Map of the Heritage Trail is HERE

How It Works...

Just bring comfortable shoes, a charged phone, and begin walking the trail!

Click on the link below to open the interactive map on your device and stop at the marked locations to begin unlocking the stories of the Herring Run.


​...click HERE ​to start
   exploring!
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What You Will Experience​...

Stories of indigenous camps more than 11,000 years old.

Early farms, estates, and industry that shaped the landscape.

African American communities that broke barriers and changed life in Baltimore.

​Scenic streams, tress, and wildlife that enhance our urban setting.  

This is a self-guided experience...
explore at your own pace! 


Tag us in your photos @friendsofherringrunparks​

As you move through the park, you’ll see familiar places in a whole new way by unlocking the histories of specific sites and connecting them to thousands of years past.
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Supported by a number of grants and partnerships, the Friends of Herring Run Park have been amassing critical archaeological and historical research for the last six years. We’ve refined the project through community feedback and on-site testing, ensuring that local residents and the park itself have a voice in telling their own stories.

​These efforts have led us to look at the local history of Herring Run Park through three new lenses--discovering the truth, resilience, and land and water.

Discovering the Truth

​Many histories of this landscape have been overlooked or erased. The Heritage Trail helps us challenge our assumptions by encouraging us to ask important questions:

How is history written? Who gets included and who gets left out?

See the park as a living place shaped by real people, impactful power dynamics, diverse perspectives, and evolving cultural and social change. 

Understanding the full story helps build an honest connection to both place and each other, giving future generations a thoughtful foundation to build off of. ​



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Resilience

​Herring Run Park holds stories of adaptation and survival, including for those who have lived here across generations and the natural landscape which has faced development and change. 

Resilience connects the past to our present. It shows us how people, communities, and ecosystems can persist even under the pressure of ever-changing conditions. Whether you feel the pains of an unrecognizable world or look forward to what the future holds, resilience and stewardship for our most beloved places matters now more than ever.





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Land and Water

​The Heritage Trail teaches you to look at our park and our city differently. This land wasn’t carved out of the urban landscape—the urban landscape was built around the land. The waterways, foliage, and wildlife are critical parts of Baltimore’s vital watershed system. From indigenous trade to the urban food markets of the twentieth century, the land and water of the Herring Run has supported thousands of years of settlement, labor, respite, daily life, and survival across the entire region. 

 Understanding this link between our natural environment and our cultural and social history increases the value of the world we see around us, and reminds us truly of how indispensable it is.

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The Friends of Herring Run Parks is a community-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to restore, protect, and promote the Herring Run stream valley and its parks as places where nature and neighbors thrive.  ​

Donate today!

Many thanks to our supporters.

​Check out these other fascinating heritage tours and trails in Baltimore.
Heritage Walk 
Pennsylvania Avenue Heritage Trail 
East Baltimore’s Historic American Indian Reservation