About

About the C&O Canal Association

The C&O Canal Association is an independent citizens association concerned with the conservation of the natural and historical environment of the C&O Canal and the Potomac River Basin. The Association supports the National Park Service in its efforts to preserve and promote the 184-mile towpath and the open spaces within the C&O Canal NHP. Membership is open to all. Available in pdf format are our bylaws and also a leadership directory that describes the functions of officers, directors, and committee chairs.

Association activities include hikes, bike and canoe trips, a level walkers program and special projects to support park activities.

The C&O Canal Association sponsors a spring and fall hike, a continuing hike series on various Saturday and Sunday mornings throughout the year, bike trips on the towpath and canoe trips on the Potomac River.

An active Level Walkers Program is made up of volunteers who, on a regular basis, walk assigned sections of the towpath to publicize the Canal and the Association, collect trash, if needed, and provide written reports to the NPS on the physical condition of the towpath.

You can read about our archives, which are maintained as part of the Special Collections of the Gellman Library at George Washington University.

Since 2002, the Association has offered a collectible series of laminated Towpath Pins pins that show a different canal scene each year. The pins are available at Park Visitor Centers and at Association events. All Towpath Pin donations go directly to the Park.

About the C&O Canal

Before it was a national park, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was one of a network of American canals dug during the late 18th and early 19th centuries to form water highways for commercial trade. These Canals were part of the great Industrial Revolution.

This plaque at Monocacy Aqueduct commemorates the canal's landmark status, as designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers

The C&O Canal paralleled the mighty but unnavigable Potomac River and linked Cumberland, Maryland with the nation's capital, using an orderly system of locks to permit heavily laden coal boats to pass to successively lower levels from the mountains to tidewater. The mule teams that pulled the boats along the canal walked on the towpath, guided by the families of the boat captains.

Just as the C&O ran beside the Potomac, the railroad ran beside the C&O Canal and soon made boat traffic an outmoded system when compared to the speed of rail transport.

The C&O and other American canals could not compete and fell into commercial disuse in the early 20th century. The towpath was then used only by woodsmen and hikers; occasional storms and floods washed away parts of the banks and structures and trees grew in what was the canal bed

About the C&O Canal National Historical Park

Since the canal was no longer commercially useful, there were plans in the 1950's to bulldoze it and pave a super-highway into Maryland's mountains.

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas was one of the few people at the time who realized the historical, cultural, geological and botanical significance of the C&O. He challenged opinion-shapers of his day to walk the length of the 184 mile C&O with him and decide for themselves if it should be destroyed.

They took the walk in 1954 and then joined him in the effort to save the canal. That effort resulted in the formation of the C&O Canal Association, and, 17 years later, in the passage of legislation that created the C&O Canal National Historic Park, now one of the major areas in the National Park System. In the mid 1970's, the canal and towpath were dedicated to Justice Douglas to honor him for his singular contribution to the nation's park system.

The C&O Canal Association continues today with its mission of protecting, preserving and promoting the assets of the C&O Canal Historic Park.