TRI-STATE — Tourism associated with the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park in the Tri-State area is big business.

Some people think the canal can be an even bigger draw.

A number of ideas are being floated to improve the canal and the experience it offers. If all or some of the initiatives are successful, they would lead to new construction jobs, said Tom Riford, president and chief executive officer of the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The results of that labor would, in turn, have a significant impact on tourism and a spinoff of more tourism jobs, Riford said.

Riford said a big benefit of increased tourism is no new schools or sewer plants are needed to accommodate more visitors.

“They spend money and they leave,” Riford said. “More and more, we see that tourism is becoming a lifesaver.”

In Washington County alone, an estimated 600,000 people visit the old commercial transportation route every year and spend $9 million, according to statistics from the Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce and the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The C&O Canal passes local towns such as Williamsport and Hancock in Maryland and Shepherdstown and Harpers Ferry in West Virginia.

A Pennsylvania tourism official who has been helping local officials assess tourism potential along the canal said those towns are unique because they retain much of their original character.

Business owners and tourism officials said the towns and their C&O Canal access points draw canal users, particularly bicyclists who use the adjacent towpath.

All of this has tourism officials and others considering what untapped potential might exist in connection with the C&O Canal and its towpath.

Assessing the situation

Teams of analysts have fanned out in the Washington County towns of Hancock and Williamsport and in Brunswick and Point of Rocks in Frederick County, Md., to determine what can be done to attract more tourists.

More recently, Shepherdstown and Harpers Ferry decided they wanted to be involved, and assessments also were conducted in those towns, officials said.

Such assessments are conducted with the help of the Trail Town Program, an economic development initiative designed to help towns along the Great Allegheny Passage capitalize on tourism, according to its Web site at www.trailtowns.org.

The Great Allegheny Passage is a 150-mile trail between Cumberland, Md., and Pittsburgh that was connected to the C&O Canal in 2006.

When previous assessments were conducted for towns along the Great Allegheny Passage, the work led to the creation of 107 jobs, 24 new businesses and a $12 million economic impact to the region, said Cathy McCullom, regional director of the Trail Town Program.

The assessments look at a number of issues, such as:

• Are there places where riders can get their bicycles fixed?

• Are there plenty of restaurants and ice cream shops?

• Are there places that sell beer?

• If a visitor who is hiking or bicycling on the trail buys a clock at an antique store, can the shop owner mail it home for the visitor?

Assessment teams of about 25 people, including trail users, town residents, planners and business owners, went through the local towns to determine if there were enough restaurants of various types, if there were places to lock up bicycles, if businesses were well-marked and if crossings were safe, among other things, McCullom said.

It became obvious there was a need for signs to direct canal visitors into the towns and signs to direct people in the towns to the trail, McCullom said.

Another need was for a wider variety of businesses, McCullom said.

For instance, she said, there are fast-food places in the towns, but there is a need for additional casual-dining restaurants.

In Brunswick, there is no lodging, an obvious issue to address, McCullom said.

“You got to get the folks to stay overnight,” McCullom said.

On the plus side, McCullom said, some of the towns have great buildings that are vacant. If towns determine what they need to do to capitalize on tourism, the buildings could figure into the solutions, McCullom said.

McCullom said she thinks Williamsport has nice retail areas, and the town’s streets are wide enough to allow for bicycle lanes, McCullom said.

William T. Justice, chief of interpretation for the C&O Canal, said the assessments are similar to Main Street revitalization programs in which Tri-State-area municipalities have participated. Justice said it “makes all the sense in the world” for local towns to undertake the assessments, given they have a national park “passing right through their front yard.”

At a June 25 meeting in Williamsport, officials from that town and from Brunswick and Hancock met to explore applying for technical assistance through the National Park Service, McCullom said. The technical assistance would help the towns continue their tourism enhancement efforts and raise money for the work, McCullom said.

Investing in the future

Dave Smith, Hancock’s town manager, said the town wants to focus on having businesses that are sustainable — for the trail and for the businesses.

