Sign Up  /  Login

12 M to B LbNA #65814

Owner:wood thrush
Plant date:Sep 15, 2013
Location:
City:Ellicott City
County:Howard
State:Maryland
Boxes:1
Found by: wood thrush
Last found:Nov 27, 2020
Status:FFFaFFaO
Last edited:Nov 28, 2020
About the National Road
Dating from 1811, the 620-mile long National Road-also known as the National Pike or the Cumberland Road-was the first major improved highway built by the U.S. federal government.

Turnpikes were built and linked from Baltimore to Cumberland, Md. At the same time, construction to points west began at Cumberland. The National Road provided a connection between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and a gateway to the west for thousands of settlers. From Cumberland, the road followed the Potomac, crossed the Allegheny Mountains and southwestern Pennsylvania, and reached Wheeling on the Ohio River in 1818. Although the road was originally meant to reach St. Louis and the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, construction was stopped at Vandalia, Ill., when financing ran out.

In Maryland, the route primarily follows U.S. Route 40, Alternate U.S. 40, and Maryland 144. Stones indicating the distance to Baltimore or Cumberland were placed every mile, and many of them survive to this day. These milestones are mostly found along the north side of the historic road. Some of them are in people's yards, some are obscured behind guardrails, some are in median strips. There are stones in fields, and stones on sidewalks in towns and cities. You can see photos and locations of the stones on this interesting blog. Although the blog hasn't been updated since 2008, it is a comprehensive look at the stones in Maryland.

This letterbox takes you to Milestone 12, which is along Rt. 144 in Ellicott City. We encourage you to make an afternoon of it when you seek the box. See how many other stones you can locate on either side of #12. (Milestone 10 is especially interesting!)

To the letterbox
Locate Milestone 12, and park on the campus of the historic pillar of the community where it resides. Warning: a pre-K through 5th grade school is operated elsewhere on the campus, and we highly recommend you do not search for the box during school hours, for the obvious reasons. Also, Sunday mornings are a bad time to search. Just saying. We greatly encourage you to walk right up to Milestone 12, read the historic marker, and maybe take your picture with it. Milestone 12 is awesome.

When you are ready to find the box, travel to the back of the campus and locate the historic sanctuary. To its left is a small memorial garden with a little stone building. Go to the corner of the parking lot closest to this building. Walk to the left, around to its back, between tree #454 and the small hill. You will be facing a wooded area; stop where the grass runs out. Now stand with your back to tree #454, and look into the woods. In the middle distance is a large and tall tree snag, with a three-story wooden birdhouse. But you are not going to walk nearly that far.

Take 10 steps in this direction and you will arrive at five unremarkable, thin and bent shrubby trees--two together, another two together, and then one facing another way. On this side of the second pair of these (not on their far side), at their base, is a hollowed out space. Poke around and you will discover it. Under some old short broken wood, is your 12 M to B marker.