CUMBERLAND -- Despite frenetic lives that propel Americans onto interstates, many still long for the nostalgic drive in the country, a bit of history, lovely scenery around a bend.
There's money in it, too.
Alabama recently proved that after winning a rare federal "All-American Road" title for the famous route that civil rights marchers followed through gently rolling farmland between Selma and Montgomery. A deluge of grants to bolster tourism and preserve the road's history followed.
And in the Victorian-style towns along Colorado's San Juan Skyway, which got the All-American designation in 1996, bed-and-breakfast inns and other tourist-fueled businesses are sprouting.
Maryland hopes to copy those successes soon -- in partnership with five other states -- by obtaining All-American Road status for this country's first highway, U.S. 40, the National Road.
The brainchild of George Washington, the road was the first federally funded highway -- and the route that opened the West.
It served the Underground Railroad and military movements in the Civil War. During the great auto touring decades of the early 1900s, it accommodated travelers at scenic picnic sites and mountaintop hotels. And much of its heritage is intact.
"We don't want the National Road to become a Disney-fied experience or artificial," says Fred Holycross, an Indiana historic preservationist heading the campaign. "We want to sell real America. We think it will be an economic boon all along the road, especially for the savvier towns."
The project emerges at a time of renewed interest in motor touring, which for the past five years has ranked second among Americans' favorite outdoor pastimes.
"With technology and the one-dimensional lives we all lead, people have the urge to discover where they came from," says Marci Ross of Maryland's Office of Tourism Development. "Roads are back in fashion again."
Grants and promotions
The All-American title, which could take two years to win, brings the opportunity for a basketful of federal grants to restore historic buildings along the route, protect adjacent lands, construct scenic overlooks and market the road to tourists.
It also guarantees national and international promotion by the Federal Highway Administration -- the latter particularly important as foreign visitors tire of big cities and begin venturing into America's heartland.
The nine U.S. roads that hold the designation have received an average of about $1 million in federal scenic byways funds a year for those purposes.
But the smartest marketers have obtained many times that, using it as justification for millions in federal, state, local and nonprofit agency contributions for cultural, historic and other projects.
"It's not just about dollars being shuffled into businesses," says Sharon Hurt Davidson of the National Scenic Byways program, which selects the roads. "It means the potential for a really increased quality of life along these roads. That's what these byways are looking for. They realize they've got something special, and they've got a story to tell."
A view to the past, future
The Town Hill Hotel -- perched east of Cumberland at an elevation of 1,595 feet and offering enchanting views of Allegany County's mountains -- has a story to tell and might just be the kind of place to benefit.
Not so many years ago, travelers filled the hotel on summer nights, drawn to the place described on postcards and in advertisements as "The Beauty Spot of Maryland."
The wooden benches at the Town Hill overlook are sadly dilapidated. Long gone is the gas pump attendant stationed out front in white starched shirt and bow tie. The hotel's restaurant is open only four hours a week for Sunday lunch.
Still, owner Hendrick Essers struggles to keep the place going 28 years after buying it. He delights in the rows of old photographs that show the hotel in livelier days.
The brewing All-American Road plan offers a glimmer of hope, he says.
"It's here," he says. "People just don't realize."
Along the 170 miles of U.S. 40 in Maryland, there are many other possibilities for such resurrections. Even now, the National Road presents the curious traveler every few miles with surprises.
Stop by the abandoned picnic area on a scenic shoulder of Sideling Hill, west of Hancock.
Its two large stone fireplaces for barbecues and five sheltered picnic tables have long gone unused and are now barricaded -- awaiting revival.
Or pause at churches that housed wounded Civil War soldiers; the country's best collection of horse-drawn carriages, in Frostburg; the elegant stone bridge over Conococheague Creek that in 1819 extended the National Road west from Hagerstown; the 1,000-foot-high "Lovers Leap" cliff atop the Narrows in Cumberland; or the R. H. Wilson & Son Country Store west of Hagerstown -- still a working store, selling wheels of cheese sliced in unrefrigerated glass cases, bolts of fabric off the shelves and ice-cold Coke in glass bottles from a cooler.
In the middle of the small Washington County town of Clear Spring, water still runs from the spot that named the place.
Once there, travelers may stop and rest on inviting benches and view a wall of hand-painted climbing roses, although they are warned not to drink the water.
If a National Road revival is in the offing, it will mark the latest chapter in the erratic popularity of a route that snakes from Maryland through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
It was once the primary artery between the port of Baltimore and St. Louis, but travel fell off with the construction of railroads and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in the 1800s.
'Get off the interstates'
The popularity of auto tours early in this century generated a new need for inns and taverns.
Although the interstate system eventually brought stagnation to many of those businesses, it has benefited the current effort by luring away the sort of development that might have destroyed many of the National Road's best attributes.
"If you get off the interstates, you can still understand the road the Conestogas took, how people had to traverse up and down the mountains, and you really get an idea of the struggle and the passion people must have had," says Ross.
Advocates for the All-American designation say the project will take more than money. It needs a shared vision, they say, and that may take some time.
It will take shape only as National Road towns see fit, they emphasize.
Vicki Koch had the vision 10 years ago, when she saw the economic potential and began a tour bus service in Cumberland. Westmar Tours booked 20 bus loads its first year.
Last year, it brought in nearly 500 buses of visitors from New York to California, Michigan to Texas, all interested in "walking in the footsteps of their ancestors," says Koch.
New kind of thinking
But capitalizing on that potential will require a shift in thinking among the towns and businesses along the route.
The old-timers aren't used to the influx of tourism, and some have been slow to see the possibilities, Koch says.
Although the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad departs from the Cumberland depot every Sunday morning at 11: 30, nearby shops don't open until 1 p.m.
"In Charleston [South Carolina], they'd be open," Koch says. "Sometimes you want to go over and kick them in the pants. Many of the business people don't think of tourism as an industry, and we have to change that."
Still, some have serious reservations about increasing the road's tourist trade.
Lewis S. Horst, who owns the Wilson general store west of Hagerstown, says he's got plenty of business, thanks. He also owns an antique-filled bed-and-breakfast next door.
He doesn't greet the idea of more tourists with enthusiasm.
Many of these tour groups expect a lot of extras, he says, and sometimes they seem more trouble than they're worth.
In Middletown in Frederick County, the idea of drawing more travelers along U.S. 40 rings alarm bells for Jim Boone, owner of a local butcher shop and restaurant, and for Larry Bussard, who owns a barber shop.
"Our biggest problem is parking," says Boone. If the town can't find room for its residents to park, it's doubtful it will be able to handle additional tourist traffic, he said. "This town don't want nobody in."
Many others are excited and confident about the possibilities.
"The state has a great opportunity here for tourist dollars," said Russell Schwartz, owner of the Old South Mountain Inn, a restaurant atop the mountain that serves as many as 1,000 people a week.
"This could have a great effect. It could increase my sales maybe double.
"Everyone thinks it's an excellent idea."
In the coming months, the state will begin a series of community meetings along U.S. 40 to discuss possibilities for luring tourism and for historic preservation.
"This seems like a big opportunity," says Terry Maxwell, scenic byways coordinator of the State Highway Administration.
"A lot of people have ideas they want to get to us. I haven't seen this kind of enthusiasm for a long time."
Pub Date: 7/18/99