MD Fair Hill Big Elk Creek Loop Trail in Old New Munster

We sort of jogged this winding unmarked but well-used trail on the east bank of Big Elk Creek. It twists and turns through the ruins of old farmsteads, mills, and abandoned roads with few blazes or trail marker. Some of it is wild and might have looked a lot like it did when a wave of Scots-Irish immigrants first arrived in the early 1700s at the invitation Maryland land grant holder Colonel George Talbot, a Catholic immigrant from the Ulster region. Some of it is groomed and landscaped - and marked - managed much as it was when William DuPont, Jr. owned the land for his riding and fox hunting interests during the 20th century. In any case, "walking" the trail(s) proved an interesting look back at nearly three hundred years of land use albeit at a clip.

Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area - DuPont's fox hunting range

In the late 1600s, Colonel Talbot recruited fellow Scots-Irish immigrants to help him settle colonial lands that bordered William Penn's colony to the north.  He called this 6,000 acre tract New Munster. He had a plan to "spill" into the unmarked and murky colonial boundary lands to lay claim for Catholic Maryland with those Irish settlers. But William Penn, too, had a plan. He promoted Quaker, Scot, and German settlement into the same murky boundary and lay claim for the Commonwealth. Thus was set in motion an 80 year simmering war ended only with the demarcation of the Mason Dixon Line.

Carriage Road at Fair Hill.

Today the landscape that was New Munster still holds many of the place names given to it in the early 1700s but most of this land eventually became the property of William Dupont, Jr. in a spectacular land grab during the 20th century. Economic depression and worn-out soils made once-industrious farmers unproductive and desperately poor. Foreclosed farms were a dime a dozen for the wealthy DuPont. He assembled a vast land holding and managed it for fox hunting, fox hounds, and horse racing.

Ruins of the mill complex, Scotts Mills. 

After DuPont's death in the early 1960s, the state of Maryland eventually came into ownership and it is presently undergoing a major renovation to become a national/international equine sports facility. The wilder sections of the Fair Hill tract contain all kinds of riding trails, carriage roads, and hiking/biking paths. For this hike I was being pulled along a 5-mile loop of mixed carriage roads and forest trails at the end of Amos' lead, tho' he did sit politely as equestrians and bikers crossed our path. After the first mile, while stopped at the mill ruins I realized I was getting agitated with him.

Big Elk Creek, a major source or power for a thriving number of mills in the 1800s.

I've left a lot of miles on the trail this year recovering from broken bones and damaged soft-tissue injury from a steep fall last October. As I lunged along after Amos I realized how careful I was trying to be, almost sub-consciously afraid to take a big leap or scramble down a hill, complaining. Really it was me who needed to loosen up. I've been stretching, running treadmill, doing yoga, and taking lots of "safe" walks or bike rides this year but finally I had to just accept that I was ready to push it. Past the old mill ruins I started jogging behind him, taking bigger strides, hopping over logs, high-stepping up the steep bits.  Once I readjusted my attitude I started to have a lot of fun.

DuPont's "Super Fence"

The trail passed through DuPont's "Super Fence," a fourteen mile-long concrete and chain link barrier built to keep hounds and horses from crossing into areas of roads and other human hazards where they might be injured.  Though unfinished, it stands as a reminder that the world "out there" was a dangerous place for highly trained and valuable animals.  Amos jogged me down steep embankments and across old abandoned roads that, in their day, were busy with traffic. The cracked asphalt barely showed through fifty years of weeds and forest duff.

Jackson Schoolhouse Road was outside the Super Fence. 

There was a hulk of a car lying on its side down an embankment by an old washed out bridge. It had fins and heavy chrome bumpers (!) that shone through the brush.  Rotting white-walled tires were strewn in the weedy ditch along Jackson Schoolhouse Road. Amos just powered along on his trail, following switchbacks, snaking through ruins, and galloping down the old lanes. He let out one tremendous coonhound bay and I thought for sure he'e found his quarry, but no, we just kept tracking. I could hear the loudspeaker from the equestrian event across the river and came a reply to Amos' call from some foxhound on the other side.

Barn ruin of Redbank Sandstone.

We came across an old mine pit. At the time of the Civil War, the Fair Hill/New Munster region was home to almost 80 mines where feldspar, chromium, and iron were dug. Irish immigrants worked the mines and dug the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal to the west and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to the south. Away from their New Munster homes, the Irish workers lived a rough life and were considered expendable labor at the canal sites. 

Old wagon path  (Beechdrops Orchid). 

Ten thousand micks they swung their picks to dig the new canal

but the cholera was stonger 'n' they

and twice it killed them all. 

"The pay was low, there were no benefits, and the death rate astronomical," Erika Sturgill wrote for the local paper The Cecil Whig (see Notes). "African American slave labor was used, but not as extensively as Irish workers, because at that time slaves had a dollar value while an Irishman did not." The New Munster area. however, proved a place where Irish settlers laid down roots and built hundreds of farms and businesses. "It was as good a place to come home to as any could imagine after a season in the canals." As we passed back through the Super Fence onto the abandoned Jackson School House Road and skirted along a modern street with pretty homes, he found a carriage road leading back into the DuPont section and finally Amos began to slow down.  

Tulip Poplars roadblock. 

I never did figure out what it was that Amos was tracking but I'd like to think he was determined to drag me along until I finally surrendered to having a good trail run. I was pretty sore the next day (so was he) but without the concern I may have re-injured something. There are so many trails to explore at Fair Hill that I know we'll back soon and maybe I can stop more along the way to take pictures. I didn't get many chances this time out!

GPS tracking app traced Amos' wild hike!

A very happy Black and Tan Coonhound - Amos.

Notes

Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area is managed by Maryland DNR. https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/Pages/central/fairhill.aspx

From the Cecil Whig:
https://www.cecildaily.com/our_cecil/irish-immigrants-helped-build-cecil-county-america/article_8ec73170-48d8-52ac-b7be-a3cc22861841.html

A very (very) short history:
http://fairhillnature.org/history.html