If you have ever enjoyed the C&O Canal, you should thank Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. After the C&O Canal ceased commercial operations in 1924, the US Government acquired the right of way to all 184.5 miles of the Canal in 1938. The first 22 miles of the Canal were repaired and restored before the project was halted by World War II. After the war, Congress appropriated money for a study on the feasibility of using the canal as a vehicle parkway.
When the Washington Post published an editorial in January 1954, supporting the parkway scheme, avid outdoorsman, Supreme Court Justice, William O. Douglas responded with an invitation for the editors to join him on a 184.5-mile hike of the canal.
By the time the group began their hike in Cumberland, the group had grown to 58 men, including the presidents of the Wilderness Society and the National Parks Association and experts on geology, geography, ecology, history, ornithology, and mammalogy who each gave nightly lectures. Averaging 23 miles a day and attracting nationwide newspaper interest, Time Magazine, and newsreels, 9 men including the 55-year-old Douglas completed the hike despite a driving snowstorm on the 2nd day.
On the last night of the hike, the justice organized a committee which would later become the C&O Canal Association in 1957. He served as its chairman. The committee would make recommendations and draft plans for preserving and protecting the canal resources, working toward creating an expanded canal park. Years of effort to preserve, restore, and develop this remarkable strip of land culminated with the passage of The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Act on January 8, 1971. As a high school sophomore and Eagle Scout, Jon Wolz, the Douglas Hike leader, testified at the 1970 subcommittee hearings on the bill preserving the canal.
William O. Douglas proved that one man can help make a difference. In 1977 the park was officially dedicated to Douglas, as the man who saved the canal. Each year, the C&O Canal Association holds the Douglas canal hike in his honor. Late in life, someone asked the justice how he would like to be remembered. Although he was involved in many landmark legal decisions while serving on the Supreme Court, he replied, "as someone who tried to make the earth a little more beautiful."
Jon Wolz and the C&O Canal Association will celebrate the 72nd Anniversary Douglas Hike and Dinner on Saturday, April 25 starting at 11:00 a.m. Registration is required and the $25 fee covers the cost of the bus that will take to your hike start point, a wagon tour of Calleva Farm, and a Farm to Table Dinner hosted by Calleva Farm.
Hike participants should meet at the Calleva Farm barn at 11:00 a.m. to be bussed to the start of either the long hike (5.93 miles) from Noland's Ferry, or a shorter hike (3.52 miles) from Monocacy Aqueduct. There will be a Calleva Farm Program, a Social Hour, and a catered Calleva Farm-to-Table dinner.
Location: Calleva Farm, 19120 Martinsburg Rd., Dickerson, MD, 20842
Schedule:
11:00 a.m. Long and short hikers board the bus at Calleva Farm (reserve bus below)
1:00-3:00 p.m. Program: Wagon tours of farm, White's Ford Fort, and other scenic points overlooking the canal and the river. Games, including corn hole, horseshoes, and others.
3:00-4:00 p.m. Social hour. Soft drinks and snacks provided with a paid dinner reservation.
(Note: no alcohol is allowed on the farm)
4:00 p.m. Catered dinner prepared by the farm's chef. The menu will be available closer to the event and be communicated by email and on the Association's website.
Cost: $25 per person for happy hour and dinner. Reservations and advance payment are required for the Douglas Hike and Dinner and must be received by Friday, April 10.
You can also make your reservations and payment online at www.candocanal.org/calendar.html