Fountain Rock Nature Center and WWII

I always find it interesting when a worldwide event (or even a national event) comes close to home. A couple of months ago (this crazy blog software, when you set things to draft, saves the date of the draft, not when you're actually finishing this and posting it--which today is July 16), we went to the Fountain Rock Nature Center near Walkersville, Maryland.

While the nature center, though small, is remarkable, I found the lime kilns on its property even more interesting. You can still see the quarry even though it is filled with water. You can still see the explosives house and other related buildings, several of the surviving kilns somewhat intact (not sure how many of them have been restored) visible from the ground level and from the top of the kiln. And the Walkersville Railroad goes by a scan 25 feet away as you stare at the kiln openings.

What I found most interesting was that WWII German prisoners-of-war were brought to the lime kilns for the purposes of doing hard labor. Heh...serves 'em right!!!