The Mountain Seaside by James Rada, Jr. It was supposed to be a Maryland seashore on a mountaintop. In 1889, the Buena Vista Ice Company bought 400 acres of land where Fort Ritchie would eventually be built, and set aside 20 acres for a lake. “The business had counterparts on the East Coast below the…

The Wreck of the Blue Mountain Express, Part 1 by James Rada, Jr. Note: This is the first of two articles about the wreck of the Blue Mountain Express between Thurmont and Sabillasville in 1915. On June 25, 1915, the Blue Mountain Express, bound for Hagerstown, pulled into the Western Maryland Railroad Station in Thurmont…