* - (Theme music playing) - The story of a people unfolds across their lands.

And parks preserved for all, are most treasured places, historic and natural.

Maryland is proud of its National and State Parks.

Priceless legacies bequeathed one generation to the next.

Join us for Maryland's best, Outdoors Maryland: Love Our Parks.

- Why are we patriotic today?

Where does that come from?

And you come to a place like this, and you see this battle, and you hear that song, and you're like, "This is why people are so moved.

And this is why the land of the free and the home of the brave is so important."

- Fort McHenry in Baltimore preserves the site of the historic Battle for Baltimore fought against the British during the war of 1812.

The American victory here was forever memorialized by The Star-Spangled Banner.

A poem written by Francis Scott Key.

Key witnessed the shocking battle and saw the glorious flag raised in triumph over the fort.

Set to music, Key's poem was destined to become America's national anthem.

- The United States is very unique, in that our national anthem is about the American flag.

At Fort McHenry some of the most powerful symbols of the country come together.

This is the power of place.

- The importance of Fort McHenry comes from its pivotal role in the war of 1812.

The fort had been built here during the Revolutionary War era.

By the time of the battle for Baltimore, two years into the war of 1812, the British had already burned Washington DC and had assembled a huge army and fleet of warships fresh from victory over Napoleon, to launch an attack by land and sea, against Baltimore.

- You could make an argument the United States was literally losing the war of 1812.

Baltimore was the third largest city in the United States, a ship building center, and a valuable prize.

Standing between the might of the British Navy and the British army, was a small fort, Fort McHenry manned largely by recruits and citizen soldiers, and a number of militia, scraped up from the city of Baltimore and the surrounding counties.

- They had seen the British army burn Washington to the ground, they saw the American army run at Bladensburg.

Now they were here looking out over the top of these battlements here, out at the mightiest fleet that the British army and Navy had ever sent here.

There was 50-some ships out there, and there was no guarantee that those ships wouldn't pummet this fort down into the dust.

- From here on the ramparts of Fort McHenry you can look down the Patapsco River.

Francis Scott Key's truce ship was about four miles away, just beyond where the modern Key Bridge now stands.

The enemy ships were about halfway to the bridge.

All night the British fired about 1000 shells at the Fort.

700 rockets.

The defenders hunkering down behind the ramparts.

That was the only shelter they had, not only from the shells and the rockets, but also from the rainstorm that went all night long.

By dawn's early light the rain ends, the bombardment ceases, and a giant flag, 30 by 42 feet, one of the largest American flags even sewn at that time, was hoisted as a special act of defiance.

And the British sailed away giving up their attempt to take the city.

And the defenders jumped up on top of the ramparts and cheered as the big flag went up.

And those cheers echo down this Patapsco River, it must've been a moment not to be forgotten.

Key clearly understood the moment.

That rush of emotion led him to write the words that became The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem.

(fireworks popping) You know, the guns have been silent now for about 195 years, and yet the site still resonates with people.

The reverberation still continues today.

- Fort McHenry is open all seasons.

Special summertime events, reenactors and rangers, strive to bring history alive.

Everyone who comes here makes a connection.

Everyone who comes discovers heroes.

High schooler Tyler Mink plays five from the Fort McHenry Guard band.

- I think the war of 1812 is important because it's one of America's forgotten wars.

It's likened to the Korean War.

And I believe it's important that we relive it here because the bricks cannot speak for themselves.

- (canon launching) - Robert Stewart, a park ranger studies history of Coppin State University.

Research shows, he may be a descendant of slaves freed to Trinidad by the British during the war of 1812.

- Study of history allows you to make connections between what has happened in the past, and what's going on in the present to determine the new future.

When we look at history, we study history, we the mistakes of the past.

We see the good things of the past also.

So we take the good and the bad, blend them together, we can make a better future.

That's why I study history.

- Richard Monaco, a veteran is a volunteer reenactor.

- Learn what happened here, but make it your own.

Whatever you think it means for you, living in this country that we live in.

And I've seen people go away with smiles on their face, I've seen people go away kind of somber, because maybe a family member was buried underneath the flag.

I've seen veterans cry, when they're here.

So it just depends.

Each person has their own personal connection, I think, as to what that flag means to them.

- Catherine Holden is a high school history teacher and seasonal park ranger.

- For me, the flag embodies everything we've been through over the last 200 plus years.

It is truly who we are, and what we've been through.

I mean, whether it has the 15 stars that we see on the period flag of the war of 1812, or if it's got the 50 stars.

