Join Jon Wolz for a Point of Rocks Pop Up Walk at 10:00 am on Tuesday August 22nd at the Point of Rocks Boat ramp parking lot off Commerce St. at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (mile 48.20). Our group will walk up the towpath passing beneath the Route 15 bridge, the Point of Rocks railroad tunnel, and train tracks to Lockhouse 28 (mile 48.93). Then we will continue walking up the towpath passing the Catoctin Railroad tunnel (mile 49.99 to mile 50.11) before turning back to the parking lot. Afterwards, we will head to the Point of Rocks Creamery for ice cream and camaraderie. Round trip walk is almost four miles.
Completed in 1837, Lockhouse 28 stands as a reminder of the fierce competition between the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in the race to reach the Ohio River Valley. At Point of Rocks the land between the Potomac River and the rocky outcropping becomes precariously narrow. Both companies knew ownership of this strip of land was imperative to winning the race to the Ohio. Adversaries in the courts for four years, the Canal company won the battle, but the Maryland General Assembly ruled that the C&O Canal must share the right of way with the railroad as far as Harpers Ferry. The C&O Canal was allowed to build next to the river, and the B&O Railroad was forced to carve its way through the hillside just above the canal in the form of this tunnel.
Jon Wolz, our local expert on the C&O Canal and leader of our “pop-up” walks, has a long history with the canal. As a Montgomery Blair High School sophomore and Eagle Scout, he had already hiked the entire canal. In 1970, Jon was the Boy Scout chosen to testify before a Senate subcommittee on behalf of the bill to protect the C&O Canal as a National Historical Park. Maryland Congressmen Gilbert Gude and J. Glenn Beall sponsored the bill.
Since 2015 Jon has volunteered as a level walker with the C&O Canal Association (COCA). His two levels encompass the area from White’s Ferry to Monocacy Aqueduct.