Creating a National Park

In January 1954, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas opposed turning the C&O Canal into a parkway and argued instead for preserving it as a national park. After a Washington Post editorial recommended a highway, Douglas called the canal a refuge and sanctuary that would be destroyed by a two-lane road, then invited the paper’s editors and other reporters to hike the entire canal with him. Merlo Pusey and editor Robert Estabrook accepted, and on March 22, 1954, the hike began near Cumberland. Along the way, Douglas and his companions were joined by authorities on the natural and cultural history of the Potomac River and the C&O Canal, learning about the canal while taking in its scenery. Afterward, Estabrook wrote an editorial supporting setting the canal aside as a national park, and the hike and the news coverage it generated inspired hundreds to fight to save it. In 1961, the C&O Canal was preserved as a National Monument through Douglas’s action and the efforts of those he inspired.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States