One of the ways our Field Trip Guides are classified is by one or more of the themes of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground. What do these themes mean, and how do these places illustrate them?

Land of Leadership: This region, home to and birthplace of seven presidents, has witnessed generation after generation of citizens who chose to place life and livelihood on the line in pursuit of a vision of a sovereign, democratic nation that treated all of her citizens equally. As one of the first American frontiers, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground evokes the pioneer spirit of independence, ingenuity, and initiative. With audacity and courage, the leaders of any generation must make difficult choices and will disagree bitterly at times, and these are the places that tell the stories of leaders, famed and unknown, who helped shape America.

Land of Conflict, Reunification and Rebuilding: The Journey Through Hallowed Ground was an active transportation route during the Revolutionary War and housed the headquarters of Generals Wayne, Lafayette and Muhlenberg. It holds more Civil War Battlefields than any other region in the country, and it is also where American architects laid foundations of peace, as in General George C. Marshall’s Plan to rebuild Europe after WWII and through the modern peace accords struck at Camp David. The Underground Railroad laid the tracks to freedom, and the Civil Rights movement began to translate the idea of equality into reality. Here a nation was born, divided and reunited. These are the places where America was forged.

Place of National Beauty and Rural Character: The Journey Through Hallowed Ground is located principally in the Piedmont region of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, between the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains on the west and the Fall Line on the East. It is a special historic, natural and scenic region, its geography shaping events and forming a natural resource of substantial beady. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his journal that the view from these places “…allows the riot to calm beneath.”

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