Time Traveler Mike Marotte III takes us back to the heyday of the Pen Mar Park where the horse-drawn trolley car that the Buena Vista Spring Hotel used to transport guests. This luxurious hotel was built in 1890 and could accommodate up to 500 guests. A special service offered by the...

Years ago, farmers looked to the moon before they did anything else. They believed that in the dark of the moon (i.e. waning), they could cut rail fences so they would stay straighter, set fence posts to resist rot, and castrate and dehorn animals for less bleeding. On the flip side, when the moon was...

The end of the calendar year is drawing near, and we know that means the holiday season is upon us. Historically, Thanksgiving and Christmas are a time to be thankful, rejoice with our families, and help...

Embedded in the lyrics of “Don’t Blink” (a song recorded by country music superstar Kenny Chesney and written about an interview with a 102-year-old man on the evening news) is the line, “Trust me friend, a hundred years goes faster than you think, so...

We know history runs deep in  Washington County, but it runs much deeper than what happened on the Antietam battlefield on Sept. 17, 1862. Decades before the Civil War, Clear Spring, now a small town of fewer than 400 people, was a thriving community, serving as a...

Mystery and romance novelist Nora Roberts saved the historic building at the intersection of Alt. Route 40 and St. Paul Street, rebuilding it from the ashes of a fire and turning it into an elegant bed and breakfast called Inn BoonsBoro. Each room is named…

By 1923 much of the town of Smithsburg had been built, and now, a century later, not much has changed. Pleasantly, Smithsburg retains its 19th-century charm and the town center is largely unencumbered by modern development. The town boundaries have been pushed out to accommodate some housing developments over the years and that has brought the population to…

KIX guitarist Brian Forsythe was sitting in a jail cell thinking about how it could all go so wrong. “I had visions of being on an arena stage, and here I was,” says Forsythe, who had been arrested on drug charges. “I couldn’t believe that my life had changed so much.”

For decades, staff and many visitors at Antietam National Battlefield knew too well about the notorious support column that stood inside the front entrance of the park’s visitor center. The pole’s awkward placement, in the middle of a busy lobby, was more than an eyesore.

Franklin D. Roosevelt became President in 1933, and immediately sent to Congress an ambitious legislative package designed to get the country back on its feet. In FDR’s program was the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a public works program, which put otherwise unemployed young men…

Lou Scally is described by listeners and viewers as Mr. Hagerstown and the man you can trust. And the radio morning show host and former television weatherman is much loved by his community.

In this issue of the “Time Traveler” you’ll have an opportunity to see and learn about the former Cumberland Valley Railroad’s steam engine “Pioneer.” This small but mighty steam engine was built in 1851 at Boston, Massachusetts, and had served the railroad for many years and today it is on display at the Baltimore & Ohio Museum at Baltimore, Maryland.

Charles “Charlie” Sekula was born on May 25,1945,in Braunau, Austria.The birth took place in a schoolhouse enroute to a refugee camp, attended by a young doctor. It was the first time the doctor had ever delivered a baby. Charlie’s parents were refugees during the evacuation from Ratibor due to Russian invasion near the end of WWII. Lack of food caused his mother to…