Echoes In Stone

Above Great Falls the Potomac River is quite beautiful and seemingly undeveloped. Great sycamore trees line the shore, leaning over the river, their branches dipping into the water. Bald eagles are common, hoovering and then in an instant, swooping down, talons first, seldom missing their fishy prey.

The water in the river is clear, and you can usually see to the bottom unless there has been a storm in which case it becomes brown and muddy. Under the water are large carp and catfish which often school in the thousands. Small-mouth bass, known to anglers as "smallies" are the favorite game fish but there are also walleyes and muskellunge, if you know where to look.

Occasionally, you will see an angler or two in small boats trying their luck, or a group of canoers paddling down the river. There are many small islands and a family with a boat can claim one of these islands for the day, sometimes with a sand beach and water perfect for wading.

It is difficult to believe that this area was once a great industrial and agricultural stronghold with mills, factories, mines and quarries. The infrastructure which underlay this industry was George Washington's 1785 Potomac River Company and later, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O).

Over the past 20 or so years, I have explored the ruins of these mills, factories and quarries. I have taken hundreds of pictures and researched their origins. This book presents their forgotten stories along with 194 pictures and maps and a dozen QR codes.