Cumberland Visitor Center in Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park

LOCATION AND PHONE

13 Canal Street, Cumberland, MD 21505

Telephone: (301) 722-8226

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park’s Cumberland Visitor Center is located in Cumberland, Maryland, the terminus for the C&O Canal. The original plan was for the canal to stretch all the way to Pittsburgh, but by the time construction reached this point in 1850 it was obvious that the canal’s days were numbered due to advancements in rail transportation. Thus, the C&O Canal Company decided to cut its losses and end the project here. The Visitor Center, ironically, is housed in the 1913 Western Maryland Railway Station and shares the space with the Allegheny County Visitor Center. The building has its own parking lot, though it is rather small, so you may end up having to pay for metered street parking.

OPERATING HOURS

• Wednesday through Sunday: 10 AM to 4 PM
• Closed Monday and Tuesday
• Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day

Times can always change, so before making travel plans be sure to get the latest schedule on the National Park Service’s official Operating Hours and Seasons web page for the park.

AMENITIES

• Information desk where you can ask questions and pick up a variety of brochures about the park
• Large tourist-related brochure rack containing information on all activities in the area
• Small souvenir store
• Large canal museum
• Restrooms
• Canal terminus and other outdoor exhibits are just a short walk from the building

Information desk and exhibit inside the Cumberland Visitor Center in Cumberland, Maryland

MUSEUM

The C&O Canal museum at the Cumberland Visitor Center is the flagship museum for the park, something I would more likely expect to see in Georgetown. It is loaded with information panels, artifacts, historical photographs, dioramas, models, and audio commentaries from people who worked and lived on the canal. Every aspect of the canal’s history and how it operated is covered.

Exhibit showing the living quarters on a typical canal boat at the C & O Canal Museum inside the Cumberland Visitor Center in Cumberland, Maryland

Audio commentary by Mr. Sandblower, a man who grew up on the canal, at the C & O Canal Museum inside the Cumberland Visitor Center in Cumberland, Maryland

There are two videos that you can watch on demand by pushing a button. A five-minute video documents the mules that worked pulling boats along the canal, and a shorter animated video shows how canal locks work.

Model of a lock and short video on how it works at the C & O Canal Museum inside the Cumberland Visitor Center in Cumberland, Maryland

Many of the artifacts are located in a full-size replica of a canal boat’s interior. In this section of the museum you can learn about the life of those who lived and worked on the boats. In the early days, most boats were privately owned and operated by families. However, by the 1900s the big businesses had driven out the independent operators, and most canal boat captains now either leased boats from such companies or worked for them directly.

Mock-up of the interior of a canal boat at the C & O Canal Museum inside the Cumberland Visitor Center in Cumberland, Maryland

It took me about an hour to read all of the materials in the museum, which is obviously more than most tourists care to do. Nevertheless, allow yourself 15-30 minutes to get information, browse the exhibits, and perhaps watch the two short films.

OUTDOOR EXHIBITS

The official terminus of the C&O Canal is located just a short walk from the Cumberland Visitor Center. Exit the building and head towards the bronze sculpture of a mule and his driver that was erected in 2000. Mules wouldn’t walk on their own, so a person—often one of the boat captain’s children—had to walk along with the mules for all 184 miles of the canal.

Mule and Driver sculpture outside the Cumberland Visitor Center in Cumberland, Maryland

From the statue, continue to the main road, Canal Street. Take a left on the brick and stone sidewalk that runs parallel to the street and follow this to the Shops at Canal Place. This is a rather popular tourist destination, and many shops and restaurants are in the area. You may also see a lot of bicyclists, as this is a staging point for trips to Georgetown on the C&O Canal towpath or to Pittsburgh on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail…or a resting spot for those biking the entire 335 miles between the two cities. I saw a half dozen people making the full length journey, and believe it or not, all were over 60 years old.

Pathway to the Cumberland terminus of the C&O Canal outside the Cumberland Visitor Center in Cumberland, Maryland

The sidewalk eventually becomes a boardwalk as it leads to the canal terminus—or the starting point from the Cumberland point of view. Along the way is a replica of a typical canal boat that you can board and take a look around inside. In addition to the boat captain and his family, two teams of mules lived on the boat, though only one team at a time. While one pulled the boat, the other took a rest.

The Cumberland, a model of a typical canal boat used on the C&O Canal, on display near the Cumberland Visitor Center in Cumberland, Maryland

Interior of the Cumberland, a typical canal boat used on the C&O Canal, on display near the northern terminus of the canal in Cumberland, Maryland

Living quarters on the Cumberland, a typical canal boat used on the C&O Canal that is on display near the norther terminus of the canal in Cumberland, Maryland

The path eventually crosses a renovated section of the canal, and if you look to your right you can see the Terminus Basin, which looks like a holding pond. Most of the heavy shipping originated here, with coal being the main cargo. There were a number of other holding basins in the area, all connected together by short channels. Warehouses and boat yards for building canal boats lined the basins. When the modern highways were constructed, the basins and a short stretch of the canal were destroyed. What you see today was dug for commemorative and demonstration purposes.

Reconstructed segment of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Little Basin at the northern terminus in Cumberland, Maryland

The dirt path that runs under the footbridge that spans the reconstructed section of the canal is the original canal towpath, which is where the mules and driver walked while towing the boats. If you follow it for about a half mile you will come to the actual canal. The first half mile is the section destroyed to make way for the highway. The canal would have been on your left, with the towpath between it and the Potomac River on your right. You can continue along the towpath for 184 miles all the way to Georgetown in Washington, D. C.

Original towpath of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal at the northern terminus in Cumberland, Maryland

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