From our home-base in Luray, Virginia we drove for just over an hour to get to Harpers Ferry National Historic Park in West Virginia. Harpers Ferry is an original historic town situated at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, where the states of Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia meet.
The town had a varied background. We were surprised at how much we learned. One important incident in American history that happened at the site was the Raid of John Brown. He was an abolitionist who took a personal stand against slavery, by capturing the Harpers Ferry arsenal in 1859. Although his raid ended in failure, and indeed John Brown was executed for treason, his actions got people thinking, and just over a year later the Civil War began. Harpers Ferry was also the home of the famous Storer College which was a school open to all races. There was a lot of early industry in the town, and it had a wonderful system of canals to help power the factories. The town had a Civil War background, as a Union supply base. We realized that Harpers Ferry had wetlands surrounding it, but it has also gone through numerous major floods. It is a town that just keeps coming back, and was an extremely interesting location for us to visit.
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