by James Rada, Jr. It’s hard to believe that Edmund, a common snapping turtle at the Cunningham Falls Aviary, was the size of a quarter when he first came to Cunningham Falls. “He was found in a sand trap on a golf course in Frederick County,” said Park Superintendent Mark Spurrier. He believes that the…

Pictured from left are: (front row) Mel Poole, Mary Miller, Amy Whitney, Sally Fulmer; (back row) Stuart Frazier, James Baker, Rick Canter, and Chris Trone. Not shown: Roberto Juarez, Dave Vogel, Matthew Lindbergdashwork, Michele Maze. The Friends of Cunningham Falls and Gambrill State Parks held a “Reconnect With Friends” event at the Gambrill Park Tea…

James Rada, Jr. With just about every summer event in the area canceled because of COVID-19 and worries about traveling out of state because of quarantining, people are looking for something to do nearby. And let’s face it, they need to do something enjoyable to release some of the stress caused by the virus. So,…

James Rada, Jr. This year marks 50 years of celebrating the area’s maple-syrup-making heritage at the Cunningham Falls Maple Syrup Festival. “A lot of families produced maple syrup on their farms and homesteads, and we wanted to preserve that heritage and teach people about something not well known about this area,” said Ranger Travis Watts…

The namesake of our local ‘Cunningham’ Falls has been a mystery for years. Before the reference to the falls as ‘Cunningham’ Falls, around the 1920s, the falls were known as McAfee Falls, Harman Falls, the Cascades, and Hunting Creek Falls. Recently, a potential answer to the ‘Cunningham’ mystery has been uncovered via the release of…

The reason for the name “Cunningham” being chosen as the name of the Catoctin Area’s local waterfalls, located west of Thurmont on Route 77, has become slightly clearer recently when following a reference from a May 2018 issue of The Frederick News-Post to an article from 1968. Historically, the falls had been called Herman’s Falls…

Deb Abraham Spalding In the October issue of The Catoctin Banner, the cover article was called “The History and Mystery of McAfee Falls.” In it, we explored the McAfee family, who were the landowners of the falls, now called Cunningham Falls and part of Cunningham Falls State Park. We invited people to help solve the…

by Deb Abraham Spalding The McAfee family (pronounced Mack-a-Fee), originally from the Island of Bute, Scotland, planted roots in Frederick County, Maryland, around 1774 from Franklin County, Pennsylvania, staking a homestead on land that is now known as Cunningham Falls. Daniel McAfee was the original settler of this land, and transferred the ownership to his…