Wagon Train

National Pike Days begins Friday in Clear Spring with the encampment of the wagon train at Plumb Grove, the historical home built in 1831 and restored by the Clear Spring District Historical Association. Plumb Grove will be open from 5 to 8 p.m.  The wagon train encampment is free and open to the public.  There will be food available for purchase  and music. On Saturday, the wagon train departs at 9 a.m. The wagon train stops at Wilson's Store and the bridge on U.S. 40 above Conococheague Creek.   The next stop is at the Wacohu Grange at Huyetts Crossroads at approximately noon.   Plant sale The annual National Pike Days plant sale by Clear Spring Garden Club will be Saturday beginning at 8 a.m. in the lawn area of St. John's UCC. Indoor yard sale St. John's United Church of Christ in Clear Spring will host an indoor yard sale and bake sale during National Pike Days Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon.

What a beautiful morning. Mild temperatures create great dispositions and I will take every ounce of sunshine that is being offered. So many fun things happen in the spring, and it's even better when those fun events are learning experiences. Recently, the Funkstown town council voted unanimously to allow the National Pike wagon train to make its annual overnight stay at the park in Funkstown.  The wagon train will arrive Saturday, May 19, and will depart the following morning.

The National Pike Festival begins Friday night in Clear Spring and weaves along National Pike, known today as U.S. 40, to Boonsboro. The three-day event begins with an encampment in Clear Spring. On Saturday morning more than 25 wagons and 30 outriders are expected to leave from Clear Spring and head toward Boonsboro, where the group will convene on Sunday. The caravan will make stops along the way to rest and to bed down for the night. The 32-mile procession includes covered wagons and horse-drawn carriages similar to ones that once drove along the same road more than 200 years ago. The festival is sponsored by the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

When she was 8 years old, Danielle Ruck wanted a miniature pony, “but mom and dad said 'no.'” On Saturday at City Park in Hagerstown, the Greencastle, Pa., girl, now 17, was content just to watch the horses in the 24th National Pike Festival wagon train. She no longer wants to own one. “Too much work,” Ruck said when asked if she still wanted a horse. “No where to keep it.” Ruck joined her aunt, Carolyn Barton of Hagerstown, and other relatives in the park for the wagon train's annual visit.

Before “horsepower” was measured by machines as a selling point on a new Ford, it was literal. It rippled in the muscles of Percherons and flowed in the gait of Paso Finos. And it was an integral part of life. On Saturday, Washington County stepped back to a time when literal horse power carried humans to and from their destinations with the annual National Pike Festival. The festival features a wagon train — a group of horse-drawn wagons traveling together — that makes a symbolic journey each year from Clear Spring to Boonsboro along the historic National Pike (U.S.

There's something about the National Pike Festival that always makes me feel connected to my roots a little more. My family has lived in the Clear Spring area for generations, and when visiting my late grandmother - neé Faith - I relished hearing the stories of her youth. I grew up on a road off U.S. 40, east of Clear Spring and closer to Wilson's Store. It was the same road on which my paternal grandparents had settled and raised their brood of seven. It was the same road my dad was born on and where my parents raised me and my three siblings.

The Washington County Commissioners agreed Tuesday to assist the 1999 National Pike Festival and Wagon Train, which will come through the area May 14-16. The wagon train travels about 40 miles, going through several Washington County communities, starting with Clear Spring and ending with Boonsboro. Washington County has sponsored the event for the last 10 years. The Washington County Historical Society recommended the County Commissioners help again this year. The county will pay for a $50 to $100 insurance rider and mailings for the event, and provide two officers and vehicles to escort the wagon train.

Unless otherwise noted, Boonsboro events at Shafer Park and Funkstown events at Funkstown Community Park. Friday, May 15 4 to 7 p.m. Turkey supper - Mount Calvary Church of God, U.S. 40, Clear Spring. Cost is $6.50 for adults; $3 for children ages 6 to 10; free for children younger than 5. Turkey and all the trimmings. 6 p.m. Wagon Train - begins at Mount Calvary Church. There will be an overnight encampment and entertainment. 7 to 8:30 p.m. In Boonsboro - Period music by organist Jack Staley.

gregs@herald-mail.com While the passing cars and trucks that whiz over the utility-lined blacktop of U.S. 40 are usually ignored by residents along the busy road, a historic wagon train complete with Conestogas and carriages was welcomed Saturday with smiles. Richard and Sandra Cunningham, who live on U.S. 40 just before it reaches Hagerstown heading east, waved and admired the long wagon train as it passed their home. "This is a fun thing. They ought to make more room for this kind of thing," said Richard Cunningham, 61. Unlike the "hot rods flying up and down the road acting like they're nuts, this is what it's all about," he said.