It's what we've experienced and how we've changed and grown as a country.

- Fort McHenry was a military post before and after the war of 1812.

- This was an important Fort during the revolutionary war, it served the country during the war of 1812, it was a union Fort during the American civil war, a hospital during World War I, and a coast guard base during World War II.

- Since the 19th century, people have celebrated Fort McHenry.

Yet its preservation was an epic of struggle and perseverance too.

- Mrs. Reuben Ross Holloway, citizen activist, spearheaded efforts to make The Star-Spangled Banner the national anthem, finally accomplished in the early 1930s.

("Star Spangled Banner" plays) Mrs. Holloway was not the only woman involved at Fort McHenry.

- When we think of Fort McHenry, we think of the soldiers in their blue uniforms.

But what we're gonna see is during the war of 1812, women were bringing the water out to the Fort, making sure supplies and rations were maintained during the battle.

And even during World War I, where this was still an active military base, we see female nurses, serving here at Fort McHenry to help injured and wounded soldiers coming back from World War I.

So they were definitely an active part, maybe behind the scenes, but always here.

- By the end of the 1930s Fort McHenry, rescued as a national park and the anthems birthplace, won a double distinction as America's only National Monument and Historic Shrine.

- I think national parks are gifts to the American public.

They're the most precious places in our nation.

And we're so lucky here in Maryland, that we have over a dozen of these places where real events happened, where incredible beauty exists in nature, where aspects of our culture and heritage are embraced and preserved.

These are the places that tell us who we are as Americans.

* - This program was made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities.

Preview and support our programs at mpt.org/reelchanges.

* (Theme music playing) The story of a people unfolds across their lands.

And parks preserved for all, are most treasured places, historic and natural.

Maryland is proud of its National and State Parks.

Priceless legacies bequeathed one generation to the next.

Join us for Maryland's best, Outdoors Maryland: Love Our Parks.

* - Janes Island is an amazing place.

The beautiful open big sky where the colors of the sky and the clouds are reflected on the Chesapeake Bay, and the sound of the wind moves and pushes the grasses on the Savanna of the island.

We call it our Caribbean of the Chesapeake.

- Janes Island State Park is just one of more than 60 State Parks and natural areas in Maryland.

Janes Island Proper, 2,900 acres of marshland and beach, is only accessible by boat.

The mainland area of Janes Island State Park has docks, campgrounds, a park store, and other modern amenities.

Janes Island lies on Tangier Sound near Crisfield on the Eastern shore.

The park is a stunning gateway to the Chesapeake Bay.

- What makes Janes Island unique among Maryland State Parks, is its connection to the water.

It being an island is surrounded by water.

It's intersected by approximately 30 miles of canoe and kayak trails.

It also has five miles of uninhabited beach to explore.

Janes Island offers tent camping and cabins, canoe and kayak rentals, boat slips, and a dock area.

Fishing and crabbing are favorite adventures here.

(soft rippling music) Paddling the water trails through the saltwater marshes, is an excursion into another world.

* - You have marsh grass towering over you.

You feel very close to nature.

You feel like you're worlds away from civilization.

You become part of this ecosystem.

- It's the at Chesapeake Bay at its most pristine and profound.

* Janes Island is an ideal setting for Park Quest, a wildly successful program at State Parks across Maryland, The park service goal, to create good old fashioned outdoors fun and rekindle cherished memories in adults who will become nature mentors to the next generation.

Just as they had.

- Hey, good job.

- This year teams will complete their choice of 8 out of 14 quests at astonishingly diverse parks across the State.

Challenges run the gamut.

From visiting historic sites, to hiking with GPS, to Frisbee golf, to exploring water trails.

All for free.

- You can go to the Chesapeake Bay, you can go to the Atlantic Ocean, or you can spend time in the mountains.

And what we're seeing now is families creating memories as they come out and they go camping together, and they go hiking together, or they take a canoe out.

It is this opportunity that we have always provided, but has somehow become less important in our society.

We're creating an awareness and the incentive to get those families out there.

- This year's Park Quest adventure at Janes Island, is one of the most challenging and rewarding.

Teams canoe or kayak to the island, find a medallion, and discover the answer to a clue.

Four generations of the Kenney family arrive at Janes Island Park Quest team name?

Nature lovers.

This is grandmother's first time in a canoe.

It was Jennifer who discovered the Park Quest website.

- I definitely think it's important for families to get out and enjoy the outdoors together.

Especially nowadays with young children always on the computer, and constantly playing video games and things like that.

I think it's very important.

- Vincent, age 12.

