Antietam Creek

Editor's note: It has been 150 years since the Civil War moved into Washington County and North and South met Sept. 17, 1862, on a battlefield along Antietam Creek. The following story is part of a package of stories that look back at the Battle of Antietam and the Civil War's impact on Washington County, Md., and the surrounding area.   The merchants in downtown Hagerstown fled and farmers in Sharpsburg secured their operations as best they could. Some farmers went to stay with family members while others huddled in churches, caves and cellars.

Old Forge Road northeast of Hagerstown is closed to through traffic from Herman Myers Road to the bridge over Antietam Creek. The road is closed for rehabilitation work on the bridge, according to a press release from Washington County. Detours have been set up at the bridge. Local traffic can still pass through the area between Herman Myers Road and the bridge, but it cannot cross the bridge. The road is expected to reopen Tuesday at 7 p.m. - Caleb Calhoun, Mobile Journalist

Water quality warnings on Antietam Creek were lifted Friday, two weeks after the City of Hagerstown's sewage treatment plant spilled water that had not been completely treated. City Water and Sewer Department Manager David Shindle said he received clearance from the Washington County Health Department Friday morning to lift the three dozen posted signs, which were placed along the creek between Potomac River and the Frederick Street plant. Wastewater treated at the plant goes into the creek.

The Antietam Creek yielded boatloads of trash to more than 75 volunteers during the Antietam Creek Watershed Alliance's seventh annual Rubbish Roundup on Sept. 22. Volunteers in canoes and kayaks, along with streamside walkers, filled a dump truck with metal and stuffed 51 large trash bags with miscellaneous junk. The volunteers filled seven more bags with glass and plastic bottles, two bags with cast-off foam containers and one with aluminum cans. Highlights included 58 tires; seven traffic cones; four shopping carts; three, 20-pound propane tanks; and a 275-gallon fuel oil tank.

Portions of Antietam Creek remained posted with warnings on Tuesday advising swimmers and other users of the creek to steer clear of the waterway after the City of Hagerstown released sewage water that had not been disinfected into the creek Sunday. The warnings likely will remain today, said Kimmy Armstrong, a supervisor for the Washington County Health Department's Division of Environmental Health. The portion of the creek that is affected by the spill stretches from the city's Waste Water Treatment Plant on Frederick Street to the Potomac River.

The Washington County Division of Public Works Engineering and Construction Department has announced the closure of Garis Shop Road at the bridge over Antietam Creek.   Effective Tuesday, March 5, the bridge will be closed to through traffic between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., the county says in a news release. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the week, the release says. A detour will be posted to route traffic around the project.   For additional information, contact Assistant County Administrator Sarah Lankford Sprecher at 240-313-2215.

The Washington County Division of Public Works' Engineering and Construction Department will host a community information meeting to discuss the rehabilitation of the Old Forge Road bridge over Antietam Creek. The meeting will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Old Forge Elementary School at 21615 Old Forge Road in Hagerstown. The purpose of the meeting is to present the need for the project, discuss the bridge rehabilitation process, explain the proposed road closure and temporary detour that will be required, and to answer questions, according to a county news release.

A Hagerstown man was taken to Meritus Medical Center with life-threatening injuries Sunday morning after the car he was driving hit a two-lane stone arch bridge over Antietam Creek to Funkstown and took out a stretch of the bridge's stone wall, the Funkstown fire chief said. Joshua Harrison Gettleman, 24, was hurt in the crash, Washington County Sheriff Douglas W. Mullendore said. Mullendore said Gettleman was in critical condition Sunday. The Washington County Sheriff's Office responded to the accident, including the office's reconstruction team, said Fire Chief David “Buck” Fraley of the Funkstown Volunteer Fire Co. The two-lane bridge was closed from the time of the accident, shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, until almost 6 a.m., said Fraley, who served as incident commander.

About 40 people attended a hearing Thursday afternoon about a farmer's proposal to draw up to a little more than 1 million gallons of water per day from Antietam Creek, and the discussion at times focused on overall concerns about management of the stream besides the farmer's request. The Maryland Department of Environment's Water Management Administration is considering allowing dairy farmer Dean Lehman to draw an annual average of 123,000 gallons of water per day from the creek and a maximum daily withdrawal of 1,152,000 gallons from the stream.

The Antietam Creek Watershed Alliance's fourth annual Rubbish Round-Up will be held Saturday, Sept. 19, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event starts at Dixon-Troxell American Legion Post 211 in Funkstown along Alternate U.S. 40. Participants should wear river shoes and clothing appropriate for wet, dirty work. Those planning to float should bring a boat and life jackets. A limited number of canoes and rubber rafts will be supplied, along with gloves and garbage bags. Volunteers last year pulled 26 tires, two bicycles, and filled 44 bags of trash from the creek between Funkstown and Hagerstown.

