History

        The Blue Ridge Summit community lies at the top of the South Mountain.  A community that stretches its environs into parts of four counties and two states, straddling the Mason-Dixon line.  On the Pennsylvania side it lies in parts of Franklin and Adams counties.  On the Maryland side of the line, it extends into both Frederick and Washington counties.

        After the introduction of the railroad in 1872, this area grew to become a lively and fashionable vacation community.  Near the turn of the last century, this region was in its hey-day.  It remained a resort area until its decline during the Depression of 1929 and the following years of limited travel during World War II (1939-1945).

         Tradition tells us that these mountains were traversed by the Indians of the Woodland Epoch, such as, the Susquehannock or Conestogoe Tribes of the Delaware Nation and the Tuscarora of the Cherokee Nation.  The Indians used paths over these mountains close to Mt. Dunlap and Clermont Crag. Continuous use of these paths by the Indians in their interactions with each other pioneered the the courses of early roads through Blue Ridge Summit.

          Mr. Fithian first visited our part of the country in the company of a fellow novice clergyman, Andrew Henter.  He came from Philadelphia by way of Lancaster and stating of Yorktowne (present day York, PA)  in his journal on May 16, 1775: "Its inhabitants are all Dutch".  Meaning that they were chiefly of German extraction.  Pressing on west the following morning.  He and Mr. Hunter reached the summit of our Blue Ridge on May 18, 1775, which he had called the South Blue Mountain.

           In 1816, an act of incorporation was passed in the Pennsylvania Legislature forming the Waynesboro, Greencastle and Mercersburg Turnpike Company.  On September 21, 1820 the road was reported completed over the mountain from the Maryland line near Emmetsburg to the west end of Waynesboro.

            Another legend has it that in 1822-23 Madame Don Augustine de Iturbide pasted this way and because the summit, rimmed in by mountains, was a reminder of her native Monterey in Mexico, she called it Monterey.

These excerpts are taken for the book "Blue Ridge Summit" by John Howard McClellan