The Central Maryland Heritage League is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that was formed in 1989 by a group of local citizens "...to organize and operate an association exclusively for charitable, educational, and civic purposes in the encouragement of preservation and interpretation, land management, conservation, and the preservation of natural habitat, no part of the net earnings of which are to inure to the benefit of any member." With these goals in mind the founding members of the league gathered around George Brigham's kitchen table in the fall of 1989 to try and figure out a way to save 10 acres of the South Mountain Battlefield at Fox's Gap. In the intervening years the league has saved and protected significant acreage which has now become part of what is the South Mountain State Battlefield.

The League has grown from just more than a battlefield protection group. Although the protection of the South Mountain State Battlefield is one of our prime goals, we have also become involved in the education of both children and adults as to the many aspects of our cultural and natural heritage in the Middletown Valley and throughout Central Maryland. This land was the scene of important events in the French and Indian War. The National Turnpike (Rt. 40-A), our first roadway, crossed these valleys and ridges. In addition to being the site of the first major Civil War battle in the Free State, the area around South Mountain is also the location of valuable farmland, forest, and wildlife habitat. A section of the Appalachian Trail passes through the South Mountain State Battlefield. Indeed, it is the only place in the United States where the 2,158-mile Appalachian Trail passes through a major Civil War battlefield. South Mountain contains an upland biological habitat that has all but disappeared in Maryland, and which deserves responsible stewardship.

Currently the Central Maryland Heritage League owns approximately twenty-two acres of South Mountain State Battlefield (at four locales) and two historic structures. However, preservation is an ongoing process and it is expensive. At least two-thirds of the battlefield is threatened by the march of development. If additional assistance is not forthcoming the battlefield will succumb to residential and commercial encroachment, snuffing out forever a historical legacy of great value to the entire nation.