Ed Johnson, 82, has been a volunteer park ranger in Patapsco Valley State Park in Ellicott City for three decades. Since Johnson retired as a teacher and principal, he has put in 4,000 hours as a volunteer and all-around historian. Photo by Ed Warner

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At Patapsco Valley State Park in Ellicott City, history has a face: that of Edward Johnson, who has volunteered there for nearly 30 years.

If you visit the park’s famous Swinging Bridge on a sunny Saturday, you’re likely to meet Johnson, 82, and hear his stories of the park’s history.

Before directing you to the popular Cascade Trail nearby, Johnson may tell you that the bridge was built over the Patapsco River in 1859 for mill workers. He might add that in the 1920s, the Baltimore department store Hutzler’s gave its salesmen and their families free company tents in this park (though the salesmen still had to commute to work).

“Some authors have called the Patapsco ‘the river that built America,’” Johnson told the Beacon.

Johnson started as a park volunteer in 1996, working with children’s summer programs, then spent 16 years as a volunteer. When work was slow at the visitor center, he’d pick up one of its history books.

“I started reading all the materials” on the park’s history, Johnson said. “It was fascinating.”

Some of its history is tragic. The Swinging Bridge was destroyed several times, including once in 1925 when a group of 42 youths tried jumping on it simultaneously; the 30-foot fall killed one.

Perhaps the park’s worst tragedy was the 1868 Great Flood, which killed 39 people in what’s now the Orange Grove area. The flood also destroyed homes and mills along the river, including a nail factory.

This destruction set the stage for the land to become a 43-acre state forest reserve in 1907 and a state park, Maryland’s first, in the 1930s. It’s now a 16,000-acre state park.

As Johnson often tells visitors, there were 33 “firsts” that happened in the area. For instance, the nation’s first commercial railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio, ran through the park on the Thomas Viaduct, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Author and painter

Much of this history is in a 127-page book Johnson co-authored in 2019. The book is filled with photos, such as one of families swimming in the Patapsco, which was deeper in the 1800s because each of the many mills operating on the river had its own dam.

The book, Images of America: Patapsco Valley State Park, was a local hit. Johnson said he asked a Barnes and Noble store to stock 105 copies for the book-signing event, and only one remained afterward.

The book illustrates how much has changed over time, Johnson said. For example, photos show cars driving into the park on River Road, but that road no longer connects to Ilchester Road. It was washed away by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, and today it has been transformed into a hiking trail.

Yes, Johnson is a walking, talking encyclopedia, but he’s also an accomplished artist who’s received 96 ribbons for his paintings, including one Best in Show at the Howard County Fair. Once a year for the past three years, he has brought 50 of his paintings to the park and given them all away.

As a self-taught painter, Johnson is humble about his portraits and nature paintings.

“I don’t really have talent,” he said. “I’ve had 49-and-a-half years of practice.”

A native Baltimorean, Johnson has painted Anquan Boldin in his Ravens number 81 jersey. But Johnson’s most moving image may be of his late friend, a Sioux man named Roy Spotted Warbonnet.

They met through Johnson’s volunteer work. For 15 summers, Johnson spent a week on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, building homes and making and serving 275 meals a day.

The two men got to know each other, and when Johnson returned home, he collected books to send to his buddy’s 15 grandkids. Johnson was heartbroken when his friend died of Covid three years ago.

Former teacher and principal

Despite five coronary bypasses and a third pacemaker, Johnson remains energized by his love of service. That, he said, goes back to the 30 years he spent working in the Prince George’s County public schools, first as an elementary school teacher and then as a principal.

“The kids who I taught in my very first elementary school class are now 70 years old,” he marveled.

After retiring from the school system in 1995, Johnson and his wife moved from Catonsville to Ellicott City. The following year, he started volunteering at the park, first by working with children and later by offering an art class.

Now a volunteer ranger, Johnson meets people of all backgrounds at the park.

“People come from far and wide,” he said, noting he’s met travelers from Russia, China, and even one Nepalese man who said the park was lovelier than anything in the Himalayas.

In a typical year, more than a million people visit the park. The high numbers reflect the fact that the park is spread across several sections, from near Catonsville all the way to Woodstock, the site of the McKeldin Area.

As a year-round volunteer, Johnson can be found in inclement weather at the visitor center in the park’s Avalon Area. At other times, he’ll pick up trash or lead a group hike.

He puts in at least 100 hours annually as a volunteer, and one year clocked 400 hours when some painting had to be done (and not the kind on an easel). Next year, his 30th as a park volunteer, he’ll hit 4,000 hours total.

That’s an incredible amount of work, said Johnson’s boss, Park Manager Rob Dyke, adding that he can’t think of any volunteer whose time investment comes close.

Sharing the park’s history is crucial, Dyke said, because “many [visitors] know nothing about it. They’re always enlightened.”

Johnson plans to continue to enlighten visitors from his post in Ellicott City for as long as he can.

“I figure everybody’s here to enjoy [the park],” he said, “and I’m there to help with whatever they want.”

Do you know a 50+ person with an interesting hobby, second career or volunteer role? Let us know at info@thebeaconnewspapers.com.