Hancock, MD

Hancock is a Washington County town where Maryland narrows to less than two miles, pressed between the Potomac River and the ridges of the Western Maryland panhandle. The 2020 census counted 1,557 residents. Main Street follows Maryland 144 through the town, while the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the old Western Maryland railroad corridor run alongside the water. Hancock's shape is all about passage: river, road, canal, and rail sharing a narrow valley.

Before Hancock had its current name, it was William's Town, named for William McClary, a Revolutionary-era figure. The canal brought nineteenth-century traffic, the railroad brought another wave of movement, and the Western Maryland Rail Trail now uses the old rail corridor for a different kind of travel. You can feel the state compress around the town. Fort Frederick lies ten miles east along the trail, and the C&O towpath follows the canal beside the Potomac. Hancock is a small Western Maryland town where geography keeps putting transportation in the foreground.