- When I paddle on the water, I feel excited because I know, I'm making the boat move and that nothing else is.

So it's fun for me.

There's wind, tide, and more than one black fly to contend with.

Real nature.

What Park Quest is all about.

Donna Kenny.

- I feel like being on the water in the canoe is being back to nature.

I love the Chesapeake Bay - James Kenny , age 24.

- We pulled up to the island in the canoes, and we walked across onto the beach.

And I mean it's just amazing that that's there.

You've got the waves breaking right there, and the horizon.

You could see for miles and it's just wonderful.

- After the beach, the nature lovers find the medallion and the answer to the clue.

They'll head back and get their Park Quest passport stamped.

And they plan to extend their discovery of Janes Island by camping here tonight.

Meanwhile, another Park Quest team sets out.

The mighty four.

The Greenleaves family won last year's while looking finale.

Where families who complete their quests, compete for prizes - And we're back for another year.

(laughs) - Maureen Greenleaves .

- The marshlands here at Janes Island are absolutely beautiful.

It's different than all the other places that we've canoed.

'Cause usually we've always done a river.

I truly believe people don't realize what's offered.

- Corrine , age 12.

- So this is my second year doing Park Quest and yeah, I really do enjoy it 'cause you get to visit all the parks, and it's a new experience every single time you go.

'Cause they have like new stuff to do.

- Peter Greenleaves.

What they do is with that they give you a taste of the park.

They provide everything for you, and if you wanna come back, then you can come back and spend more time at your leisure.

Maryland State Parks are beautiful.

- Park also makes them think about why we're here, what's going on?

Because I think it's part of the adventure for our kids to think about things.

- Humans have thrived at Janes Island for thousands of years.

English settlers arrived in the 1600s.

- In the early 19th century with the development of canned food technology, it was possible to market the seafood resources, especially oysters, from the Crisfield area on a worldwide basis.

At one point, the Chesapeake Bay was producing a huge percentage of the world's oyster supply.

In the late 1880s, a fish rendering factory was established on the island itself.

They even built a small company town for the employees of the fish factory.

- Seafood resources declined in the 20th century.

And so did the Crisfield area.

- The residents of the island moved to the mainland, and the island began to revert back to its natural state.

- By the 1960s, there was a movement to preserve this unique area.

Janes Island became a State Park with land donated by the Hodson family, the city of Crisfield, and acquired by the State.

Today, it's pristine beauty and unique habitat, are protected and now belong to all.

* - It's important to preserve the bay's marshes because they filter the Chesapeake Bay's water as well as provide this essential habitat for wildlife, that make the bay area so unique.

- Our goal is to get as many children and their mentors out into State Parks, or whatever park is near them okay to experience the outdoors.

To create a sense of wonder, a sense of belonging, a sense of stewardship.

Make that a cherished memory so they don't want these things to disappear in their society.

- The first thing that State Parks offer, is that intensity of experience.

That intensity is important in feeling connected.

A part of nature.

And the beauty of the interconnectedness of nature, it's fascination for the human being is limitless.

- This program was made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities.

Preview and support our programs at mpt.org/reelchanges.

* * (somber music) - The story of a people unfolds across their lands.

And parks preserved for all, are most treasured places, historic and natural.

Maryland is proud of its National and State Parks.

Priceless legacies bequeathed one generation to the next.

Join us for Maryland's best, Outdoors Maryland: Love Our Parks.

(frolicking music) - If you were to take the timeline of the United States, and lay it right next to the timeline of Hampton, both of those would be parallel.

Hampton truly is the story of America.

Hampton National Historic Site is the best kept secret North of Baltimore in Towson.

The historic mansion house, outbuildings and grounds, preserve over 200 years of American life, unfolding in many stories.

From fabulous wealth, to cruel slavery.

- Places like at Hampton are where the American character was born, where it grew, where it was shaped, and really formed who we are as a culture today.

Seven generations of the Ridgely family and hundreds of their workers lived here.

From the colonial period in the 18th century, to World War II in the 20th.

The hugest State once encompassed lands stretching from present day Loch Raven to White Marsh.

- Hampton National Historic Site preserves the core of what was once a vast 25,000 acre estate.

We preserve not just the great Hampton mansion, but also the farm house, slave quarters, stables, family cemetery, and all the surrounding landscape.

- The centerpiece of the estate, is the stunningly restored Georgian-style mansion built soon after the revolutionary war.

Captain Charles Ridgely, an entrepreneur and self-made man, amassed his fortune in agriculture, the mercantile trades, and especially iron works.

