The historic Harpers Ferry is the most
visited tourist town in West Virginia, welcoming thousands of
travellers each year. Located at the junction of the Potomac and
Shenandoah Rivers, the town is named after the ferry that landowner
Robert Harper established across the Potomac Rover in 1761. The
ferry became the marker of the starting point for settlers
traversing the Shenandoah Valley and western United States.
Harpers Ferry is best known for
abolitionist John Brown's raid on the Armory in 1859, when he
started a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans at a
time when assisting fugitive slaves was illegal. He was eventually
tried for treason against the state of Virginia, as well as the
murder of five proslavery Southerners, and was hanged.
During the early 1900s, Harpers Ferry was a
fashionable weekend getaway destination for high society who came
by train from Washington D.C. and Baltimore. Socialites enjoyed
lazy days bowling, picnicking and relaxing in the scenic country
town, while lovers frequently eloped here to be married at the
Ferry by the toll-taker, who happened to be a retired parson.
Newlyweds traditionally enjoyed their first few days of matrimony
in the Hilltop House Hotel, where famous guests such as Mark Twain,
Carl Sandburg and Alexander Graham Bell stayed. But after the
depression, the tourist trade in Harpers Ferry faded and by 1944
most of the town became part of the National Park Service.
Today, Harper's Ferry is an outdoor
enthusiast's paradise famed for its national park, which makes up
the southern portion of the town, and marks the start or end of
many travellers' hikes on the Appalachian Trail, one of the most
famous hiking trails in the world. Enjoy the dramatic scenery while
white-water rafting, canoeing or inner-tubing along the rivers in
the Harpers Ferry National Park. Travellers can also hook a
smallmouth bass on a fly on the Potomac or Shenandoah River, or
even trout while fishing in the streams of the nearby George
Washington National Forest.