The view from Murphy Farm overlooking the Shenandoah River.

Murphy Farm is part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, with a relatively easy 1.3-mile walking trail through fields and forests. Make sure to only visit during daylight hours as per Park rules, and as always – leave no trace, respect the sovereignty of the site, and follow all Park guidelines for social distancing.

Civil War history abounds at Murphy Farm, and cannot be understated. According to the Trust for Public Land: “On its sloping fields in 1862, Confederate General A.P. Hill forced the surrender of 12,000 Union troops and concluded General “Stonewall” Jackson’s brilliant siege of nearby Harpers Ferry. Later, Murphy Farm was home to a famous brick firehouse that had become known as “John Brown’s Fort” for its role in the abolitionist’s 1859 raid on the Harpers Ferry that helped spark the Civil War. After it was moved to the farm, the elegant little firehouse-fort with its rhythmic archways and wooden cupola became a touchstone of African-American history. It was to the Murphy Farm and John Brown’s Fort that W.E.B. Dubois and other members of the Second Niagara Movement (which later became the NAACP) made a barefoot pilgrimage in 1906.”

With support from the Trust for Public Land in 2002, Murphy Farm was added to the Park, preventing a 188-home subdivision that had been planned for the land and fulfilling a Murphy-family descendant’s goal of “inclusive history.” (More on that story here.)

On this Inauguration Day – this day of transition – we have our eyes cast towards the future, and opportunities to inform President Biden’s administration on our clean water priorities here in West Virginia and across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.