Supplying the American Revolution with canon and ball.

(hammering sound) - When it was completed in 1790, it may have been the largest private residence in America.

It was certainly one of the largest.

- Almost all of the exquisite furnishings of the grand house are original to the mansion, including the family crest.

The meticulous restoration showcases different eras throughout many rooms upstairs and downstairs.

A rare progression in historic estates.

Travel back to 1810 in the dining room.

- Governor Ridgely was said in the period, to keep the best table in America.

So, we know that there were a lot of very elaborate dinner parties that must have been held here.

- The drawing room dazzles with the pre-Civil War era, 1830 to 1860.

- Eliza Eichelberger Ridgely travelled abroad on four different occasions.

And this very elaborately furnished room reflects her very sophisticated taste.

The music room is set to the period immediately following the Civil War.

The 1870s through the 1890s.

It's very typical of the high Victorian tastes of that era.

Probably the single most important object is Eliza Ridgely's own harp.

- Eliza's portrait painted at the tender age of 15, is the centerpiece of the grand hall.

- The original by Thomas Sully, is now at the National Gallery in Washington.

- This portrait helped save the mansion from ruin after World War II.

When David Finley, the director of the National Gallery of Art, came to Hampton to acquire the portrait and discovered the estate in serious decline, he and the last Ridgely master, arranged for the Mellon family's Avalon Foundation to purchase Hampton.

The foundation donated Hampton to the National Park Service and the American people.

- Hampton was designated a National Historic Site in 1948.

- Hampton was the first site of the National Park Service to be preserved on the basis of its architectural importance.

A grand example of the American Georgian style.

- Many of those same individuals who had helped to preserve Hampton, then went on to found the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

What was saving one house has led to the preservation of many others in America.

- The Ridgely connection continues.

Catherine Thomas Burnett is a cultural historian.

Her grandfather was born at Hampton in the 1880s.

She visited the historic site as a child with her mother.

Now she serves on the board of Historic Hampton Incorporated, which helps to support the site.

- So I have lots of fond memories of coming here, and I just wandered the halls and the grounds.

I loved going up into the Coupa.

It's still probably one of my favorite things to do.

When I was at the top and the light and the view just always took my breath away.

The power of Hampton is that it has so many stories to be told.

It's a never ending process.

There's a never ending amount of information coming to light.

So it's just so important to preserve those stories.

- The museum has a 45,000 object collection.

And one of the most important holdings, opens a window on a parallel universe at Hampton.

A rare 19th century Christmas list, tabulates gifts given to slave children here.

These names breathe life into a complex world, often lost in history's shadows.

For all its beauty, Hampton was also one of Maryland's largest slave plantations.

Enslaving up to 350 people at its peak.

- We see a marvelous house standing on top of a hill.

It dominates the hill, and therefore the person that's in the house, dominates everything that surrounds him.

At the bottom of the hill lived the majority of the people on the estate, who worked their lives away.

- The historic site has preserved stone slave and servant quarters down the hill from the mansion.

These simple rooms and living history demonstrations, illuminate how life of rarefied privilege here, and across the nation, was sometimes built on the raw sweat of generations of laborers.

From immigrant indentured servants, to slaves, to tenant farmers.

Angela Roberts-Burton is a ranger and historian of the African Diaspora in America.

- This is an iron collar that Governor Charles Ridgely III, the third master of this estate and 18th governor of the State of Maryland had made for one of his enslaved young boys.

They would dangle bells from the end of it, the child would have to sleep in this.

It really just shakes me to my core.

- Across the sweep of time and society, Hampton unfolds the tapestry of the American experience.

- You could put your hand on that slave cabin wall where slaves lived.

You can walk the formal gardens where the Ridgely family strolled.

You can go in the dining room and see all of the opulence, just as if you were a guest of that family.

And it's a very immediate connection.

Every American can find a modern relevancy to the story of Hampton.

Whether that's a story of entrepreneurship, a story of industrial development, a story of slavery, a story of indentured servants, immigrants coming, working, getting a new start in a new land.

Historic places like Hampton, they make you think.

And that's why it's important to preserve those sites today.

Because when you lose the physical site, you'll lose that connection.

- Coming to a national park is sort of like a natural civics lesson.

These are places owned by the public, preserved by the public, stewarded by the public.

So by coming to them, learning about them, experiencing them, you're participating in a democratic process.

And hopefully becoming the next stewards of these places.

- This program was made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities.

Preview and support our programs at mpt.org/reelchanges.

