National Road Inn

A historic tavern along the National Road, America's first federally funded highway. The inn has served weary travelers since the early 1800s and maintains its frontier hospitality along with some permanent guests.

The National Road Inn stands along America's first federally funded highway, a route authorized by Congress in 1806 during Thomas Jefferson's administration. This 620-mile artery connecting Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois transformed the young nation, carrying thousands of settlers westward through Clear Spring during the road's golden era from the 1820s to the 1860s.

Clear Spring emerged as a crucial waypoint precisely because of its namesake - a clear spring flowing at the foot of Fairview Mountain that provided fresh water for both travelers and their horses. By 1825, the town boasted seven hotels serving the endless procession of stagecoaches and Conestoga wagons. Taverns were so essential that historians estimate there was roughly one for every mile of the National Road. These establishments offered two classes of service: stagecoach taverns for affluent travelers, and wagon stands - the "truck stops" of their era - for common teamsters.

The dangers of travel were very real. Observers recorded seeing "133 wagons, each drawn by six or more animals" on a single stretch, with surrounding pens holding "a thousand head of cattle and pigs." Travelers wrote their wills before setting out. Highway robbery remained a constant threat until the 1830s, when improved patrols and faster stagecoaches made the roads marginally safer. Some travelers were never seen again - waylaid by robbers, claimed by illness, or victims of accidents on treacherous mountain passes.

The spirits at the National Road Inn are said to be those wayfarers who never completed their journeys. Guests have reported footsteps pacing the halls at odd hours - the restless stride of someone still trying to reach their destination. Doors open and close on their own, as if invisible travelers are checking into rooms that were once filled with weary stagecoach passengers and teamsters.

The most unsettling reports describe the sensation of invisible company - the feeling of sharing a room with someone who isn't there. Some guests have awakened to find their belongings rearranged, as if a ghostly traveler mistook the room for their own. Others report hearing muffled conversations in empty hallways, echoes of the countless deals struck, stories shared, and goodbyes exchanged at this busy waystation.

Washington County itself is rich with paranormal activity along the old National Road. The nearby Old South Mountain Inn, dating to the 1730s, is haunted by Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, whose ghost once opened a door to alert staff to a fire. Fort Frederick, built in the 1750s just five miles from Clear Spring, served as a Revolutionary War prisoner of war camp. The Antietam National Battlefield, called "the bloodiest day in American history" with 23,000 casualties, lies within the county - visitors report phantom gunfire, drumbeats, and Confederate soldiers marching down Bloody Lane before vanishing.

The National Road Inn preserves the memory of an era when the journey west was uncertain and sometimes fatal. Its resident spirits serve as reminders that not everyone who set out on America's first great highway lived to see their destination. They remain here still, forever seeking lodging on an endless journey west.