So, who exactly was Colonel Gateway and why does he have a road named after him in this part of Howard County?
The fact that he (or his namesake road) appears in the company of Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Lee DeForest, Eli Whitney, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell suggests that Colonel Gateway was considered to be brilliant scientist / inventor.
Unfortunately, no one seems to really know the truth (or his actual first name) and it may be lost to history. However, there are a number of theories, including...
1) He was an officer in the American Revolutionary War a close friend of John Eager Howard, for whom the county is named.
2) He was a second cousin and close friend to James Rouse, the developer of Columbia.
3) One fringe theory states that in the 1930's he was actually researching parallel universes on his farm in rural Howard County and was in the process of attempting to breach the boundaries and ended up vanishing, along with most evidence of his existence.
Whatever you believe about Colonel Gateway, I hope you'll enjoy an excuse to take a little walk in a strip of wooded land among the office buildings.
Your walk to the cache may well include a couple of creek crossings.
DO NOT attempt to access from the MD-175 / I-95 ramp.
Symbol | Type | Coordinates | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Parking area | --- | Suggested parking. Take the walk through the woods, along the stream. You could park elsewhere and cheat yourself of the enjoyable walk, but I'm not responsible for that. |