Shepherdstown/
Harpers Ferry
'Worth the Voyage'

By Nancy and Richard Woodworth

The view of the convergence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers near here is “one of the most stupendous scenes in nature – worth a voyage across the Atlantic.”

So said Thomas Jefferson back in 1783. The view of Harpers Ferry continues to astound travelers, especially those emerging from the Baltimore-Washington megalopolis and suddenly confronting a different vista: one of rivers slicing between mountains, endless greenery and a rugged aspect all around.

Harpers Ferry, a boomtown that died after the Civil War, remains much the way it was during the days of John Brown's infamous raid. An old, hilly, European-looking town that never ceases to amaze, it's the start and the heart of this area known locally as West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

Beyond lies busy Charles Town, the Jefferson County seat where John Brown was tried and hanged. Young surveyor George Washington purchased his first land and settled members of his family here in 1748. More Washingtons lived here and more are buried in the Zion Episcopal Church graveyard here than anywhere in the country. Today, it's also distinguished by more traffic lights per capita than any small town we know of.

Make a triangle – that's the route the roads seem to take – from Harpers Ferry to Charles Town around to Shepherdstown, West Virginia's oldest town. It's across the Potomac from Sharpsburg, Md., and the bloody Antietam National Battlefield (see Frederick chapter). A quaint college town, Shepherdstown has retained the charm that bustling Charles Town seems to have lost.

This area is paradise for mountain climbers, hikers along the old Chesapeake & Ohio Canal towpath, Civil War buffs and the rest of us. Country inns and B&Bs arrived here late (about 1985), but seem to be making up for lost time. Zoning limits their presence in most of Harpers Ferry, the soul of the area.

The National Park Service has restored Harpers Ferry's lower town, which serves as a national model of historic preservation and draws more than a million visitors annually. Despite all the people, the view and the surroundings are just as Thomas Jefferson said they were.

Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places / Mid-Atlantic, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2003.

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