A master plan for Oregon Ridge. But silence from officials on implementation.

What do we know about Oregon Ridge?

Members of the Shawnee Nation once lived there, according to county documents, before a man named Thomas Todd settled on the land in the early 18^th century. In the 19^th century, what we know today as Oregon Ridge Park was home to iron ore and marble quarries.

Other documents say the park was once owned by former Maryland treasurer John Merryman. (Merryman himself, the focus of a pivotal habeas corpus case, was once charged with treason and imprisoned at Maryland’s Fort McHenry, though that’s a different story.)

We know that in the 1960s, Oregon Ridge had a ski slope, complete with tow rope, until the warming of Maryland winters brought an end to the Park’s ski heritage. We know that one of the quarries – now called Quarry Lake – became filled with water and for a time was a popular swimming hole. Swimming is no longer allowed there.

When most people think about Oregon Ridge, they think about one of two distinct areas. One is the Oregon Ridge Lodge, which was originally a ski lodge, and today hosts weddings, parties, corporate meetings, and other events. Surrounding the lodge are pavilions, a concert shell (the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has performed 4^th of July concerts there), and sports fields.

The other area is the Oregon Ridge Nature Center, which features live turtles, fish, and snakes; a popular and active hive of bees; and a menagerie of taxidermied creatures who loom above visitors as they walk around inside. Beyond the nature center and just south of Quarry Lake spread Oregon Ridge’s miles of trails, which wind up and down hillsides, over creeks, across the former ski slope (some of what was once part of the ski-rope tow remains visible) and through majestic stands of forest.

Visitor data compiled as part of the planning process indicate that about the same number of visitors frequent the two main areas – the lodge/event center and the nature center and adjacent trails.

Oregon Ridge Park is in the midst of a master planning process, a draft version of which was released in April. Facilitated by the landscape architecture firm Lardner/Klein, one of eight organizations that are part of a planning team, the draft lays out near-term (Years 1-6: trails, restrooms, parking, etc.) and long-term (Years 16-20: focusing on the fields along Cuba Road) improvements, and asks again for public input.

Public input has been welcomed for at least a year through a “robust public engagement process” that dates back to the winter of 2022.

There was at least one blip in the process. In April 2022, the county seemed to be entertaining a proposal from the commercial outdoor adventure experience company Go Ape to create a zipline and woods adventure program at Oregon Ridge. According to the Go Ape website, the programs would have cost from $19.95 (axe throwing; the “Forest Escape”) to $64.95 (the “Treetop Adventure,” featuring “super long ziplines and heart-stopping Tarzan swings”). It is difficult to tell if the Go Ape proposal was an official part of the Master Plan process. The point may be moot, as the Go Ape plan was dropped.

In fact, it is difficult to get much information at all about the Oregon Ridge Master Plan. At least a dozen requests for information over the past couple of months – to Oregon Ridge, to Baltimore County, to the offices of elected officials in whose jurisdiction Oregon Ridge falls, to Lardner/Klein – have resulted in a raft of referrals, but no concrete response on the current state of the plan.

According to the most recent public draft, the Oregon Ridge Park Master Plan (ORPMP) “proposes a choreographed sequence of improvements for this 1,100 acre treasure.” The plan divides the Park into three areas: the Terrace Core, encompassing the most visited areas of the Park, which includes the Nature Center, Quarry Lake, the Lodge and event space, and the playing fields north of Shawan Road; the Conservation Core, which includes most of the existing trail network; and the Between Cores, an area that includes the former ski hill and the southern shore of Quarry Lake.

The Oregon Ridge plan, which is designed to be consistent with Baltimore County’s own master plan, outlines twenty years’ worth of enhancements, beginning with the trail network and going on to include, among other things, the relocation of the Nature Center and improvements to the Lodge and event space. More information about these proposed enhancements can be found in the draft planning document.

A public meeting to solicit further input was held in May 2023. As for a timeline for implementation of the Master Plan for Oregon Ridge Park, that remains anyone’s guess. The draft ORPMP notes that this is not the first time Oregon Ridge has undertaken planning. It mentions five prior planning studies, noting that the Nature Center resulted from one of these studies, various undefined enhancements resulted from others, and in some cases “nothing came of the plan recommendations.”