This is the 198th in a series of articles about the historical and architectural treasures of Washington County. Mills Road runs generally north/south between Burnside Bridge and Harpers Ferry roads, near land crossed during the Battle of Antietam. Well down the road, on the west, stands an elegant brick house opposite a weathered frame barn with brick granaries. Double chimneys rise from either gable wall of the house. A one-story, hip-roofed porch shelters the main entrance in the center of five bays.

When C.A. Millburn saw the mother duck and from 15 to 25 ducklings trying to cross Edgewood Drive in the area of Hagerstown Commons on Wednesday at 11 a.m., he swung into action. Millburn, a reserve officer in the Maryland Natural Resources Police Reserve Officer program, said he stopped traffic in both directions. Then, he said, he began helping the ducklings, which were having trouble getting over a curb, make it to safety. Other motorists got out of their cars to help, said Millburn, who lives off Dual Highway.

Volunteers are needed for a tree planting from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 13, at at the Antietam Meadow Park, a community natural area park located near Waynesboro. Antietam Watershed Association, in partnership with Washington Township and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, is working to maintain a riparian forest buffer planting on the Antietam Creek. Learn from professional foresters how to plant trees and what trees are well-suited for streamside plantings. The group will plant more than 800 trees at the site.

Leiters Mill Road at the bridge over Antietam Creek is to be closed effective Monday, according to the Washington County Division of Public Works Engineering and Construction.   The bridge will be closed to thru traffic from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for a project scheduled to be completed by the end of the week. A detour will be posted.

No two people at the moment seem to be in agreement about how to proceed with city redevelopment, but one project does appear high on the “to do” lists of one and all - ridding the horizon of the old Hagerstown power plant. The decrepit plant, last active nearly 40 years ago, dominates the city's East End, making it difficult to envision any aesthetic progress in the neighborhood as long as it remains standing. That's why we strongly support a state grant request filed in Annapolis by Del. John Donoghue, D-Washington, which would put up $300,000 toward demolition costs.

The Washington County Division of Public Works Engineering and Construction Department has announced the closure of Garis Shop Road at the bridge over Antietam Creek.   Effective Tuesday, March 5, the bridge will be closed to through traffic between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., the county says in a news release. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the week, the release says. A detour will be posted to route traffic around the project.   For additional information, contact Assistant County Administrator Sarah Lankford Sprecher at 240-313-2215.

A Hagerstown man was taken to Meritus Medical Center with life-threatening injuries Sunday morning after the car he was driving hit a two-lane stone arch bridge over Antietam Creek to Funkstown and took out a stretch of the bridge's stone wall, the Funkstown fire chief said. Joshua Harrison Gettleman, 24, was hurt in the crash, Washington County Sheriff Douglas W. Mullendore said. Mullendore said Gettleman was in critical condition Sunday. The Washington County Sheriff's Office responded to the accident, including the office's reconstruction team, said Fire Chief David “Buck” Fraley of the Funkstown Volunteer Fire Co. The two-lane bridge was closed from the time of the accident, shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, until almost 6 a.m., said Fraley, who served as incident commander.

The Antietam Creek Watershed Alliance recently was awarded a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to repair a failing stone-lined stream in a homeowner's backyard, protecting the waters that eventually flow into the Chesapeake Bay. The unnamed stream flows through private lots in Sharpsburg and carries stormwater runoff from rooftops, parking lots and roads. Decades ago, the stream was lined with stone walls and concrete bottoms to help control the direction of the water flow. However, time and increased runoff caused the walls to fail in some locations, resulting in severe stream bank erosion, which muddies the stream carrying sediments to Antietam Creek, the Potomac River and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay. Homeowner Chris Mullendore lives along this small stream and was concerned that the erosion would progress to where the stream eventually would swallow up the outbuilding in his backyard.

As the sun came up over Franklin County on Tuesday, residents started assessing damage, clearing debris and pumping basements. Friends Zach Miller and Daniel Foster, both 15, decided to look on the bright side of the aftereffects of former Hurricane Sandy. The teens grabbed fishing poles and went in search of trout and bass. “We thought it'd be perfect fishing weather, but we thought wrong,” Zach said, saying they didn't catch anything. Cheryl Deal chose to look at flooding in her Blue Ridge Summit, Pa., yard and home with a positive attitude.

A number of county roads were closed by flooding or downed wires or trees late Monday and early Tuesday. By Tuesday afternoon, county officials said all state routes had been reopened, although some county roads remained closed. Water from Antietam Creek spilled across a stretch of Burnside Bridge Road, closing it to traffic at Churchey Road Tuesday Morning. In Sharpsburg, Antietam Creek was at 9.5 feet Tuesday afternoon, according to the Weather Service. Flood stage there is 8 feet.