Longtime Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Park Preserves the Evolution of the American Story
Some people take decades, or even a lifetime, to determine their life’s path. Dennis Frye never had that issue. The now-retired park ranger and chief historian at Harpers Ferry National Park (not to mention noted author, lecturer, and Civil War battlefield conservationist) decided the ranger life would be his when he was in sixth grade. The choice may have been predestined by some of his earliest memories of waking up and looking out his childhood bedroom window at the sun rising over the South Mountain Battlefield, where General Robert E. Lee’s Confederates attempted to stall an unexpected Union pursuit during the first invasion of the North.
“By sixth grade becoming a park ranger was my mission,” Frye said. “I wasn’t going to do anything else, and I knew it.”
He began volunteering at three different national parks in 1973, and after graduating from nearby Shepherd College (now Shepherd University), he became a full-time ranger working in Harpers Ferry National Park—at the time the only national park in West Virginia. It’s a rare thing for a ranger to start a career in their home park, but a rarer thing still to spend a whole career there (save for a ten-year period during which he worked tirelessly, and successfully, on battlefield preservation).
Whereas it’s not uncommon for rangers to work in a dozen parks during their careers, Frye was just too good at his job. He earned promotion after promotion, keeping him in the place that fills his heart and soul and helping him earn a critical role in highlighting the importance of Harpers Ferry in the context of Civil War history while elevating it as a leading tourism destination in the Mid-Atlantic.
Throughout his career, Frye delighted in nothing more than donning his ranger uniform and sharing the rich and multifaceted layers of history that occurred on the ground on which he stood, and for which he fought so tirelessly.
“When I came to Harpers Ferry,” he said, “very little of the battlefield areas were included in the National Park. For example, none of the Confederate lines were within the park. And the Battle of Harpers Ferry was the biggest Civil War battle in what is today West Virginia. Now all the key positions, both Union and Confederate, are within the park. That was a 25-year effort to make that happen.”
Now seen as a model of battlefield preservation, the battle for the Harpers Ferry battlefield faced down long odds. The efforts of Frye and his colleagues came against a backdrop of massive growth in Jefferson County, a coveted commuter hub for District of Columbia, Maryland and Northern Virginia commuters that for several decades was the fastest-growing county in the state and saw its population nearly triple in size.
“We saved the battlefield,” Frye said. “Instead of having high-rise apartments and duplexes, we’ve got dirt and grass and fence posts and hallowed ground preserved. For my wife and me, every time we save a battlefield, that was like having a child, so the preservation of that land is the best legacy I could ever have. As long as there is a national park, that land will be protected.”
Frye’s focus on Harpers Ferry goes far beyond real estate. He has long championed a formerly underappreciated legacy that once began and ended with the name John Brown.
“There’s no doubt that John Brown is the most famous singular event in the history of Harpers Ferry,” he said, “but I like to tell people that the Civil War included nearly 1,400 days of terror at Harpers Ferry, because Harpers Ferry was literally right on the border between North and South. During those four years, the Potomac River was an international boundary between two warring countries.”
In addition, he explained that the North was desirous of occupying Harpers Ferry and using it as a base of operation from which to launch invasions into the heart of the Confederacy in Virginia. This meant that it would be occupied for approximately 85% of the war by United States troops, leaving residents to live under martial law with no constitutional rights. At the war’s outset, some 3,200 people would call it home. A year later, that number was closer to a couple hundred. Six out of every 10 buildings would be destroyed by the war or by the floods that followed it.
“Harpers Ferry never recovered its industrial might as a result of the Civil War,” Frye said. “It would take 100 years for it to come back.”
Frye’s restoration efforts played a pivotal role in Harpers Ferry’s tourism comeback, and he never for a second tired of telling its story or standing on the battlefield itself, on which remarkable beauty stands juxtaposed with the ugliness of war. It is, he said, “a wonderful combination of beauty and history.”
The site, he points out, is easy to access with multiple options for every interest and schedule. Frye’s favorite is the self-guided walking tour, where there is so much to see over a short distance, starting with what he calls the Old Town (others call it the Lower Town), which sits at the confluence between the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers and marks the lowest point in the state.
“It’s very easy to experience because there are so many exhibits that cover all aspects of Harpers Ferry history. It is where John Brown launched his famous war against slavery. The Appalachian Trail runs through Old Town, so even if you take 20 steps on it you can tell people you walked the Appalachian Trail.” You can also, he points out, see three states, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia from there. “If you only have a few hours,” Frye added, “Old Town is a must.”
Those with a little more time can start their experience in Old Town before taking a driving tour of the battlefield that will include five to six stops and the chance to hear the story of the battlefield and visit exhibits located throughout the park.
And if you have a whole day? “My goodness, then you want to do a little bit of walking,” Frye said. “We have 25 miles of trails in the National Park, and the bulk of those trails are on the battlefields, so you can just park and walk in the footsteps of history.”’
The footsteps of history are never far from Frye’s heart, or his life, even in his retirement. He is speaking to me from his lovingly restored Civil War-era home, which once served for nearly two weeks as headquarters for Union General Ambrose Burnside. Burnside would arrive there about 10 days after the Battle of Harpers Ferry and would famously host none other than President Abraham Lincoln there for a meeting. It’s something Frye is reminded of each time he walks on the floorboards of what he calls his “self-made museum,” which he shares with his wife and two Boston Terriers, one named “General Grant,” and the other named after Grant’s wife, Julia. With a built-in historian’s aversion to bias, Frye is quick to point out that the dogs’ predecessors had represented both the Union and Confederate states with the names “Mr. Lincoln” and “Bonnie Blue.”
Frye will never leave his “work” as a historian behind because it has always been so much more than work to him. He continues to write books and give lectures and tours. Retirement, he says, just means he does it on his time.
“I tell people that I have left Harpers Ferry, but Harpers Ferry will never leave me,” he said, as we ended our conversation. “Harpers Ferry is more than the ground under my feet, and more than my home. It’s my soul. Throughout my career I used to say that I don’t come to Harpers Ferry to work, I come to Harpers Ferry to worship. This is a shrine to the evolution of the American story, and a shrine also to Mother Nature’s evolution.”
Story By John Kelly
Photos Courtesy of American Battlefield Trust
