Old Line Trail Crew’s Historic Trails in the Monocacy River Natural Resources Management Area (MNRMA)

Article by Jane Thompson, Photos by Eve Proper

Having grown up wandering this beautiful, historic area with my horse and dog, it was nice to find out PATC now maintains the trail in the Monocacy River Natural Resources Management Area (MNRMA).  At that time, I did not know that the quartz for the Monocacy Aqueduct came from here, nor did I know that there was an iron furnace.  Working on the trails while learning the history of the area has been very enjoyable.

In Frederick County, Md., west of Sugarloaf Mountain along the Monocacy River, the Thomas Johnson family operated a lime kiln and iron furnace in the 1700s until the 1830s.  The furnace was near the Monocacy River where the finished iron was boated to the Urbana area and taken to Baltimore.  After the Revolutionary War, roads were constructed to Urbana.  Remnants of the furnace are visible along the Furnace Branch Trail by the bridge over Furnace Branch.  About one mile away, the lime kiln still stands beside the Dr. Belt Trail.  Both trails were roads at that time.

When the C&O Canal was built in the early 1830s, quartz was needed for the Monocacy aqueduct.  The builders developed a quarry up the hill from the lime kiln.  The quarries are still visible as well as some of the drill marks.  The stone was cut, put onto one of the first railroads in the United States, taken down to the Dr. Belt Trail, then hauled to what is now Maryland Route 28, and taken to the aqueduct. 

The area was flooded by Hurricane Agnes in 1972.  Many places along the Monocacy River were condemned, including Edie’s Bar which sat where the current MNRMA parking lot resides on Maryland Route 28.  In the 1970s, after the Monocacy River was designated a Scenic and Wild River, Maryland State Parks started managing and protecting the 1,800 acres.  For many years horses have been ridden along the old roads.  As well, hunters found game in the renewing forest.

In 2020, the State and PATC came to an agreement for PATC to maintain the trails.  With the roads, most trails were easily defined – though rutted and washed out in many places.  New trails have been built, and more are planned, providing about 7 miles of trails. 

One of the Old Line Trail Crew’s tasks has been relocating trails from their old, muddy, roadbeds.  Portions of the Furnace Branch Trail, which went from the lime kiln to the furnace, are marked to be relocated.  For now, a French drain was put in by Don Habib, Tori Wenig, Jeffrey Clyman, Eve Proper, Seth Miller, Jane Thompson, and Jim Tomlin.  This included digging a ditch, which was not an easy task because there were so many loose rocks, likely put in over the years to maintain the road. 

The group then lined the ditch with geotextile fabric, filled it with rocks, and covered it with more geotextile and the soil that had been dug out.  The French drain is currently working fine.

In another project, the crew relocated the south end of Dr. Belt Trail, which had become sunken and muddy.  This fall the trail was relocated, raked, trimmed, and blazed, and the old section of trail was closed off.  The new trail is being well used.  This was accomplished by  Tori Wenig, Jeffrey Clyman, Eve Proper, Don Habib, Michael Bucci, Ileana Hancu (non-Member), Jane Thompson, and Jim Tomlin. 

New trail maintainers are always welcome.  If you are looking for an interesting place to work on trails, not far from the DC area, come join us!  You can contact Jim Tomlin, jftomlin@gmail.com.  With Sugarloaf Mountain closed more often and less parking available, this is a beautiful place to hike.  Here is a link to the trail map:  https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/Documents/MonocacyNRMA-trailmap.pdf.

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