During your visit to the C&O Canal National Historical Park, discover the fascinating people, places, stories and collections that make up the C&O Canal’s unique history in the Cumberland Visitor Center. Outdoors you can explore the rich geologic, ecological and biological diversity found within the Park.
Cumberland Visitor Center and Bookstore
Begin your time at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park in the Cumberland Visitor Center. Housed within the historic 1913 Western Maryland Railway Station, the visitor center interprets the rich history of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The orientation area of the visitor center provides an overview of the C&O Canal. Exhibits featuring interactive and educational displays examine the history of the C&O Canal and Cumberland. Maps and information on the C&O Canal can help you make the most out of your visit to the Park. A park ranger is available to assist and answer questions. Trail and nature guides and C&O Canal histories are available for purchase in the center’s Bookstore.
Exhibits at the Cumberland Visitor Center
From the Cumberland Visitor Center’s orientation area, enter the portal of the replica of the Paw Paw Tunnel, hear the familiar drip of water as you pass through the corridor and step back into the days when the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was a lifeline for the communities along the Potomac River. Within the main exhibit hall, you will discover a three quarter size section of a C&O Canal boat. Learn about mules and cargo and the day-to-day life of the canal families. Peer into the entrance of a mine that provided the number one cargo shipped on the canal, coal. A model lock and exhibits on boatbuilding and Cumberland as a crossroads complete the Cumberland Visitor Center’s exhibits.
Plant and Animal Life
Outdoors, you can enjoy the tranquility and beauty of the C&O Canal, teeming with plant and animal life. Known as one of the most biologically diverse parks, the C&O Canal’s numerous ecological factors along the Potomac River create a mosaic of different natural habitats for aquatic and terrestrial animals. The Park’s wetlands, streams, rivers, springs and seeps as well as the open water habitat in the sections of watered canal attract frogs, toads, salamanders, fish, freshwater mussels, beaver and muskrat. Forests, open fields, rocky outcrops, developed and transition habitats are home to deer, song birds, red and gray fox, raccoon, and gray and fox squirrels. Even black bear, bobcat and the federally threatened bald eagle can be seen in the Park.
- The Cumberland Visitor Center is ADA compliant.
- Do not forget your camera. From the C&0 Canal itself to the surrounding nature and wildlife, there will be exciting photo opportunities during your visit to the C&O Canal National Park.