r u s t i c r o a d s & w at e r w ay s
Wandering the Seneca
National Historic District
b y sarah r o gers
T
oday, when traveling
north on River Road
between Violette’s Lock
Road and the town of Poolesville, it
is easy to see why residents, kay-
akers, hikers, cyclists, and other
visitors are drawn to explore this
scenic countryside. The Seneca
National Historic District offers
a beautiful and bucolic respite
from the suburbs and Washington
DC, a mere 23 miles south. But it
is Seneca’s past that provides the
stories behind the landscape we
enjoy today.
Located in the northwest part
of the County in the Agricultural
Reserve, the Historic District is
bounded generally by the Po-
tomac River to the south, Reddick
Road on the west, Sugarland Road
on the north, and Berryville and
Violette’s Lock Roads to the east.
Within its boundaries are parts of
the C&O Canal National Historical
Park, Seneca Creek State Park, and
several parks in the Montgomery
40
plenty I autumn harvest 2019
Parks system. Dotting this 3,850
acres of gently rolling piedmont
terrain are numerous historic
buildings, farmsteads, and ruins.
River Road itself has a long
history of providing a vital link
to the Potomac River and his-
toric commercial hubs such as
Georgetown, Frederick, and the
Ohio Valley. Originally used by
Native Americans as a trail to
move between fishing and hunt-
ing grounds, it also served as a
tobacco “rolling” road for moving
hogsheads or barrels of tobacco to
Georgetown. During the Civil War
it was used by both the North and
the South to gain access to stra-
tegic towns and supply lines along
the C&O Canal. A turn from River
Road onto almost any country road
will lead you back in time.
For centuries, the huge for-
ests, waterways, and meadows
were used by several Native Amer-
ican tribes as a hunting preserve.
But by the early 1600s, Native
American settlements in the dis-
trict had been abandoned due to
conflicts among the tribes as well
as tensions arising from the im-
Although the C&O was built with 11 aqueducts and 74 lift locks, Riley’s Lock was
the only lift lock and aqueduct combination on the canal. This engineering marvel is
located at mile 22.7 at the mouth of Seneca Creek. Photo: C&O Trust.