Ghost Town

By Jody Brumage

Archivist, Heritage Frederick

On a winter day in February 1915, Frederick native Marshall Etchison and a few friends visited Catoctin Mountain. A photo album loaned to Heritage Frederick from Etchison’s family contains snapshots of the journey from Spout Spring to White Rock and High Knob. Of particular interest are two images showing the group at the ruins of the “Old Tavern” at Hamburg, a rare photographic record of one of Frederick County’s ghost towns. 

The earliest mentions of Hamburg are found in local newspapers from the mid-19th century. Maps of the county from 1858 and 1873 show a hamlet of about 10 houses at the summit of Catoctin Mountain. The Hamburg Turnpike connected the village to Frederick, its tollgate located at the foot of the mountain in Yellow Springs. Historian Edward Ralston Goldsborough recorded that a tavern at Hamburg served travelers crossing the mountain en route to the villages of the upper Middletown Valley. The timber industry supported residents of Hamburg, including the Stine family, who operated a sawmill near the village.

The decline in the timber industry and successive wildfires contributed to the abandonment of Hamburg in the early 20th century. In the 1920s, a fire lookout tower was built near the site of the village, preserving its name. Today, the area where Hamburg once existed is part of the Frederick City Watershed and is still enjoyed by visitors who come to explore the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, much in the same manner as Marshall Etchison and his friends did over a century ago.