At the time of its creation, Frederick town was on the western frontier of Maryland and American European settlement. Over the next century and a half, westward expansion would reach across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. Frederick has several ties to this important story through past residents, subtle roles in national events and visits to town by legendary "Wild West" icons. I guess you could call it "Frederick's Manifest Destiny." This class will meet consecutive Tuesday evenings (6-8pm) in May, beginning on May 6th. Class # 4 will consist of a 2-hour "Wild West"-inspired walking tour of Mount Olivet Cemetery focusing on some of the individuals talked about in class and buried here.

Based on Chris' 1999 documentary entitled “Monocacy: The pre-history of Frederick County, Maryland,” this course will take students on a 1.2 billion year- journey to better understand and appreciate the cataclysmic events that shaped our present day landscape.  The course will also explore the earliest lifeforms from marine organisms, dinosaurs to native-aboriginal man. Bite-sized portions of geology, meta-geography, biology, archeology, and anthropology will be introduced in layman's terms within a multi-media presentation of video excerpts, PowerPoint-lecture and touch object “show and tell.” 

It has been nearly 30 years since local historian Chris Haugh was inspired to produce the 1997 documentary/film entitled “Up from the Meadows: A History of Black Americans in Frederick County, Maryland.”  As the title suggests, this program includes an interesting study of Frederick County Black history through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, covering the time periods from slavery to emancipation, and segregation to civil rights equality within a divided Maryland.  “Up from the Meadows” features an esteemed group of former residents as on-camera commentators including Kathleen Snowden, William O. Lee, Jr., Lord Nickens, Arnold Delauter and Dr. Blanche Bourne-Tyree to name a few.

Established in 1748, the north-central Maryland environs of Frederick County is a perfect case study for African-American cultural history, as it once represented “a border county within a border state” during the American Civil War, being situated below the Mason-Dixon Line and Pennsylvania to the north, and the Potomac River and Virginia to the south. Repercussions would continue up through the Civil Rights Movement of the mid 20th century.

The multi-part program was produced by Frederick's former cable company, GS Communications, first airing on local Cable Channel 10. It would go on to be the recipient of a Telly Award of programming excellence, along with earning many citations, topped by the 1998 Beacon Award of Excellence, the highest honor in the Cable Telecommunication’s Industry for public affairs outreach and programming.

This course will be taught in four (2-hour long) classes through lecture accompanied by PowerPoint visuals and segments from the documentary, itself. The location for the class will be the Key Memorial Chapel on the grounds of historic Mount Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.

Based on Chris' video documentary entitled “Sugarloaf: The Quest for Riches and Redemption in the Monocacy Valley” (produced in 2000), this course is a historical journey into the wild environs of today’s Frederick County as it existed between three and four centuries ago.  This encompasses the European Contact and early colonial period (1600’s and early 1700’s), and nicely bridges the pre-history of the region to the point of the1634 founding of Maryland and European habitation over the next century. The course will explore the early American Indian tribes and European explorers and traders that once traversed the area that would eventually see the establishment of Frederick Town in 1745 and Frederick County in 1748. This course will be taught through a variety of film-video excerpts, Power Point-lecture and some good old-fashioned “show and tell.”