GATHLAND
STATE
PARK
words by Ty Unglebower
Though you should never go speeding along winding mountain
roads, if you did you’d probably miss it. Oh, you might have a
vague sense of a structure or two. A sculpture of some kind maybe?
You might catch a pavilion in the blur outside of your window, if a
group is there having a picnic. But almost as soon as these images
registered in your mind, they’d be behind you, as would one of
Maryland state parks.
It’s not Gambril State Park, though people I know often confuse
the name with that of this little gem. It is, however, Gathland
State Park, about 136 acres straddling the border of Frederick and
Washington Counties.
As with most state parks, the land that is Gathland has not always
been public land. It was for a time the private mountain estate of
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