Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-02-17


side from an alien enemy's dynamite
and its upper structure a tumbled
ruin from storm and lightning.
No monument was ever erected
with purer or more reverent patriot
ism and none has been more shame
fully neglected by the country which
owes so much to the man it memori-
allies. Rattlesnakes, buzzards. bob
eats and bandits have made 1t and
the rocks below 1t their refuge
An effort to have the government
restore and keep it forever a public
reservation will be made this week
in Congress by Representative Fred
\. Zihlman, In whose Maryland dis
trict 1T stands. Many of his COL
leagues assure their support.
The monument, which now resem-
HES a prehistoric cairn, was once
conical tower of native granite, fifty
four feet round the base and thirty
high. \ winding stairway led to a
lookout platform on top.
1t rises above Blue Rock tract
overlooking the old National High
way which Braddock tooIi on his ILL
fated expedition and ths scene of
those early adventures (which at
fracted attention to Washington as
the future leader of his country.
Midway between Hagesstown and
Frederick, is is about siXtI-five miles
from Washington. A county road
cutting to the right from! the high
way at Zittlestown, a hamlet just
this side of Boonsboro. leads to it,
The last half mile is overssrown with
briar bushes and must be alade afoot.
Boonsboro citizens, many of whom
fought in the revolution, turned out
en- masse in 1927 to erect the struc-
1ure. completing and Defeating il
July of that year, just twenty-five
years after the great generals death.
They could have chose,f no better
site for their project. 1t is on the
summit ridge of the mountain, on
the highest knob. 1900 feet above the
town. All travellers passed on the
highway below, which itself was
fathered by Washington and was the
only road west and north through
the mountains.
1t is the main route today and
thousands go by not knowing what
the old ruin on the hilltop is.
EROM the monument may be seen
the distant hills of Pennsylvania
and West Virginia, the 1heandering
Potomac. Harpers Ferry, the scene
of Sheridan's famous ride: Antietam,
Getty burg and other batFlefields OF
the c. 1 war.
In ii valley below is tile national
cemetery at Sharpsburg, where the
obelisks of the dead stand in serried
ond great struggle for ths nations
existence. The monument Itself has
been singularly connected with the
history, tradition and superstition of
the country.
John Brown used it as a rendeZ-
vous and at the little inn just below,
now part of the Dahlgren estate. he
paid his confederates in gold. Dur
ing the civil war the tower was a
lookout in the battle of South noun
tain.
Grover Bergdoll. arch Stacker. is |
thought to have hidden god some |
where in the neighborhood, before his |
escape to Germany during the last !
war.
No part of America is more prolific |
or picturesque in its folk Lore and |
none more under the spell OF super {
stition.
Mountaineers tell many we.rd tales |
OF the neiGhborhood.
1t was there. tradition says. |
Union deserter was concealed after |
the battle of Antietam by his sweet
heart of Zittlestown. One night, the |
anniversary of the fight from which
he fled, both girl and soldier disap- |
peared. 1t was thought ghosts of the [
mans fallen comrades had buried !.
them under the blue rocks.
On each anniversary of the battle |,
those ghosts are supposed to fight |
again. while the girl means and |
cries. The superstitious swear they've |
seen the grim array OF north against |
south along the mountainside and I
over the valley fields. They fire. !
Quently point to the grasses and grain |
in the morning. swept low by the !
wind the night before, as proof that |
armies have passed by. At an eerie |
shrek from the girl, they say the |
hosts retire and are swallowed up |
among the rocks at the base of the |
monument.
The Blue Rock tract is indeed some |
thing to conjure up the supernatural. |
1t is six acres or more of granite,
cut into oblongs and squares as
though by quarreymen. No vegeta-
ton has ever pierced its depths and /,
lfchen alone Of all plant life clings |
\ sparscfy to the stones.
x :: X
NONE on the mountain can explain |
the curious formation, but the |
story goes that spirits chose it as
their place of exit and entrance to |
their other world. Few are brave
enough 10 visit there after shutdown |
j. Hubert Smith owns the land ad-
joining. 1t came to him from
Michael little, whose surviving
daughter has given the tract where |
the monument stands to the Society |
for the Protection and Rebuilding of
the First Washington Monument,
formed in 1907, with Harvey S. Bonn i
berger, state senator, president.
The original dedication stone bro
ken by the dynamiting is in Smiths !
possession. |
He knows all the lore OF the noun |
tain. Some folks claim, he said, /!
they're seeing the black dog again, |
an omen of evil, which hasn't been
active for ten years. IT'S phantom
Of huge proportion which stalks along
the roadside or jumps from peak to
peak in the hills.
Few admit having met him, but
all know those who have.
The beast Is oftenest seen at q |
spring at Zittlestown on William II. |