Weverton is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

located in the southern tip of Washington County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, United States, near the north shore of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

. Its population is about 500. Weverton is located at the intersection of MD Route 67 and U.S. Route 340. The nearest incorporated communities are

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 269 at the 2020 United States census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac River, Potomac and Shenandoah River, Shenandoah Rivers in the ...

( to the west) and Brunswick ( to the east). Weverton's approximate elevation is above sea level. Weverton Cliffs, at the southern end of South Mountain where that ridge is interrupted by the Potomac River, are a landmark on 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 Tra ...

; they sit nearly at the halfway point of the trail and are well-known to through hikers. Weverton is the northwestern end of CSX Transportation's Metropolitan Subdivision, a 79-mile rail line that runs to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

History

Founded in the 1820s, Weverton was a speculative venture intended to be a mill town to use the waterpower of the Potomac and transportation provided by the

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the Grand Old Ditch, operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Patowmack Canal ...

. The community was the creation of

Caspar Wever Caspar is a masculine given name. It may refer to: People * Caspar (magus), a name traditionally given to one of the Three Magi in the Bible who brought the baby Jesus gifts *Caspar Austa (born 1982), Estonian cyclist *Caspar Badrutt (1848–1904) ...

, a chief construction engineer for the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

and a specialist in

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...

s, some of which are still in use. Later on, speculative land sales collapsed and floods washed out a file-making factory and other businesses. Several houses in the area predate the Civil War. During the war, several skimishes took place in the area and various forces passes through, including units involved in the

Battle of South Mountain The Battle of South Mountain, known in several early Southern United States, Southern accounts as the Battle of Boonsboro Gap, was fought on September 14, 1862, as part of the Maryland campaign of the American Civil War. Three pitched battles ...

and the

Battle of Antietam The Battle of Antietam ( ), also called the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, took place during the American Civil War on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virgi ...

. The community that remains has little connection with the original site of Weverton, which now lies partly under the CSX Transportation right-of-way and partly under the present right-of-way of U.S. Route 340. Weverton had a post office until 1951, when it was removed and consolidated with the

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

post office in adjacent Frederick County.

Geology

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...

soil series, called the Weverton Series, describes a soil typical of ridges in the upper

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the United States, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern ...

, comprising flaggy loams and a topsoil of hardwood detritus.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Washington County, Maryland Unincorporated communities in Maryland