Morgan's Grove Park
Turnings From An Historic Community Treasure
Representative Gallery
About Morgan's Grove Park
Just a half mile outside of Shepherdstown, the land occupied by Morgan's Grove Park, named for nearby Morgan's Spring, gained fame in 1775 when General George Washington issued a call for the Virginia Volunteer Riflemen to join him in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Under the command of Captain Hugh Stephenson, the troops departed on July 16, 1775, from Shepherdstown, after spending time on the land—on the famous Beeline March to Cambridge, covering 600 miles in 24 days. The Beeline March was commemorated on September 17, 1988,by Army Secretary John O. Marsh, Jr., along with the 249th Army Band and elements of the 3rd U.S. Infantry, and in 1999, the site was entered into the National Register of Historic Places. Thirty-eight Revolutionary War veterans are buried in the surrounding area. The Spring House pictured below is the only remaining structure from Fountain Rock, Alexander Boteler's family mansion destroyed by Union forces in 1864. The Spring is the primary source for Town Run, that runs in and beneath Shepherdstown to the Potomac River. Once the site of massive fairs that attracted visitors from far and wide, Morgan's Grove today is a blissful 25 acre park with trails, soccer fields, a pavilion, and a playground.
Note: this series is made possible by the generosity of the Shepherdstown Community Club, which owns Morgan's Grove Park. See the Club's website for information about using and supporting this historic and natural treasure. |
2018: A Very Old Sugar Maple Loses A Major Limb In An August Thunderstorm
Morgan's Grove Park is graced with hundreds of mature specimens of eastern hardwoods, some of which qualify as ancient. Using standard tree age estimating formulas, the Sugar Maple pictured below (acer sacchurum, the West Virginia State Tree) could easily be up to 238 years old, meaning it could have been a little sapling in 1780, missing the famous "Bee Line" March by a scant five years, but otherwise having sprung to life during the Revolution. The harvesting situation was unusual for me; I generally do my own cutting (and often whatever else I can to aid cleanup) but in this case the log was "bucked" and the pieces were just sitting there, waiting to be loaded onto my truck.
2019: A Black Maple falls by the Railroad Crossing
Using standard age calculating formulas this Black Maple, which stood at the entrance to the lower parking lot by the train crossing until a windstorm blew it over in Spring, 2019, was likely about the same age as its close cousin, the Sugar Maple pictured above, when it fell, that being arounf 240 years old give or take.
Summer, 2020 - Down Comes A Majestic Chestnut Oak
My friends at Viking Tree handled the removal of this damaged and unsafe monster, which based on its size and using standard tree aging formulae was easily more than two centuries old. Morgan's Grove Park is rich with such specimens, and thankfully the stewards of this history-rich natural landscape are determined to preserve its natural beauty such that future generations may enjoy them. In the meantime, it's my privilege to be able to create keepsakes from the wood of such significant witnesses to local history.