The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1905-10-19
THE POTOMAC RIVER.


Born midst gorgeous hills, this
historic river wanders forth in leaping
rills down bosky glens, winding
through dense forests and past sunny
breas strewn with fragrant flowers.
Forging it's way through betting
cliffs, forming as it goes silver-tipped
rapids and magnificent cascades, it
sweeps past Harpers Ferry, renowned
for its lovely scenery and filled with
memories of the Civil War.
The river takes its name from the
Indian tribe Pa-tawo-mekes, who
made it's forests and its hills their
home. Who launched their light
canoes upon it's lonely bosom, and
piled the chase with stealthy steps
along its hills and glens; who lay in
wait with ears acute, to catch the first
splash of their enemies approach.
They have vanished like the morning
dew; they bend no more the deadly
bow. They've journeyed Westward
to the spirit land, but still the stream
like a molten sunbeam gives back
with it's bright reflection, the glory oil
the sun.
If your ear is properly attuned you
will hear it singing their requiem on
moonlight night in summer, low
down in little boat or modern canoe,
for the water of the Potomac above
Georgetown is an ideal place for
canoest, and where a few years age
one or two might have been seen OF
an evening now they can be counted
by the hundreds.
For awhile the canOest is satisfied
to paddle along a few miles up the
river to where the water becomes too
shallow for even these small crafts.
Then as he feels the muscle hardening
and gains confidence in the skill with
which he can manage his little vessel,
he becomes filled with the old in
herited desire to explore, to seek new
scenes of beauty by venturing further
up stream. This he is able to do by
the assistance of the canal.
To make the journey from George
town to Harpers Ferry by river and
canal requires only about a week,
giving the canoest plenty of time to
loaf along the route and enjoy nature.
The cost of the trip through the canal
is about $500 per canoe. By following
the canal-about the beauty of which
1 have told you-one avoids the
dangerous part of the river, the rapids
and Great Falls.
For the first two miles the course is
on the river, then they usually go as
far as Seneca, Md, by way of the
canal. The features of this place are
the big dam across the river, which
feeds the canal here, and the red stone
aqueduct on which the canal crosses
the Seneca creek, small stream
Manageable to canoe for nearly a
mile. Then for the next twenty miles
the river, beautiful and attractive
every inch of those twenty miles. 1t
is filled with large islands, many of
them under cultivation. You paddle
along charming little channels
running under overhanging trees and
trailing vines. This part of the river
is bordered by beautiful rolling hills,
the sites of the famous farms Of
Loudown County, Va, and Mont
gomery County, Md.
In the last three miles the canoe
shoots out on clear stretch of water,
and when the canoest rounds wide
curve he catches glimpse of Sugar
Loaf Mountain and reaches the
Monocacy river, suggesting memories
of battle fields. From the mouth of
the Monocacy it is eleven miles to
Harpers Ferry, but the river is not
navigable here and it is necessary to
again take to the canal.
While the beauty of the upper
Potomac is known only to few, the
trip down the river is made daily by
a number of steamers and hundreds
of hot, tired Washingtonians take
advantage of these delightful little