This flat area was once the site of a charcoal hearth, indicated by its dark soil. More than 140 hearth sites have been discovered within Catoctin Mountain Park, and others remain hidden amid grasses, trees, and other plants that have reclaimed these hills since charcoal was last made here in 1873. Charcoal hearths, collier huts, and coaling roads are traces of that earlier work in the park's woodlands.