Stop telling Gwynns Falls Leakin Park ghost stories

The recent article, “A hidden gem in Leakin Park, The Crimea was the summer estate for eccentric Russophile Thomas Winans” (July 7), has ruffled our feathers. We, The Friends of Gwynns Falls Leakin Park, are tiring of the old ghost stories disinterred from the internet.

Tales of danger are decades old, and the park is no longer ignored and overgrown. Instead, it is a marvelously safe, healthy and restorative place to spend time. We’ll prove it by treating you, your friends and family, your scout troop, etc. to a tour of its woodland trails. We’ll tell you about sending your youngsters to the Forest Pre-School, or your middle schoolers to summer camp at Carrie Murray Nature Center, or the good times at beautiful Cahill Recreation Center.

We’ll show you how to bike the Gwynns Falls Trail, participate in the International 5K on Saturdays year-round and enjoy the miniature steam train rides on Second Sundays. We’ll introduce you to events like Bio-Blitz, the Herb Festival, the Mushroom Fest and spiritual places in the park, such as the Sacred Magnolia Grove and the Hopi Tap’at Labyrinth, and we’ll let you know when to show up for guided bird walks. Once you’ve fallen in love with the park you can be married in the historic Winans Chapel.

The 1,000-acre Gwynns Falls Leakin Park is Baltimore’s biggest park, comprising 842 acres of contiguous forest and stream valleys. Its size not only serves as a significant portion of the lungs of the city, it makes this park an important migratory bird flyway, slows damage to the Chesapeake Bay and climate change, and it is now an important educational asset. Youngsters grow up naming butterflies, flowers, fish and birdsong; older kids learn about forest ecology and conservation; Outward Bound counselors love how forest-based education helps adolescents develop inspiration and interconnection; graduate students delight in scientific discoveries. Careers in education and science are born here.

Come explore and volunteer in Gwynns Falls Leakin Park. Baltimore’s urban wilderness gem is a game-changer.

Our website is https://friendsofgwynnsfallsleakinpark.org. When there, please click on the five-minute film, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Baltimore’s Urban Wilderness Park.”

— Sarah Lord, Baltimore

The writer represents the Friends of Gwynns Falls Leakin Park.