Evening star., 1951-05-07
By GEORGE Kennedy


1t is amazing that there are
people in Washington who do not
know about Sugar Loaf Mountain.
Only So miles from Washington,
to the left of the road to Fred
Ierick, Md, Sugar Loaf rises like a
Gibraltar from the meadows rich
with corn" \
That in itself should be enough
to identify it. But Sugar Loaf isl
more than lost mountain strayed
from the range, more than the
elevation nearest the Capital. I'll
is a mountain dedicated by it's
owner to gratifying the public S
love of beauty.
The vistas from the Skyline
Drive are limited ones compared
with those from Sugar Loaf Wheret
one can look across the Marylandl
plain almost to Washington and
Baltimore, across the Potomac into
Virginia and north into Pennsyl-
vania.
More .and more Washingtonians
have learned about Sugar Loaf
and have experienced it's scenery.
Gordon Strong, the Chicogoan
who has made the conversion of
the mountain into a park the
activity of his late years,
has had careful count kept of
weekend visitors since 1880. He
has it charted like 80 leading
on the New York Stock
Exchange" showing the increase
until the war and the drop due to
gasoline rationing. BY 1912 the
number had risen to $4,000. Last
year it was up to $4,000 and with
April attendance up 1000, it
seems that Sugar Loaf will have
more than $4,000 visitors this
year.
Passed 80th Anniversary.
Mr.. Strong, who has passed 80,
is busy this spring supervising the
extension of the macadam road
to an east view. The four present.
outlookS from the road are to the
south and west. He has set upI
Stronghold as a trust to carry on
its development.
From the east view it is con-
ceivable that on a clear day with
a good telescope one could see the
skyscrapers of Baltimore, 40 miles i
away.
The road to the east view is not
yet paved-it is pretty much the
same as when it was gouged out
by bulldozer.
That bulldozer," Mr.. Strong
said admiringly while being driven
over the unfinished road. 1T
takes us two years to complete
the work the bulldozer does in two
weeks. See the way it tossed
boulders and trees to each side"
Sunrise Service Possibility.
He thinks his new east view
would be a splendid place for
Easter sunrise services.
In time the road will be extend
ed around the north end of the I
encircling the peak |
just below the summit, 1921 feet
above sea level. That will make
8 to 9 miles of smooth, safe
road, wide enough at
all points for two cars to pass,
constructed entirely out of his
own pocket. :
The mountain rises from
farming country in which many
OF the older houses are excellent
examples of the PENNSYLVANIA |.
Dutch and Maryland examples. /
Many of the farms are splendidly
equipped dairy establishments and
the CLEAN of the metal roofs of
their large barns bounces the suns
rays back to the mountain. Many
OF the towns about are fascinat-
ing clusters Of old houses, espe-
clally BuckeystoWn, north of the
Dickerson and Barnes
Vile are south of the mountain:
Comus to the east and Urbana to
the northeast.
This Gordon Strong is an in
teresting man. We met him at his
invitation in his big white house, a
few hundred feet up the noun
tain.
AS you approach Stronghold
you become aware that you are
going to see something unusual.
The concrete road skirting the
widens into a large
square, about which Mr.. Strong
has constructed shops and farm
buildings and white picket fences
to suggest an English village. On
one side is a willow pond, which
he constructed, but which looks
convincingly natural with it's will
lows weeping into the water, it's
white birches and a flock of white
ducks padding about it's CLASSY
surface.
On the way up, on the right,