Burkittsville is a town in Frederick County, Maryland, United States. The population was 171 at the 2000 census.
Geography
Burkittsville is located at [show location on an interactive map] 39°23′29″N, 77°37′38″W (39.391459, -77.627099)[1].
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.4 square miles (1.1 km²), all of it land.
History
Burkittsville was first founded by two property owners: Major Joshua Harley and Henry Burkitt. The western half was first founded as "Harley's Post Office" in 1824. After Harley's passing in 1828, Burkitt renamed it Burkittsville. Over the next thirty years it grew as a community with stores, shops, blacksmiths, a schoolhouse, and a tannery.
On September 13, 1862, Confederate cavalry under command of Colonel Thomas Munford (under General J.E.B. Stuart) occupied Burkittsville. On Sunday, September 14, the forces of the Union and Confederate armies engaged in the Battle of Crampton's Gap, a bloody prelude to the Battle of Antietam. The Reformed and Lutheran churches and adjacent schoolhouse were used as hospitals for the more than 300 wounded of both sides. These buildings still stand today.
Routinely characterized as the trigger to Antietam, victory at Crampton’s Gap embodied Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s strategic reaction to his acquiring the legendary “Lost Order” at Frederick which disclosed Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s campaign movements. It was McClellan’s intention to “cut the enemy in two and beat him in detail.”
After seizing Crampton’s Gap Gen. William B. Franklin failed to relieve the besieged Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, and more importantly to prevent Confederate generals James Longstreet and “Stonewall” Jackson from reuniting at Sharpsburg. There Lee hastily stood his ground in the mammoth battle of Antietam, the war’s bloodiest day. President Abraham Lincoln then used the marginal Union victory at Antietam as a springboard to his Emancipation Proclamation which changed war aims. Without the fall of Crampton’s Gap there would have been no Antietam.
The Blair Witch Project
Burkittsville gained notoriety with the 1999 release of the film The Blair Witch Project, which attracted fans of the cult film, and provided a spike to local commerce. Contrary to popular belief, however, the majority of the film was not filmed in Burkittsville, and the events depicted in the film and the legend of the Blair Witch itself were entirely fabricated by the producers themselves, proven by the lack of notable landmarks (Coffin Rock, the Black Hills, Black Rock Road, and even a town convenience store) in the real town or surrounding area. The majority of the film was shot in Maryland. There never existed a township of Blair, and no mention of any such legend exists in local folklore. Though the overall story was based partially on folk lore from Saint Mary's County, in Southern Maryland[citation needed]. In addition, Montgomery County, Maryland, does include Black Rock Road and Black Hills, and over the mountain, in Washington County, there is a Black Rock Road which rests below the ridge of the former site of the Black Rock Hotel, located along the Appalachian Trail.
Demographics
As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 171 people, 72 households, and 49 families residing in the town. The population density was 415.8 people per square mile (161.0/km²). There were 76 housing units at an average density of 184.8/sq mi (71.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 94.74% White, 1.17% African American and 4.09% Asian. Zero percent of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 72 households out of which 30.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.1% were married couples living together, 5.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.9% were non-families. 26.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.92.
In the town the population was spread out with 22.8% under the age of 18, 2.3% from 18 to 24, 38.6% from 25 to 44, 28.1% from 45 to 64, and 8.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 85.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.6 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $50,313, and the median income for a family was $53,125. Males had a median income of $45,833 versus $30,417 for females. The per capita income for the town was $24,919. About 4.1% of families and 4.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under the age of eighteen and 5.6% of those sixty five or over.
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