Sinclair Hamilton, a member of the Hancock Town Council, is striving for just that. He has invested in the future of Hancock by establishing the Riverrun Bed & Breakfast and the Riverrun Arts Center. The businesses, along the C&O Canal on Taney Street in Hancock, are in a building built in 1878 that has served as a whiskey warehouse, a greenhouse and a single-family home.

When the doors open, possibly by this fall, artists will be able to work at the inn and the B&B will be available to tourists as well as artists.

The building has bedrooms, common rooms, a kitchen and a balcony overlooking the canal and the Potomac River, Hamilton said.

Hamilton said Hancock is blessed with an attractive segment of the C&O Canal.

Strength in numbers

Cheryl Keyrouze, executive director of the Shepherdstown Visitors Center, said tourism associated with the C&O Canal is substantial.

“The number of people that are using these trails is just going up and up every year,” she said. “We have people coming in and asking about the C&O all the time.”

Dennis Hudson, owner of C&O Bicycle in Hancock, said he thinks conducting town assessments is a good idea. But Hudson said he thinks there should be more assistance for potential entrepreneurs, such as help getting through the process of obtaining permits and dealing with agencies such as health departments and their food preparation inspection processes.

“We already know what we need,” said Hudson, whose shop offers bicycle rentals, repairs and sales, and a bunkhouse where riders can spend the night.

Keyrouze said she thinks help can come from such sources as the U.S. Small Business Administration. It will be important for the public, business owners and town officials to join together to make sure assistance is offered, Keyrouze said.

Now that the assessments have been conducted in Hancock, Williamsport, Brunswick and Point of Rocks, people in those towns can craft their own approaches to capitalizing on tourism, McCullom said.

And they can work together, which can be a plus when trying to obtain government funding for projects, McCullom said.

“They’re a region now,” McCullom said. “It’s strength in numbers.”

Canal carried industry, commerce

During the 1800s and early 1900s in Washington County and other parts of the Tri-State area, wooden boats measuring up to 90 feet long and having the capacity to carry up to 125 tons of cargo glided up and down a canal along the Potomac River.

A towpath stretched along the canal, allowing mules attached to the boats by ropes to pull the canal boats up and down the waterway.

The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was supposed to open up commerce to the West. On July 4, 1828, construction that would take about 22 years was started on the 6-foot-deep canal. Eventually, it would run 184.5 miles from Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Md. It was completed Oct. 10, 1850, and operated until 1924

The National Park Service, at www.nps.gov/choh/, has a section on frequently asked questions that provides the following information and more:

• The cost of the canal was about $14 million. (In today’s dollars, that would be more than $350 million, according to Web sites that calculate inflation.)

• A work force of 4,000 worked on the canal at the height of construction.

• A trip down the canal took, on average, seven days, working 18 hours a day.

• A canal boat made an average of 25 trips per year.

• A boat carrying 100 tons made $25 per trip.

Canal use declined and then stopped as the rail system grew in popularity. But for nearly a century after it was completed in 1850, the C&O Canal was a booming operation that fueled economic development in the area.

During its heyday, industries such as limestone quarries and cement factories popped up along the canal. Their products, along with farm produce, timber, coal and much more, were hauled on the canal, according to the Western Maryland Historical Library Web site at www.whilbr.org.

Among the cement manufacturers was the Boteler Mill below Shepherdstown, W.Va., and the Round Top Cement Mill 3.3 miles above Hancock, according to the Web site.

Grain mills also operated around the canal, as did wharfs and small warehouses. The most notable wharfs likely were those in Williamsport, such as the Steffey and Findlay wharf and the Cushwa wharf near the Conococheague Aqueduct, according to the Web site.

Other than those at Georgetown and Cumberland, Williamsport was considered the most important port on the canal, according to the Web site.

Williamsport boasts of being the only spot on the canal where examples of major canal structures can be seen within a half-mile stretch. Both the Cushwa boat-turning basin and the Conococheague Aqueduct are off Potomac Street in Williamsport. Other major structures in Williamsport include the only Bollman Truss Bridge still in existence and a railroad lift bridge. The latter bridge, a short distance from the Cushwa turning basin, used a system of cables that allowed operators to lift the railroad bridge over the canal so canal boats could pass under it.

