Catoctin Mountain Park - Thurmont, MD
Posted by: 
nomadwillie
N 39° 38.021 W 077° 26.998
18S E 289746 N 4389969
Home to Camp David, the park has a deep historic background from making charcoal to WPA and CCC camps it became to be under the NPS in 1936.
Waymark Code: WMJFD1
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 11/11/2013
Views: 23
In the 1930s, after years of making charcoal to fuel nearby iron furnaces, mountain farming, and harvesting of trees for timber, land was purchased 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 transferred to Maryland as Cunningham Falls State Park.
Bills were introduced in the United States Senate in 2003 and 2005 to re-designate the park as Catoctin Mountain National Recreation Area. The bills passed the Senate, but were not taken up by the House, and therefore did not become law.
Originally planned to provide recreational camps for federal employees, one of the camps eventually became the home of the Presidential retreat, Camp David. The Presidential retreat is not open or accessible to the public; however, the eastern hardwood forest of Catoctin Mountain Park does have many other attractions for visitors, some of which include camping, picnicking, fishing, 25 miles (40 km) of hiking trails, and scenic mountain vistas.
Source: (
visit link)