Dear Frederick County Board of Appeals,
I am the author of two books about Sugarloaf Mountain: Sugarloaf—The
Mountain’s History, Geology and Natural Lore and An Illustrated Guide to
Eastern Woodland Wildflowers and Trees—350 Plants Observed at Sugarloaf
Mountain, Maryland. Both books are illustrated by the celebrated artist Tina
Thieme Brown of Barnesville, Maryland and they are published by the University
of Virginia Press. My husband, Jim, and I own a 70-acre farm property in
Comus, located half a mile from Thurston Road. The farm is under Conservation
Easement with the Maryland Environmental Trust. We are only allowed to build
one house on the property and we must keep the land in farming and woodland.
Currently we lease the land for farming to David O. Scott of Dickerson, Maryland.
I am appalled by the possibility that Frederick County would consider granting
permission for a firing range near Sugarloaf Mountain, in the County’s Resource
Conservation area and within earshot of Montgomery County’s Agricultural
Reserve. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Frank Lloyd Wright would roll over in
their graves if they knew that such a proposal was under consideration. And the
man who denied the plans and wishes of those two great twentieth century
Americans would view it as one of the worst decisions imaginable. Gordon
Strong, the man who spent most of his life acquiring Sugarloaf Mountain and
then leaving it to posterity for public enjoyment, said “no” to President Roosevelt
when he lobbied to transform the mountain into a White House retreat during the
1930s. The president was forced to go farther afield, to the Catoctin Mountains,
the present-day setting for Camp David. During the 1920s, Gordon Strong also
said “no” to another forceful and influential figure, the legendary Frank Lloyd
Wright, whom Strong had commissioned to design an observatory for the
mountain summit. Strong decided that his mountain would be better off left alone.
Before his death, he stipulated that Sugarloaf Mountain be open to the public
year around.
The one quarter of a million visitors who frequent Sugarloaf Mountain each year
for hiking, horse-back riding, picnicking, nature study and sheer enjoyment
couldn’t applaud Gordon Strong’s wise decisions more forcefully. Sugarloaf
Mountain and the historic farm country of southern Frederick County and
Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve serve as a rural retreat for the
millions of urban and suburban residents of the Frederick, Baltimore and
Washington area, who are fortunate enough to benefit from the wise decisions of
those who have been charged with land use issues over the past decades.
For the residents who call this pastoral region home, what could be more
invasive and jarring than the installation of a firing range and the sounds of
weapons fire from up to 99 shooters six days a week? I simply cannot imagine
how the farmers who call this region home could possibly live with such
disruption, to say nothing of the collapse of their property values.
The sooner this proposed firing range is rejected for the Sugarloaf Mountain
region the better. Please nip this plan in the bud now and continue to preserve
the historic rural land that was once home to Governor Thomas Johnson’s family
members—and whose homes still stand. Please honor the long-lauded wishes of
Gordon Strong, who wrote these words in 1946 about the mission of Stronghold,
Incorporated, the non-profit trust he established to administer the privately owned
park that would bring such solace and joy to generations of people: “To acquire
land by lease, purchase, gift and/or devise; to develop such land with roads and
other appropriate forms of landscape and/or architectural treatment; to offer to
visitors for their enjoyment and education, access to such land so developed; to
take such other steps as shall appear desirable and compatible, toward public
enjoyment of and education in out-of-door beauty as one of the great sources of
human happiness, and to engage in such incidental activities as promote and are
compatible with the foregoing purpose.”
I can’t imagine anything less compatible with this mission, or with the missions of
the farmers who inhabit southern Frederick County, Maryland, than a firing
range.
Thank you for your consideration of these concerns,
Melanie Choukas-Bradley