Washington County

Washington County, located in western Maryland, was created from Frederick County by resolve of the Constitutional Convention of 1776. It is bordered on the north by the Mason-Dixon Line and Pennsylvania, the east by Frederick County, the south and southwest by the Potomac River, and the west by Allegany County. The county is named in honor of George Washington.

Appropriately enough, it was Washington County that produced the first monument to George Washington, erected on July 4, 1827 outside of Boonesboro and completed in one day by the townspeople. During the Gettysburg campaigns the monument, which had almost fallen to pieces, was patched with logs and used as a Union signal station. In 1934, ten acres of land, including the monument, were deeded to the State of Maryland, and additional land was subsequently acquired for a state park. A copy of the earlier monument was built of local stone by the Civilian Conservation Corps and rededicated on July 4, 1936.

Hagerstown, the county seat, lies in the fertile valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains at the intersection of two important truck routes, I-81 and I-70. These roads follow respectively the historic north-south pathway through the Cumberland and Shenandoah valleys and the old National Pike, over which pioneers for decades traveled to settle in the country beyond the Appalachians.

The county's rich heritage is a delight for history buffs. Here visitors can roam the Antietam National Battlefield, the site of the bloodiest one day battle of the Civil War; Fort Frederick, erected in 1756 for defense against the French and Indians; or the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, stretching from Georgetown to Cumberland.