Day 52, Nov 21st

Today we headed to Harper's Ferry Virginia for a visit to the Harper's Ferry National Park. From the park, we took a shuttle to the old town of Harper's Ferry. This is considered to be the origination of the fight for freedom of the slaves. John Brown (an abolitionist) and about 20 of his followers raided the armory at Harper's Ferry as a revolt to slavery. John Brown and his followers holed out in the Harper's Ferry Firehouse. The US Marines were able to defeat John Brown and his followers and take them into custody. John Brown and his followers we tried, convicted and hung for treason.

This town was a thriving community of 3,000 before the Civil War. After the Civil War, the town population dwindled down to about 100. This was due to fires, flooding and wages of war. I wish I had this much interest in History when I was a high school student.

After checking out the town, we drove down to Lewisburg Virginia. Tomorrow we will visit the Lost World Caverns and if we have time we will visit the Greenbriar Hotel (this is where a secret underground bunker was built to house the Congress and Senators in the event of a nuclear bomb attack). This top secret bunker was decommisioned after an investigative reporter wrote an article about it. Will be posting photos and our experience tomorrow.

This is the site of the armory that John Brown raided. It was destroyed in a fire. Just the foundation remains.

This one of the old buildings (a pub) remaining from the original town.

This is the firehouse where John Brown and his cohorts hid before being arrested by the US Marines.