Volunteering to help the park: A work crew installs a bench near Great Falls in 2016.
Supporting park projects: Catoctin Aqueduct after collapse in 1973
Supporting park projects: Catoctin Aqueduct after restoration effort in 2011
Exploring history and nature: Sideling Hill Creek Aqueduct as viewed from the Western Maryland Rail Trail.
Protecting the canal since 1954: The association opposes Georgetown University’s plan to build a large boathouse in the park
Protecting the canal since 1954: The association opposes Georgetown University’s plan to build a large boathouse in the park
Exploring history and nature: Hikers gather at Fifteen Mile Creek Aqueduct in 2018.
Protecting the canal since 1954: Justice Douglas and eight others pause during their famous hike, which publicized the canal in 1954
Exploring history and nature: Ranger provides interpretation for hikers at Seneca Stone Cutting Mill in 2020.
Exploring history and nature: Hikers marvel at a large specimen during a tree identification walk in 2012
Volunteering to help the park: Association volunteer attaches plaque to newly installed bench in 2018.
Exploring history and nature: Association members participate in the last day of the 2009 Thru Hike at Great Falls
Volunteering to help the park: Association member helps install an identification sign at Landers in 2011
Exploring history and nature: Hikers gather at Dam 5 in 2019.
Protecting the canal since 1954: Justice Douglas and others rally against replacing the canal with a highway.
Volunteering to help the park: Association members repaint picnic tables at Swains Lock
Volunteering to help the park: Association volunteers assemble picnic table in 2018.
YesPAW PAW TUNNEL: WOULD YOU WALK HALF A MILE INTO THE DARK?
There's a place in western Maryland where you can walk nearly three-fifths of a mile into a mountain without a single light overhead.
No windows. No emergency exits along the way. Just a narrow wooden walkway, black canal water, and a tunnel that seems to swallow every sound.
And according to local legend, you might not be alone.
This is the Paw Paw Tunnel, hidden along the C&O Canal in Allegany County.
Its entrance looks like something from another century because it is.
Construction began in 1836, when engineers decided to carve a 3,118-foot passage through Sorrel Ridge rather than follow six winding miles of the Potomac River.
They expected to finish in two years.
It took fourteen.
The mountain's unstable rock repeatedly collapsed. Workers endured brutal conditions, delayed wages, and bitter rivalries.
In 1838, tensions erupted into violent riots. Work camps were attacked, buildings destroyed, and construction eventually stopped for years.
When the tunnel finally opened in 1850, the trouble wasn't over.
The passage was so narrow that canal boats couldn't pass one another. Boatmen sometimes refused to back out, leading to confrontations inside the mountain.
On at least one occasion, a fire was reportedly started to smoke out boatmen who refused to yield.
Then there are the stories that have followed the tunnel ever since.
One local legend tells of a lockkeeper found dead after a nearby lockhouse burned. Some believe his spirit still wanders the passage.
Others have described strange shadows and whispers seemingly coming from the darkness.
There is no verified evidence of a haunting. But the violent labor disputes, the fire, and the tunnel's difficult history are real.
Today, the Paw Paw Tunnel remains open to visitors, and the National Park Service advises everyone to bring a flashlight.
Deep inside, the brick walls are damp. The ceiling disappears into darkness. Your footsteps echo back at you.
And somewhere ahead, a tiny patch of daylight marks the way out.
It's one thing to look at the entrance.
It's another to keep walking after the light behind you begins to disappear.
Have you ever walked through the Paw Paw Tunnel? Did anything happen that made you turn around?
#PawPawTunnel #MarylandHauntings #COCanal #MarylandHistory #HauntedMaryland
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