* (somber music) - The story of a people unfolds across their lands.

And parks preserved for all, are most treasured places, historic and natural.

Maryland is proud of its National and State Parks.

Priceless legacies bequeathed one generation to the next.

Join us for Maryland's best, Outdoors Maryland: Love Our Parks.

(upbeat music) - Patapsco Valley turned 100 years old in 2008.

We'd like to see a 100, 200, 300, maybe, more years of Patapsco Valley looking just like it looks today.

Lots of trees, clean water, a really nice place for folks to come.

And we need our youth to accomplish that.

They're gonna be the next generation that helps protect our lands.

- Patapsco Valley State Park is a premier urban park, encompassing over 16,000 acres to the East and South of the city of Baltimore.

The park consists of eight distinct recreational areas in five locations, along the Patapsco River, as it winds through four counties on the way to Baltimore Harbor, and the Chesapeake Bay.

Patapsco was created as an escape from urban life.

And it remains so today.

Attracting nearly a million visitors every year.

- And we are ever growing.

Our numbers seem to go up each year.

With new visitors trying out Patapsco and finding the gem that's close by.

- Patapsco offers classic outdoor adventure.

Playgrounds and pavilions, canoeing, fishing, camping, and over 170 miles of scenic trail, some for biking and horseback riding.

Patapsco has historic sites, including ruins of old mills.

The Avalon History Center is a restored 185 year old millhouse.

- There are several must-see features within Patapsco Valley State Park.

The Thomas Viaduct, very visible as you enter the Avalon area in the Southern end of Patapsco.

One of the oldest arched stone viaducts within the United States.

Still active to this day.

Another feature in that same area, is the Orange Grove Swinging Bridge.

And it's quite a cool site for a visitor to go to and actually walk across the swinging bridge in Patapsco.

The views up and down the river, there are fabulous.

Some of the other features might be our rapids area in the McKeldin section of the park.

Again, a really scenic walk right along the shoreline of the Patapsco River.

The Hollofield Area has an overlook, and you can see the historic Rt.

40 Bridge.

Hard to see the river itself, but you certainly can see the defined valley.

And the magnificent amount of trees now that line the Patapsco River.

Protecting it from future floods, hopefully, and ensuring a lush cool environment for all of our visitors, and hopefully a sustainable river.

As those trees are really important to the cleansing of the waters that flow into the Patapsco River.

- Patapsco is a host park for a new initiative of the Maryland Conservation Corps.

The Maryland Civic Justice Corps, offers paid summer jobs to 200 urban youth.

The teenagers work on much-needed conservation projects at the park.

And gain skills that prepare them for careers and a lifetime of healthy outdoor recreation.

- We do want to help kids create bonds with the natural.

Not just because we want them to grow up and become stewards of the environment, but also for their own benefits.

Because there's a growing body of research that tells us that when kids have an opportunity to interact especially in unstructured play, in an outdoor environment, there's a whole host of benefits that come to them.

In terms of their cognitive skills, academic abilities, their physical health and wellbeing, their mental health and wellbeing, their ability to solve problems, to resolve conflict, their ability to think creatively.

So we put them out here, and it's not always a really predictable environment.

And that's what helps train your brain, to solve problems and think on your feet.

- Small teams rotate through a series of projects.

- For the rest of this week we are creating stream buffer areas along the Patapsco River.

Our crew will be digging the holes, planting the trees that are actually specifically selected for the site that they're going into.

Which reduces erosion and also decreases the amount of sediment that's going into the Patapsco River.

- Janae understands the benefits of their efforts.

- It helps because if we didn't have trees, I guess the whole area will get flooded by the river.

It's kind of good.

'cause you have fun and do work.

And you still get paid for it.

And that's a good thing for me.

- Hopes are high that the kids of this team, will come back to hike the trail they're building.

- The is coming down too.

But it's just a little... (background chatter) - Surreal is learning the value of working together.

- It makes you work up a sweat a little bit, but it's okay.

And we just work together to get things done...teamwork.

- At, Gunpowder Falls State Park, also near Baltimore, the team rebuilds an engine.

Promoting technical skills, confidence, and the value of recycling.

- And no, I didn't know anything about engines before I got here.

- Annika is learning to adapt to new experiences.

- I thought it was gonna be a good experience for when I get older, and my car break down and I had to fix it.

I already told my friends about me working on the engine, and I am very proud of myself.

- Fun Fridays.

Scaling a mountain of pizzas, and other outdoor adventures.

Some of our team have gone fishing before, some not.

This is LeShan's first time.