After the canal ceased operation in 1924, plans were made to construct a highway along its route. U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas opposed that plan. To make his case, he wrote an op-ed column that ran in The Washington Post on Jan. 19, 1954. He convinced the newspaper’s editors to go on a hike along the canal with him, and the editors changed their position on the road.

The canal became a national park in 1971, and today, it attracts 3.1 million visitors annually, including those who bicycle or hike along the towpath.

The towpath since 2006 has been added to the Great Allegheny Passage, allowing bicyclists and hikers to travel from Washington, D.C., to near Pittsburgh on a route with no motorized traffic.

The following are brief explanations of the programs in which the C&O Canal is included.

• The Great Allegheny Passage is a 150-mile system of bicycling and hiking trails that, when completed, will connect Cumberland, Md., and Pittsburgh. The connection to the C&O Canal towpath in Cumberland was made in 2006, creating a continuous nonmotorized corridor, 318 miles long, from McKeesport, near Pittsburgh, to Washington, D.C.

Over the next few years, additional segments will be added in the Pittsburgh area, eventually making it possible to bicycle from downtown Washington, D.C., into downtown Pittsburgh.

• The Allegheny Trail Alliance (ATA) is a coalition of seven trail organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania and Western Maryland that are building the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile multiple-use rail-trail system between Cumberland, Md., and Pittsburgh, and the 52-mile Montour Trail to provide a connection to Pittsburgh International Airport.

The passage currently is connected to the 184.5-mile C&O Canal towpath in Cumberland. It is a segment of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, one of eight nationally designated scenic trails.

• The Trail Town Program is an economic development initiative along the Great Allegheny Passage.

The Trail Town Program envisions a corridor of revitalized trail-side communities along the Great Allegheny Passage that reap the economic benefits of trail-based tourism and recreation as part of a larger, coordinated approach to regional economic development. The long-term economic viability of participating communities is to be achieved through concentrated business development efforts that capitalize on the trail user market.

• The Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area program is a geographical location recognized by the Maryland Heritage Areas Program.

The heritage area program’s stated mission is to promote the stewardship of historic, cultural and natural Civil War resources, focus on visitor experiences, and stimulate tourism, economic prosperity and educational development.

The following are addresses for Web sites with information about the C&O Canal.

• The Allegheny Trial Alliance Web site at www.atatrail.org has information about the Great Allegheny Passage, a system of bicycling and hiking trails that includes the C&O Canal towpath and eventually will provide a continuous nonmotorized corridor from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.

• The Trail Town Program at www.trailtowns.org is an economic development initiative along the Great Allegheny Passage, of which the C&O Canal towpath is a part.

• The National Park Service Web site at www.nps.gov/choh/ includes information about the C&O Canal National Historical Park.

• The Western Maryland Historical Library site at www.whilbr.org contains information about the C&O Canal, including a history, photos of and information about locks, aqueducts, businesses along the canal and much more.

• The Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area promotes the stewardship of historic, cultural and natural Civil War resources, encourages superior visitor experiences, and stimulates tourism, economic prosperity and educational development. The Web site is www.heartofthecivilwar.org.

Sunday

• Teams of analysts have fanned out in the Washington County towns of Hancock and Williamsport and in Brunswick and Point of Rocks in Frederick County, Md., to determine what can be done to attract more tourists to the towns in the vicinity of the C&O Canal and its towpath.

• During the 1800s and early 1900s in Washington County and other parts of the Tri-State area, wooden boats measuring up to 90 feet long and having the capacity to carry up to 125 tons of cargo glided up and down a canal along the Potomac River.

Monday

• Imagine climbing into a boat along the C&O Canal in Williamsport and passing through the Conococheague Aqueduct, under a railroad lift bridge and through Lock 44, just as canal travelers did a century ago. It’s an idea that is getting serious consideration

• When officials start talking about making changes along the C&O Canal National Historical Park and the nearby towns, not everyone agrees on what would constitute improvement.

Tuesday

• One issue that comes up when the talk turns to tourism and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park is: How one gets to the towpath?