Antietam Creek of Civil War fame begins in South Central Pennsylvania its Ewell-chilled East Branch flowing through Michaux State Forest, and the West Branch, which is smaller than its sister stream, flowing through open farm land to the north and west of Waynesboro.
Both streams merge roughly at the Mason Dixon Line and become the Antietam Creek, flowing through more beautiful farm land, through Hagerstown, Md, Antietam battlefield, under the site of the bloody Burnside bridge, and a few miles south joins the Potomac River, which flows into Chesapeake Bay, then into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Antietam Watershed Assn. has planted many riparian areas along both branches, and the major achievement was to persuade Washington Twp supervisors to prevent 19 to 25 houses to be constructed in and near 26 acres of wetlands and water meadows. When the land was deeded to the Twp for a nature park, the AWA and Franklin County Conservation District worked to repair badly damaged banks eroded by a herd of cows and planted numerous native trees, bushes, and smaller plants to repair and renew this land.
We now have a lovely natural park handled with a light hand and no man-made items of any kind to detract. When we began the repair of Antietam Park, we could see the roofs of newly constructed houses, and we looked forward to the trees growing high enough to obscure the houses. Now they do. And this now open, beautifully planted area attracts many strollers and fishermen, as it is an excellent trout stream.
The East Branch flows by my house, and I can see it from the windows of my house. My goal was to turn the land into a nature area, and I have spent the last 38+ years planting my very own 10 acres, changing it from a spartan, farmed area into a natural park that abounds in wildlife: beaver, deer, beautiful bucks, blue heron, kingfisher, bittern, song birds, raccoons, mink, barred, screech, barn, and saw whet owls.
The water sparkles and twinkles as it passes by on its way south, a pleasure to see, although there are those times when there is high water and life becomes more interesting and absorbing. The water rises quickly and ebbs almost as fast. Interesting to watch.