guided 90-minute walking tours will leave from the center on weekends (Saturday at 11 am; Sunday at 1:30 pm), from May through October.

In a log cabin about the size of an ice-cream stand, the man who would become America's first president mapped out strategies during the French and Indian War (1754–63). George Washington's Headquarters, the only remaining structure from Fort Cumberland, was used by the patriot when he was an aide to General Braddock. The 250-year-old cabin contains a simple bed, desk, and fireplace, which can be viewed from outside through large windows. A walking tour that continues along the canal begins here.

Josiah Roberts, the one-time president of the C&O Canal, commissioned this Second Empire–style house on fashionable Washington Street in 1867, a few years after he was released from prison for being an alleged secessionist. The Allegany County Historical Society has its headquarters here today, and costumed guides lead guests through rooms of Victorian furnishings. A courting couch in the parlor has three sitting compartments—the young lady and her caller sat on opposite ends while two chaperones were perched between them. The museum hosts themed teas throughout the year.

In 1739 Jonathan Hager, an adventurous young German immigrant, built a stone home over two springs in a virgin forest. The Hager House and Museum still stands, a testament to Hagertown's founder and early-American life. The thick-walled home includes bedrooms, a sewing room, and a kitchen furnished with pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as a replica of the trading post that Hager operated. Guided tours include the indoor springhouse where the family preserved food and kept cool in summer. Coins, pottery, and buttons excavated from the property are on display, and Colonial-style gardens of fragrant rosemary, lavender, and thyme surround the home.

Dubbed "Hub City" due to its importance to the Western Maryland and Baltimore & Ohio railroads, Hagerstown has a rich railway history. It's been more than a decade since the city demolished the roundhouse (a circular building used for repairing steam locomotives), but the museum preserves several cabooses, locomotives, and trolley cars as well as other railroad artifacts and memorabilia. During the Christmas season the elaborate train gardens are particularly enchanting.

Along the cobblestone streets of the town abolitionist John Brown made famous, costumed interpreters in 19th-century homes and storefronts demonstrate period activities such as candle-dipping. Lectures and special tours are offered on weekends. Several hikes meander through the shady mountains that surround the sprawling park, passing over stone bridges and past the remains of homes and churches. There's plenty of parking at the Cavalier Heights Visitor Center along with the free shuttle buses that depart approximately every 15 minutes.

At the stunning convergence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, the town of Harpers Ferry—just over the border in West Virginia—played a key role in the events leading to the Civil War. This historical park brings to life details of the famous raid led by John Brown, a radical abolitionist. His plan—to take control of the town and commandeer weapons from the arsenal for the fight against slavery—was ultimately foiled and Brown was later tried and hanged. Still, historians cite the incident as the spark that helped ignite the conflict between North and South. The town, at the crossroads of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, has been restored to its appearance during Brown's time, and various exhibits highlight early American life and Civil War history. The breathtaking rivers, shrouded by wooded cliffs, are popular spots for rafting and tubing during the warmer months.

Along the Old National Road out of Cumberland stands the only remaining tollhouse in Maryland. Built in 1836, the historic is a unique, seven-sided, four-room building that housed the gatekeepers who collected tolls until the early 1900s.

Rustic and painted red, rattles when cars roll across. Snap pictures of the bridge, built in 1848 and renovated in the 1990s, then picnic at the adjacent park's tables and let the kids splash in the stream or roam about the playground.

Francis Scott Key—who penned "The Star Spangled Banner"—Barbara Fritchie, and the state's first governor, Thomas Johnson, rest in this cemetery, which dates to the 1850s. Tidy rows of graves (some inscribed to unknown children), pay tribute to Union and Confederate troops who perished in the battles of Antietam and Monocacy.

The critical role that early medicine played in the Civil War is front and center at this museum, believed to be the only one of its kind. Housed in a former funeral home that prepped the bodies of soldiers who died at Antietam, it's said that ghostly footsteps sometimes echo in the night. By day, a soundtrack of moans and groans plays as visitors wander past a life-size tableau of soldiers preparing to amputate a comrade's leg. A Civil War ambulance, hospital tent, and various surgical instruments testify to the advances in technology that the war fostered. The museum also highlights the documented but barely-known role of black Civil War doctors and nurses, and camp life for black soldiers. Finally, letters written by wounded patients illustrate humanity amid the tragedies of war.

Surrounded by shaded walkways and trickling brooks, the National Shrine Grotto of Lourdes is a meditative spot for Catholics and non-Catholics alike, in use since 1805. The grotto itself is a re-creation (from about 1875) of the spot in France where Bernadette Soubirous saw visions of the Virgin Mary. Today it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually who come to pray or ask for healing. Many leave photographs, flowers, or handwritten prayers and take spring water from the grotto. The paved paths are safe for children, the elderly, or disabled.

Located on the campus of Mount St. Mary's College, the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton honors the country's first native-born saint. Born to a wealthy New York family, Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774–1821) was a widow with five children when she converted to Catholicism. Charismatic and tireless, she started the nation's first parochial school and first order of nuns. Today, her legacy lives on at the numerous churches and schools, including Seton Hall University, that bear her name. A small white clapboard house at the shrine is a re-creation of the home where she lived with fellow religious sisters and relatives surrounded by near-total wilderness. St. Elizabeth's body is entombed at the magnificent on-site basilica where masses are held several times a week. Only the Basilica is open on Monday.

In the northern end of Savage River State Forest, this 455-acre park was established by German immigrants in the 19th century. The park contains stands of hemlocks and pines planted in the late 1950s and a 13-acre man-made lake. You can swim, fish, and boat here, although low water levels and a profusion of aquatic plants have made parts of the lake unusable. In winter the park's 8 mi of hiking trails are groomed for cross-country skiing. Picnic shelters, 39 campsites, and 11 rental cabins fully equipped for year-round use are also on-site along with a grand lake house that is suitable for weddings or meetings.

Roddy Road Covered Bridge, built in 1856, is north of Thurmont, just off Route 15. The smallest of the covered bridges, it's surrounded by a cooling canopy of trees on either side and there's a small picnic area where you can have a bite while enjoying the view.

Taney began his law career in Frederick, but is best known as the Chief Supreme Court Justice who wrote the controversial 1857 Dred Scott decision. Taney's opinion, which said that slaves were not citizens and therefore had no Constitutional rights, helped move the country toward Civil War. The brick Federal-style home turned museum offers insight into Taney's life (his wife was the sister of his law partner, Francis Scott Key), middle-class life in the late 1800s, and the slaves he owned. A bust of Taney stands at Frederick's City Hall Plaza, a few feet from a plaque explaining the Dred Scott ruling.

The home of Maryland's first governor, Thomas Johnson, the mansion has been reinvented as a children's museum. Costumed interpreters lead kids through the house and grounds, where they can dress up in period clothing, weave on a loom, and play with reproductions of toys from the 1700s and 1800s. Visitors can also explore a collection of carriages, a log cabin and blacksmith shop, herb gardens, and a smokehouse.

Believed to be the oldest house in Frederick, this unusual stone structure was built in 1756 by German immigrants. Spared from the wrecking ball two decades ago by preservation-minded citizens, the house-turned-museum is considered one of the finest examples of German architecture in Colonial America. The privately owned home is staffed by volunteers; open days and hours vary.