Lambs Knoll is a peak of South Mountain on the border of Washington County and Frederick County in the state of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The peak is the second tallest on South Mountain in Maryland behind

Quirauk Mountain Quirauk Mountain is the highest point on South Mountain. The peak is located in northeastern Washington County, Maryland. It lies just southwest of Fort Ritchie Military Reservation in the village of Cascade and about 1/2 mile southeast of t ...

Geography

The peak is located to the south of

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

and Turner's Gaps, and marks the beginning of geographic change in South Mountain from a solitary narrow ridge to a broad highland plateau, as it nears the convergence with

Catoctin Mountain Catoctin Mountain, along with the geologically associated Bull Run Mountains, forms the easternmost mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are in turn a part of the Appalachian Mountains range. The ridge runs northeast–southwest for ...

. The

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tr ...

passes just to the southeast of the summit but a spur trail leads from it to the crest near an old fire tower and former Federal military microwave communications facility and concrete tower, now used by the FAA. Just south of the peak the AT passes by White Rocks which provides the best views from the mountain. The

Potomac Appalachian Trail Club The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) is a volunteer organization that works to maintain hiking trails in the Washington, D.C. area of the United States. PATC was founded in 1927 to protect and develop the local section of the then new Appala ...

maintained Bear Springs Cabin is located on the eastern slope of the mountain.

History

Lambs Knoll was referred to as ''Lamb's Old Field'' in the 19th century and is likely named for Milton and Mary Lamb who are believed to have farmed the mountains summit in the 1830s. The old nomenclature persisted through the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and possibly in to the 20th century. The first published use of the modern name came in 1934 when the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

erected a fire tower on the summit. The fire tower was staffed through the late 1940s and used by hikers to obtain views of the Middletown and Hagerstown valleys until it was fenced off by the state of Maryland in the 1980s.

References

* Strain, Paula. ''The Blue Hills of Maryland.'' Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, 1993 pp. 116–119

External links

* {{coord, 39, 26, 55, N, 77, 37, 39, W, display=title Mountains of Maryland Mountains on the Appalachian Trail South Mountain Range (Maryland−Pennsylvania) Landforms of Washington County, Maryland Landforms of Frederick County, Maryland Civilian Conservation Corps in Maryland