Pinesburg, MD

Pinesburg is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Washington County, Maryland, near the Potomac River and the town of Williamsport. The 2020 census counted 444 residents; the place covers less than a square mile. Maryland Route 68 runs through the settlement, and the C&O Canal corridor lies nearby along the river. That puts Pinesburg in a landscape where a small crossroads, a working waterway, and the farms and quarries of western Maryland meet.

Water and stone are the two threads that give Pinesburg more history than its size might suggest. In the canal era, boats stopped at a Pinesburg warehouse and basin to load goods; the canal connected local businesses with markets along the Potomac and west toward Cumberland. The Pinesburg Quarry is among Washington County's earliest, with operation recorded by 1906 and likely earlier. Today the community is part of the Williamsport area, but its name still points to the old commercial geography: canal boats, limestone, roads, and the river route that connected small places to larger markets.