Cumberland, MD

Cumberland, officially the City of Cumberland, is a western gateway city and seat of Allegany County, Maryland, United States and the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,859, and the metropolitan area had a population of 103,299. Cumberland is a regional business and commercial center for Western Maryland and the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. Cumberland is commonly referred to as “Where The South Begins,” as official United States Census Bureau records place it below the Mason Dixon line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland,_Maryland

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Paw Paw, West Virginia

Paw Paw really is a one-horse town. 451 people population, there is a Dollar General, a Post Office, Big and Tiny's Tavern and Mountain Life Italian Pizza Shop. But that's it.

Farm Country Near Paw Paw

A view along the bike path connector from the C&O Trail near Paw Paw Tunnel to the village of Paw Paw on the other side of the Potomac River back in West Virigina.

Saturday October 28, 2023 — C&O Canal Towpath

Cumberland and Allegany Grove, Maryland

Cumberland is a city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland, United States. It is the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,859, and the metropolitan area had a population of 103,299. Located on the Potomac River, Cumberland is a regional business and commercial center for Western Maryland and the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia.

Historically Cumberland was known as the "Queen City", as it was once the second largest in the state. Because of its strategic location on what became known as the Cumberland Road through the Appalachians, after the American Revolution it served as a historical outfitting and staging point for westward emigrant trail migrations throughout the first half of the 1800s. In this role, it supported the settlement of the Ohio Country and the lands in that latitude of the Louisiana Purchase. It also became an industrial center, served by major roads, railroads, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which connected Cumberland to Washington, D.C. and is now a national historical park. Today, Interstate 68 bisects the town.

The industry declined after World War II, which led much of the later urban, business and technological development in the state has been concentrated in eastern coastal cities. Today the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area is one of the poorest in the United States, ranking 305th out of 318 metropolitan areas in per capita income

The C&O Canal Trail history is older then I thought.

I thought it was Robert Kennedy’s 50 mile hike in February 1963 that kicked off it’s preservation, but actually it’s a quarter century older then that with the intention to become a park.

It was President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration that purchased the it from the B&O Railroad in 1938 with the intention of turning it into a park. The World War got in the way, and it was stuck on a back burner to becoming an official National Park, until on Dwight Eisenhower’s last day in the White House in 1961 he designated it National Historic Landmark.

In February 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and several other Kennedy staffers on the President John F. Kennedy’s challenge did a 50 mile hike on trail. But it was still just a National Historic Landmark until 1971 upon the lobbying of then former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas it was upgraded to a National Park.

Now, the entire Canal is well signed and a excellent gravel bike path from Washington DC to Cumberland MD.

A fairly extensive history on the creation of the C&O Canal National Park.