How to Reach Crownsville's "Say My Name" Memorial This Fall, With a Bacon Ridge Trailhead Closed
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
Starting in 2005, the Friends of Crownsville Hospital Patient Cemetery stood on the old hospital grounds once a year and read names aloud. These were the names of patients buried there, and the group had pieced them together from records over many years. Since September 2025 those names have been on a permanent memorial, so visitors can now read them for themselves.
Reaching the memorial takes some planning. Most of the former campus is still closed, and the closest way in on foot is a multi-mile trail walk through Bacon Ridge Natural Area. One of Bacon Ridge's three trailheads is closed for construction this fall, and clocks moved back to standard time on Sunday, November 1. From now through the end of the year, the calendar shapes a visit as much as the distance does.
Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman and the Friends unveiled the "Say My Name" Memorial at Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park on September 4, 2025. The county's announcement says it honors more than 1,700 patients from 26 states and 4 countries who lived and died at the former Crownsville State Hospital. Many were buried between 1912 and 1965 in unmarked graves that carried numbers only.
Janice Hayes-Williams, who founded the Friends, led the research that recovered every one of those names, and all of them are now on the memorial. The county bought the Crownsville property from the State of Maryland in December 2022 and worked with the Friends on the design. State and county funding for design, construction and site work came to $340,243.
Speaking at the unveiling, Hayes-Williams described the memorial in the county's release this way:
"The Say My Name Memorial unveiling was a culmination of years of work of love and commitment. I believe that this event is the true healing to the Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park."
The cemetery is open, but most of the campus around it is not. The county's public access options for the patient cemetery, updated September 17, 2025, allow visitors only in the cemetery area and on the trails west of I-97. Anyone found outside those areas is treated as a trespasser.
The rest of the property is still at an early stage. In the county's FY27 approved capital budget appendix, the park master plan, the patient cemetery memorial and a sewer system evaluation are marked complete. Other projects are further back:
The trail network that will eventually run across the campus has not been built yet. Until it is, walkers and riders reach the memorial from the neighboring Bacon Ridge Natural Area.
Bacon Ridge Natural Area covers more than 1,100 acres of mature forest and wetland. Of that, 630 acres are permanently protected under a conservation easement with the Maryland Environmental Trust and Scenic Rivers Land Trust. The 20-plus miles of natural-surface trails were built with the Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts, known as MORE. They are open to hikers, mountain bikers and leashed dogs from sunrise to sunset, and hunting is prohibited in the natural area.
The county lists two parking areas with trail access to the cemetery:
| Parking area | Address | Distance to cemetery | Round trip | Portable restroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bacon Ridge Road | 1284 Bacon Ridge Road, Crownsville | About 3 miles | About 6 miles | Not listed |
| Hawkins Road | Near 1700 Hawkins Road, Crownsville | About 4 miles | About 8 miles | Year-round |
Bacon Ridge has a third trailhead, the northern entrance on Severn Chapel Road, which serves the mountain bike skills park. The Trailforks page for Bacon Ridge, updated October 26, 2026, says that entrance is closed for construction. The park itself stays open from the Hawkins Road and Bacon Ridge Road lots, and riders can still reach the Bike Park on the trails. Trailforks uses slightly different street numbers for the lots than the county does. The county's addresses in the table above are the ones to put into a map app.
The closure comes from the Severn Chapel Improvements project. It adds the 150-acre former Forney property to the natural area. According to the county's project page, last updated October 13, 2026, the plans include new hiking and equestrian trails, a mountain bike skills trail, a hitching and care area for horses, more parking, and park ranger training facilities. They also include a homestead interpretive area built around two historic tobacco barns. Reliable Contracting Company is the construction contractor. A separate project to stabilize the two barns is still in planning.
Daylight is the bigger constraint in November and December. Under the county policy, hike-in and bike-in visits are allowed from dawn to dusk, seven days a week. With clocks on standard time since November 1, dusk comes early in the afternoon. A six-mile round trip on dirt trails, with time to stop and read names at the memorial, works best with a morning start. From Hawkins Road the round trip is about eight miles, so the day gets tighter still. On a bike the trip is shorter but just as dependent on daylight. MORE's own group rides stay off the trails when they are wet or muddy, which is a good guide for anyone pedaling in after November rain.
People who can't walk or ride several miles can drive to the cemetery in two ways. Both depend on the calendar, and both use grass parking.
The first is open access on the first Saturday of every month except January, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with no reservation needed. The second is a weekday reservation. Call the Department of Recreation and Parks' Resource Conservation and Protection unit at 410-222-2844, or email [email protected], at least 48 hours ahead. A reservation gives you a two-hour block between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Reservations aren't available on county holidays, and weather or operational needs can move a request to a different date.
The county lists two limits that apply to both drive-in options. Parking is on grass only, so extreme rain can cancel open access. The short walk from parking to the cemetery is not ADA accessible.
Because open access skips January, the rest of the season is short. Here are the dates from now into the new year, counted from the county's first-Saturday rule and its fall programs:
The access policy on the county's site is dated September 2025 and is still the version linked from the Bacon Ridge page. A quick call to the park rangers at 410-222-2844 before a Saturday drive-in can confirm the gate is open, especially after heavy rain.
The memorial holds the names, and the county is now collecting the stories. In March 2026, as Eye On Annapolis reported, Anne Arundel County started a multi-year Crownsville Hospital oral history project. It will record oral histories, build a digital archive and hold training workshops, and it invites people with knowledge of the hospital to take part.
Other parts of the campus are already in use. The county's Nonprofit Center at 41 Community Place opened in summer 2025 and is open by appointment, with tours Tuesday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The county's 2025 announcement says the long-term plan for Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park includes a museum, educational exhibits and programming that acknowledge the history of the property.
At The Lucas-Knott-Laye Team of Lofgren-Sargent Real Estate, we're glad to share what we know about Crownsville's trails, parks and community landmarks. If you have questions about the area around Bacon Ridge and Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park, please Contact Us.
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