- My favorite part of fishing was catching the fish, not putting the worms on the hook.

- I see a fish.

They love you man.

- I got it.

- Priscilla's uncle took her fishing when she was young.

- No I don't wanna pick it up, I'm scared.

- Yes, I'm having a lot of fun.

(laughs) Well, I like being outside instead of being in a house bored and not doing nothing.

- The real catch, discovery of nature as their environment too.

- I didn't know that the trash in the Patapsco River would go to the Chesapeake Bay and end up in our seafood that we eat.

- Patapsco Valley State Park was always envisioned as both forest preserve, and recreation area.

- It is Maryland's first State Park, and the first State Forester, Fred Besley, helped establish and promote the park over a century ago.

- Besley's interest of course, was in preserving the tree cover.

There had been a disastrous flood in the Patapsco in the 1860s, which wiped out all the industrial development that then existed.

And by the early 20th century, that area was beginning to reforest itself, very nicely.

But cut and run lumbermen were starting to show up to strip off those trees.

- The park was established with a behest from John Glenn of Catonsville.

And specifically designed as an urban escape from sweltering Baltimore.

Besley realized that one of the best ways to sell the public on the forestry agenda, was to encourage them to recreate in the outer doors.

And by the middle of the 19 teens, he had established public camping grounds along the Patapsco river, where people from the city could come out for as long as they chose.

Some people came for as long as five or six months and lived in the park, using the railroad to commute into the city.

Yeah, even the Besley family would spend a couple months at a time, camping along the Patapsco in the 19 teens and twenties.

- State Parks were built on a premise.

That human beings need nature for resource and rejuvenation.

- There is nothing more contrasting to the hustle and bustle of street life, and shops, and offices, than a pond, a waterfall, a forest.

And I think that, that contrast is critical to the emotional and psychological wellbeing of people.

Nature provides that source of peace, that source of connectedness to something greater than yourself.

- This program was made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities.

Preview and support our programs at mpt.org/reelchanges.

* (somber music) - The story of a people unfolds across their lands.

And parks preserved for all, are most treasured places, historic and natural.

Maryland is proud of its National and State Parks.

Priceless legacies bequeathed one generation to the next.

Join us for Maryland's best, Outdoors Maryland: Love Our Parks.

(soft music) At 5:45 that afternoon.

If you were a soldier who made it through that day, something happened that you had prayed for since the first shot was fired.

The sun went down...and you thanked your creator that you'd made it through those 12 hours of savagery, which no one has ever seen since that day.

The past continues to haunt and hallow the present here, the killing fields of Antietam national battlefield, the Civil War battle fought here was the bloodiest single day ever for American losses before or since 23,000 total dead, wounded, or missing.

This national park preserves more than three square miles of rural farmland, north of Sharpsburg and west of Antietam Creek.

The mission is to honor all those who fought here and to give visitors a chance to experience the landscape as the soldiers saw it on that day, the park has created walking tours of the main areas of battle.

Serene places now with innocent sounding names, the cornfield, sunken road, Burnside bridge, all a profound memorials to catastrophic suffering and loss, but also to extraordinary bravery and endurance.

When you have that level of sacrifice.

It provides the land here with a special feeling.

It's not a place where you come to learn about generals.

And then we had famous generals here.

We had George McAllen, and Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson, and Long Street, Joe Hooker.

They were here, but this place was a battle that was fought by the privates and the corporals and the sergeants.

They were the ones who stood in line and face the fire of their enemy, and still went forward.

Some of them never left.

They lost their lives here that day.

And everybody who was here, their lives are changed.

This is the place that changed America.

- Beyond its bloody statistics, Antietam changed the course of the Civil War.

- The invasion in the September of 1862 into Maryland, is I think the turning point of the entire Civil War, The lease offensive in the Maryland is literally part of a thousand-mile front of Confederate advancement.

What he believes is possible in September of 1862 is nothing less than Southern independence.

- The quiet farmland around Sharpsburg had no strategic importance, but it did have defensible ridges.

The two armies positioned themselves across from each other along Antietam Creek.

- And in many places, the opposing forces laid down to sleep within shouting distance of each other.

- Private William F. Goodhue later wrote of the mounting tension.

Premonitions of battle were growing stronger.

- We knew that the culmination of another great tragedy was at hand.

How palyed were the faces of all.

With unkempt hair, thus giving them the appearance, almost of Wildman.

- And as expected on the 17th, this grim harvest of death began at dawn.

- (canons firing) - Thr battle moved North to South.

The ferocious morning fighting began in the Miller Cornfield.