Karen Davis enlisted friends Stacey Schaab and Beth Przybylski to join her for last year's National Pike Festival and Wagon Train in Washington County because she had just finished radiation treatment for cancer. “Now, I can't get rid of them,” Davis joked Saturday afternoon at City Park in Hagerstown, where the trio stopped with the caravan of wagons, horses and people for the weekend ride. The National Pike Festival, which celebrates the historic, 19th-century road that helped extend the Baltimore-National Pike to Cumberland, Md., kicked off Friday with an overnight encampment at Plumb Grove near Clear Spring.

For Sonny Lemon, the annual wagon train ride is more than just an opportunity to trace the famous route that opened Washington County to the west - it's a family tradition that goes back more than 20 years. Lemon, a Boonsboro native, first began riding in the National Pike Festival and Wagon Train in 1989 with his friend and fellow horseman, Robert Shank. The National Pike Festival celebrates the historic, 19th-century road that helped extend the Baltimore-National Pike to Cumberland, Md., allowing for the development of roadways that would eventually lead to national westward expansion, according to the event's website.

National Pike Days begins Friday in Clear Spring with the encampment of the wagon train at Plumb Grove, the historical home built in 1831 and restored by the Clear Spring District Historical Association. Plumb Grove will be open from 5 to 8 p.m.  The wagon train encampment is free and open to the public.  There will be food available for purchase  and music. On Saturday, the wagon train departs at 9 a.m. The wagon train stops at Wilson's Store and the bridge on U.S. 40 above Conococheague Creek.   The next stop is at the Wacohu Grange at Huyetts Crossroads at approximately noon.   Plant sale The annual National Pike Days plant sale by Clear Spring Garden Club will be Saturday beginning at 8 a.m. in the lawn area of St. John's UCC. Indoor yard sale St. John's United Church of Christ in Clear Spring will host an indoor yard sale and bake sale during National Pike Days Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon.

1. Wagons, East! National Pike Festival will be Friday, May 17, in Clear Spring through Sunday, May 19, in Boonsboro. Wagons gather at Plumb Grove Mansion in Clear Spring from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday. There will be music and food. The wagon train rolls out of Clear Spring at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 18, and continues through Hagerstown to Funkstown for camping at 5:30 p.m. On Sunday, May 19, the wagon train continues to and finishes in Boonsboro. For information, call 301-791-3246 or go to www.nationalpikefestival.org . 2. Night of noshing A Taste of the Arts will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 16, in downtown Hagerstown.

When she was 8 years old, Danielle Ruck wanted a miniature pony, “but mom and dad said 'no.'” On Saturday at City Park in Hagerstown, the Greencastle, Pa., girl, now 17, was content just to watch the horses in the 24th National Pike Festival wagon train. She no longer wants to own one. “Too much work,” Ruck said when asked if she still wanted a horse. “No where to keep it.” Ruck joined her aunt, Carolyn Barton of Hagerstown, and other relatives in the park for the wagon train's annual visit.

For the past 23 years, a horse-drawn wagon train about a quarter-mile long has snaked its way down Old National Pike from Clear Spring and into downtown Hagerstown on its way to Boonsboro. It's surely a sight to see, according to Peggy Mason of Martinsburg, W.Va., “because it's something many have never seen before.” Peggy Mason will ride with her husband, Norman, as the 24th annual National Pike Festival kicks off this morning with its wagon train ride that travels along the historic path.

There's something about the National Pike Festival that always makes me feel connected to my roots a little more. My family has lived in the Clear Spring area for generations, and when visiting my late grandmother - neé Faith - I relished hearing the stories of her youth. I grew up on a road off U.S. 40, east of Clear Spring and closer to Wilson's Store. It was the same road on which my paternal grandparents had settled and raised their brood of seven. It was the same road my dad was born on and where my parents raised me and my three siblings.

What a beautiful morning. Mild temperatures create great dispositions and I will take every ounce of sunshine that is being offered. So many fun things happen in the spring, and it's even better when those fun events are learning experiences. Recently, the Funkstown town council voted unanimously to allow the National Pike wagon train to make its annual overnight stay at the park in Funkstown.  The wagon train will arrive Saturday, May 19, and will depart the following morning.

Battle of Funkstown planning meeting to be held Feb. 29 FUNKSTOWN - A planning meeting for July's Battle of Funkstown re-enactment will be held Feb. 29 at 6 p.m. at the Funkstown fire hall, Town Councilman John Phillips III said during a town council meeting Monday night. Phillips said he's been getting positive feedback from re-enactors interested in participating in the event, which will be held July 20-22, largely at Funkstown Community Park. With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War being commemorated, Phillips said he's thinking of expanding the event in 2013 to have a daily activity the week leading up to that year's re-enactment.

But with vacations and kids sports leagues and other family activities, even important events can be forgotten. So The Herald-Mail has compiled a list of a dozen of the biggest events this year in Washington County and the surrounding area. These are events everyone should put on their calendar. Some of these events are subject to weather or other last-minute changes. Contact event organizers to confirm dates, performers and other particulars. For up-to-date information, check out our daily calendar in The Herald-Mail Sunday through Friday or our online calendar at AllHagerstown.net.