The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-11-28
INDIAN HEAD.
J-mes D. Deshong, Former Teacher OF
This County, Gives Much Information
OF Very Interesting Place.
WHERE WAR MUNITIONS ARE TESTED.

On The Maryland side of the
Potomac, out Of gun rar ge and
out of the earshJt of Washington
ia the midst Of a couItry whose
exceeding natural ruggedness
has been aggravated by the de
spelling agencies of man, is locat
ed the headquarters and scene
Of action of one of the most de
structive forces on earth. I'm
told fortunes IN materials and
workmanship are swept out ol
existence here like flash IN Q
pan. The product of years OF
mans best thought aud his most
ingenious devices are ground IN
to shapeless, worthless frag
ments in the tw milling of an eye.
Surrounding forest, once promls
ing to redeem the wilderness IN
a measure from its uPllness, is
stripped of Its nob!est sentinels,
while those that remain standing
are barked and distorted and
riddled and split. "The rock
ribbed hills" have been torn and
lacerated, and gaping, cayernous
holes have been pounded into the
cliffs
The visitor who, through good
fortune al d the graces of the
powers, has been blessed with an
opportunity TO run down to In
dii Head from Washington on a
Government boat, lands on a mar.
row wharf at the foot of broad
vale, which stretches great way
back from the water. High, rug
ged cliffs overlook the Petomac at
this point and fall abruptly to a
narrow, sandy shore. The vale
stretches back between the
hanaing hills for nearly a mile
before it narrows into jungle
like ravine, and farther on is en-
tlrely encompassed and finally
completely obliterated by the
highlands, the edge of a vast
plateau which leads to the to
bacco plantations of Southern
Maryland.
Near the wharf are heaps of
anchors and chain and other
MARITIME essentials, whose order.
hness compares favorably with
things oflike character elsewhere.
But a few yards away begins the
scene of apparent confusion.
Battered tImbers, which were
evidently not long since part OF
substantially built barriers OF
some kind; huge steel fragments,
indented, cracked, split and
burst asunder IN every concelv-
able fashion and form; hattened
spheres and cones and cylinders
of the hardest metals; spllntered
boards, planks, rails, all are
s rswn about promlscuously save
here and there, where they have
been gathered in piles as they ac'
cumulated too thickly to permit
an uhlnterrul ted continuance oi
the process of destruction. In
places the earth Is furrowed
walstdeep. The hills are hollow
ed and trees that sought to grace
their heights have been rudely
shorn of branch and bough. One
wonders how in the midst of the
merciless frenzies which have
wrought this work the little
shanties at the side of the ravlne
have been spared; how certain
delicate, mysterious frames
standing in the center of the
confusion have escaped; how
himself has survived.
THE GUN PROVING GROUND.
Withal, this seeming madness
represents the acme of method
and of precision. This destruc
tion has been officially and scien
t;tically done, and constitutes one
OF the most necessary factors IL
! the realization of the United
States Governments dream of be
coming the greatest OF world
powers. The engines of ruir
are the big steel guns singly ant
10 battery at either side of ths
lowland. Here at Indian Head Ii
their place of trial and of triumph
Just as surely as viii be those
vesst ID upon whose decks the,
will of, 1..xs~,, ., 81. :