40 acres that saw 13,000 casualties before noon.

- Mabattlefields in many places, there are cornfields.

But when you say "The corn field," most people get that image of the bloody cornfield of Antietam.

- The ground was strewn with dead and wounded horses and men.

Muskets and sidearms broken and twisted in every imaginable manner.

The blue and the gray were indiscriminately mingled.

Either motionless and lifeless, or dragging their bleeding forms along in search of some less exposed situation.

Captain J Albert Monroe.

- By midday the battle moved to a sunken farm lane called Hog Trough Road.

- That sunken road served as a Confederate defensive line for an attack by over 9,000 Union troops.

That fighting there became the next phrase that everybody realizes when you talk about Antietam or Sharpsburg, Bloody Lane.

- Our firing was resuming with vigor.

And the result was terrible to the enemy.

They could do little harm when we were shooting them like sheep in a pen.

The dead and wounded were a horrible sight to behold.

As we found them in some cases, they were two and three deep.

Sergeant Charles A Fuller.

- All afternoon the battle waged at the lower bridge.

A beautiful arch stone bridge across Antietam Creek on the way to Sharpsburg.

- Ambrose Burnside and his Union troops were faced up against 200 Georgian sharpshooters.

Who held them at bay, over 9,000 Union troops for about seven hours.

I can't even imagine what that would have been like for the Georgians.

Eventually Burnside's Union troops were able to force their way across the bridge and still to this day holds his name.

At the end of the day, the sound of gunfire was replaced by the mounting of over 17,000 wounded troops.

At the end of the day, over 6,000 men had died here.

- Union and Confederate casualties were almost matched.

But Lee's decimated army retreated back across the Potomac.

- This defeat enabled Lincoln to announce the Emancipation Proclamation, and that in turn dramatically reshaped what this war was about.

No longer would there be any talk of settling the war and keeping slavery.

The Antietam National Cemetery was created after the war in 1867 and thousands of hastily dug battlefield graves were disinterred.

But only Union soldiers were reburied at the new cemetery with the remains of over 1700 unknowns.

Battlefield grounds preserved by the war department, were transferred to the National Park Service in the 1930s.

Which greatly expanded preserved acres and protects its rural views.

Monuments are dedicated throughout the battlefield.

Including the Maryland State Soldier's Monument.

That honors both Confederate and Union soldiers.

Every year the town of Sharpsburg commemorates the fallen.

And Memorial services are held at the cemetery.

- Antietam is a one of a kind location.

It's recognized nationally as the most well-preserved Civil War battlefield in the United States.

It's a real crown jewel of the whole park system.

And the people in Maryland have done this.

- Recently remains of an unknown Union soldier, were found dug up by a groundhog in the bloody cornfield where it all began, dawn that day, nearly 150 years ago.

- The fragments were a part of a leg bone and jawbone, and some teeth.

And in a piece of leather that looked to be from a boot.

This is the first time in the time, I've been here that any soldier has been found.

So it gave me and the staff here a reason to know why we protect this place on a day-to-day basis.

The 23,000 casualties here is why we consider it a sacred place.

- You know this is Maryland's national battlefield here.

This belongs to the people.

- This program was made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities.

Preview and support our programs at mpt.org/reelchanges.

* (somber music) - The story of a people unfolds across their lands.

And parks preserved for all, are most treasured places, historic and natural.

Maryland is proud of its National and State Parks.

Priceless legacies bequeathed one generation to the next.

Join us for Maryland's best, Outdoors Maryland: Love Our Parks.

- Areas such as New Germany, tie into your soul and your heart over time.

It's rugged landscapes, the tremendous forest preserve.

When you come up here, you have more of a sense of solitude and just experience nature in one of its more pure forms.

- New Germany State Park manager, Michael Gregory, is retiring after 30 years of service with State Parks.

But he's not going anywhere.

He's built his family a house overlooking the park in Meadow Mountain.

- This is an area where I met my wife, where my children were born.

They had all the New Germany State Park as their backyard to begin with.

It was always home.

- New Germany State Park, named for its early settlers, lies in Northeast Garrett County.

It's surrounded by 54,000 acres of Savage River State Forest, which protects some of Maryland's last official Wildlands.

- In the mountains, Western Maryland, in this area of the Appalachians.

There was a scenery, there was a sense of culture that I will continue to cherish for the rest of my life.

- New Germany State Park is a gateway to the big mountain country of Western Maryland and its world-class rugged adventure.

- New Germany State Park is what I will term a classic state park.

