The stone observatory on the Bloody lane is now finished and ready for visitors. The view from this point alone is worth a visit to the famous Bloody lane as you can take in the entire right to the left nearly four miles. There will be, when all planted, nearly four hundred markers, giving one a good idea of the entire battle field with the advantage of the good roads. Every body ought to visit it and make a study of this great battle.
Sabillasville on the Western Maryland Railroad by E.M. Recher
This has been an exciting month for collecting. A huge collection of local images were bought at auction recently and then were sold on eBay. I managed to win the bulk of them and just yesterday started to try and figure out where they were taken.
A very exciting one is this image of Sabillasville, a small town tucked in South Mountain. The Western Maryland Railroad reached that town in 1871, one year before it rounded the mountain and reached Hagerstown.
I went out there yesterday and found this spot with my son Henry, but as soon as we got there henry fell asleep and we went home. I went back today with Hagerstown historian Jeff Brown, and we walked about six miles on the tracks, finally concluding that the first spot I found is the correct one.
I will be going into some detail about our discoveries, but here is a then and now of the spot.