Editing Thurmont, Maryland (section)

== History ==
[[File:Protests in Thurmont Town Square.JPG|thumb|Protesters in Thurmont during the [[38th G8 summit|2012 G8 Summit]], hosted at nearby [[Camp David]].]]

=== Name change ===
Originally incorporated as the Town of Mechanicstown in 1751, the name of the town was changed to Thurmont by an act of [[Maryland General Assembly]] on January 18, 1894.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.city-data.com/city/Thurmont-Maryland.html|title= Thurmont, Maryland |publisher= Town City-Data.com |access-date=August 24, 2012}}</ref> This name change was due to several other nearby towns having similar names, such as [[Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania]] and [[Mechanicsville, Maryland]].<ref name="gateway">{{cite web|last1=Wireman|first1=George|title=Gateway to the Mountains|url=http://www.emmitsburg.net/history_t/archives/gateway/chapter15.htm|website=Thurmont Scrapbook|publisher=Greater Emmitsburg Area Historical Society|access-date=March 14, 2018}}</ref> Charles E. Cassell, editor of the local newspaper ''[[Catoctin Clarion]]'' was the one to suggest the name Thurmont and promoted debate about the name change in the ''Clarion''. Some of the names considered included Beaufort, Eastmont, Glenmont, Monduru, Fern Glen, and Blue Point.<ref name="ballot">{{cite news|title=Thurmont.|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026688/1893-12-21/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=March 14, 2018|work=Catoctin Clarion|agency=Library of Congress|issue=December 21, 1893|publisher=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers|ref=ballot}}</ref> Eventually, the options were pared down to two main contenders: Cassell's suggestion of Thurmont, and local [[real estate broker]] Charles Shipley's suggestion of Blue Mountain City, which he argued was "appropriate" and "pretty" during an address at a town meeting in December 1893.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Shipley|first1=Charles|title=Mr. Charles Shipley's Address.|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026688/1893-12-14/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=March 14, 2018|work=Catoctin Clarion|agency=Library of Congress|issue=December 14, 1893|publisher=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers}}</ref> In the December 14, 1893, issue, the ''Clarion'' printed the following: <blockquote>The name is a misnomer: it is harshness long drawn out; it is an antique minus the lacquer; the sentimentalism that cries out against a change lacks its correlative, poetry, and smacks of the catacombs; its prestine [sic] glory is effaced by the ruthless circumstance of immigration to improve condition; an hundred, yea, hundreds of grandsons now recount to strangers in other States how their grand-fathers drove a thriving trade in factory, forge and mill in Mechanicstown and then confess--''Ilium fuit; Delenda est Carthago!'' [Troy is no more; Carthage must be destroyed!]<ref>{{cite news|title=The Great Issue.|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026688/1893-12-14/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=14 March 2018|work=Catoctin Clarion|agency=Library of Congress|issue=14 December 1893|publisher=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers}}</ref></blockquote>

By the end of December 1893, there had been several rounds of voting, and Thurmont had been officially chosen as the town's new name. The ''Clarion'' noted, however, that "the reception of a letter from the Postoffice Department saying that the name 'Blue Mountain City' would not be approved by the Department as there is an office called 'Blue Mountain' in the State, probably defeated the choice of that name."<ref name="ballot" /><ref>{{cite web|last1=Cissel|first1=Anne|title=From Mechanicstown to Thurmont|url=http://www.emmitsburg.net/info/tm/history.htm|website=Emmitsburg.net|publisher=Emmitsburg Historical Society|access-date=March 14, 2018}}</ref>

The name Thurmont is derived from ''thur'', the [[German language|German]] word for gateway or entrance, and ''mons'', the [[Latin]] word for mountain, roughly translating to "Gateway to the Mountains."<ref name="ballot" /><ref>{{cite news|last1=Wilson|first1=Ike|title=Thurmont documentary to premiere Oct. 26|url=https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/history/thurmont-documentary-to-premiere-oct/article_d070251a-835f-52fc-9df0-1e83ff6959d9.html|access-date=March 14, 2018|publisher=The Frederick News-Post|date=October 7, 2014}}</ref>

=== Railroads ===

The [[Western Maryland Railway]] built its main [[railroad]] through Thurmont, connecting the town with [[Baltimore]], and later with [[Hagerstown, Maryland|Hagerstown]] and [[Cumberland, Maryland|Cumberland]]. On June 17, 1905, 16 men from Thurmont were killed in a railway wreck in Ransom, Maryland when a westbound freight train collided head-on with another train. All Thurmont businesses were closed on the Monday following the accident, and it became an event that had a lasting effect on the entire community. Another large railway accident occurred on June 25, 1915, when the Blue Mountain Express train hit another train head-on just west of Thurmont, killing 6 people. Charles Eyler, who was 17 years old at the time of the crash, said the following: "People were still wondering the next day how the two engines had stayed on the rails. But it was easy to see how the wreck had occurred. The bridge is 'blind' from both directions."<ref name="gateway" />