In 2004, this trail corridor was named in honor of Rachel Carson, regarded as the mother of the modern environmental movement. When complete, the Rachel Carson Greenway Trail will extend 25 miles, linking the Anacostia Trail System in Prince George's County to Patuxent River State Park in the north, and it is intended eventually to connect with the Seneca Creek Greenway and the Potomac River to form a 50-mile continuous trail system in Montgomery County. Along its route, the greenway highlights Montgomery County's agricultural heritage, mills along the Hawlings River stream valley, forest interior birds affected by fragmentation, Holland's Corner at the crossroads of toll roads to Baltimore and Olney, the history of African Americans and Quakers in Sandy Spring, the night sky and its role in travel on the Underground Railroad, meadow habitats, American Indian rock shelters used beginning about 1000 B.C., the Gilmore Mica Mine, vernal pools, the long-formed Northwest Branch stream valley, one of the county's earliest grist mills at Burnt Mills, Rachel Carson's residence in this stream valley while she wrote Silent Spring, the Fall Line and gorge, and the area's natural world.