Once you have settled in, either to your cabin or to one of our campsites here at New Germany, then you can enjoy the day-use area and swimming at the beach.

Also fishing, hiking trails, and a host of other programs that are offered by our seasonal staff during the summer months.

And from there, the park can serve as a base camp for you to be able to enjoy all the other activities that Western Maryland has to offer, particularly in Garrett County.

The other State Parks, Deep Creek, Herrington Manor, Swallow Falls.

But then there's also the different recreational industries here.

Downhill skiing during the winter months, you can enjoy all the different boating activities that the Deep Creek lake area has to offer.

White-water rafting on the Jaak River, and just a host of other activities that just really make this a recreational wonderland for people to come and enjoy.

- The mountains are compelling in all seasons.

These hardy souls from Baltimore, took on winter campaign.

- You know, out West there's Yosemite and Yellowstone.

And it's really nice to have things exactly like that, and things just as beautiful as that right here in Maryland's own backyard.

- When you come out here, you immediately connect.

This is the way that Maryland originally looked, and I know that when I have kids, I want them to be able to appreciate this kind of beauty.

- Throw me the phone book - I hear on the radio, they found the toat over in this section.

New Germany State Park is an ideal setting for the park services, revived Ranger School.

- I have a gentleman here at cabin 11 with the shotgun on the porch.

- Four weeks of intensive training.

- Where did you get the mountain Dew?

- We're trying to get back to tradition.

When I came into service almost 18 years ago, we ran a full ranger school and we're reverting to that tradition.

- So what I would do... (soft music) - They get a lot of scenarios on what ifs.

We like them to be faced with a lot of things before they even hit the field.

And they will do some terrific team building during this time, and they learn the ability to work with every member of their staff and using every bit of the resources that are available to them to accomplish their goal of ensuring that the Maryland park visitor has a spectacular time when they come to see us.

- Well, I'll probably be in here.

That's gonna cause damage to the tree... - Training Rachel Zimmerman, is the daughter of a ranger.

- So I was always raised to enjoy the outdoors and never wanted to be anywhere else.

- Nikia Johnson started out in the Park Service as an administrative assistant.

- I went around to all of this State Parks.

and I had never met more people, so proud of what they did.

And it instilled that in me.

And I wanted to be proud.

I wanted to be proud of the land.

So that's what made me really wanna be a park ranger.

- Andrew Vecchio takes the mission of the State parks to heart.

- Fulfilling that mission is to help ensure that a visitor has a very positive experience when they're in the park.

While still protecting the resource, learning about their environment, and having some memories to share for a long time.

- These big forests hold the memory of this mountain land, and its history.

Conserving the forest has been the mission of State Parks since the earliest days when Maryland's first State Forester, Fred Besley, launched his massive state-wide forest restoration program in Western Maryland in the early 1900s.

Decades of cut-and-run forest clearing for agriculture and timber had left the mountains devastated.

- Fred Besley was a student of Gifford Pinchot who was the father of forestry here in the United States of America.

So Besley was part of that select group, moving in to every State within the Union, to provide this basis for scientific management of forest resources.

- Right after the State acquired the area around Savage River State Forest, Fred Besley offered the position of resident warden to one of his volunteer wardens, Matthew Martin , who had been a coal miner in Allegheny County.

Matthew Martin moved his family into New Germany and directed the work of this filling conservation Corps in the mid-thirties.

The CCC build cabins, pavilions, roads, reclaim the lake.

They built the foundation of this and other State Parks.

Bill Martin, son of the first warden, grew up at New Germany.

- My mother and dad were commonly called, "Mom and Pap" by some of these CCC boys, especially with the newcomers.

First time we'd been away from home.

- After the CCC era, New Germany was developed as the State's first downhill ski destination.

Locals improvised to provide food and lodging, and transportation around the farm slopes.

- Closest hotel would have been in Frostburg.

So these people arrived here in the middle of the night, No place to go.

And so the local farmers would take them in.

We had an old tool shack that we used for our hamburger joint.

I walked around a lot of times, was leaning to the side.

I had so many dimes in my pocket I didn't know what to do with.

- Eventually downhill skiing moved on to private resorts.

But New Germany State Park still has miles of cross-country ski trails.

And much in the mountains remains as it was in the beginning.

- I often say that the only thing that has actually changed much at New Germany, the trees have gotten taller.

In fact, I planted some of these trees.

- Bill Martin still hands down the stories of this place.

- People that work for parks.

It is not a job.

It is their life.

It is their passion.

And there is nothing that makes us feel better than to realize that