Lander Lockhouse 29
by Susan Rissi Tregoning
Title
Lander Lockhouse 29
Artist
Susan Rissi Tregoning
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
This simple brick home with a deep front porch is the Lander Lockhouse #29. It can be found near Jefferson, Maryland, along the historic Chesapeake & Ohio Canal towpath at mile 50.8. The lock here is constructed of granite from the Patapsco River and white flint stone from across the river in Virginia.
The last lock keeper to live in the home was Lewis Cross. The Cross family continued to rent the house for $20 a year even after the Canal stopped operations in 1924. When Mr. Cross died in 1962, the lockhouse became the property of the National Park.
In Civil War history, this was where John Mosby’s confederate raiders crossed the river on the 4th of July in 1864 headed to the Calico Raid at Point of Rocks. When the raiders encountered a holiday excursion boat of Treasury clerks approaching Lock 29 on the Canal, they scared off the lockkeeper leaving the canal boat stranded. The Treasury clerks forced to abandon ship made a run for it. At which point, Mosby’s raiders set their vessel “The Flying Cloud” on fire and then continued on their way.
Today, the little town of Lander has a population of around 50, but when the Canal is still operational, the town was busy enough to support a post office and two general stores.
The Lander house is one of only 26 lock houses remaining along the C&O Canal. Of those, only four are open for public tours, with Lander being one of them.
Copyright 2020 Susan Rissi Tregoning
Uploaded
December 30th, 2020
Statistics
Viewed 3,160 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/19/2024 at 10:38 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet