Cunningham Falls

Big Hunting Creek begins just west of this spot in a series of seeps and springs atop the Foxville Plateau. It flows over the falls into Hunting Creek Lake, also known as Cunningham Falls Lake, and along MD Route 77. Designated as a Catch-and-Return Trout stream, it eventually flows into the Monocacy River, then the Potomac River, and finally the Chesapeake Bay. The McAfee family was among the original settlers in this area. In the 1930s, the federal government acquired this land from the McAfee family while the Civilian Conservation Corps was developing what was then known as the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area. In the 1950s, the area south of MD Route 77 was given to the State of Maryland and named Cunningham Falls State Park after a local photographer who made the area popular through photographs and postcards, while the area north of MD Route 77 remained under federal ownership as Catoctin Mountain Park.

Maryland · United States