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Every October, residents flock to Great Falls to watch costumed interpreters weave tales of history, hardship and gore along the canal. From haunted goldmines to mysterious deaths tied to bootlegging operations, organizers of "Life and Death on the C&O Canal" — the largest program put on by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park — hope to highlight the stories that are central to the county's history.

The event is a historical take on a haunted Halloween walk, and will take place Saturday night against the backdrop of the candlelit canal. But according to organizers and park officials, the area's history is incomplete without one key story.

"Maryland was a slave state, and it's really impossible to tell the history of the area without telling the story of enslavement," said Bill Justice, chief of interpretation at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. Justice said that the park has uncovered stories indicating slaves worked on land adjacent to the canal, and others that escaping slaves used fords to cross the Potomac on their way north to freedom. "There were a lot of routes that people used to escape north, and I'm sure the canal could very easily have been one of those," Justice said.

This is the first year that Mark Myers, a park ranger who launched "Life and Death" 13 years ago, is including a scene that highlights slavery. The scene is loosely based on a story of slaves from Northern Virginia who were captured just off the towpath after using the canal as an escape route.

Telling the story of slavery along the canal has been a focus for the national park, according to Justice.

"I know it from an intellectual and a historic perspective, but reenacting it I think will give me a little bit of a deeper perspective," said Burtonsville resident Janine McGregor, who plays the part of an escaped slave. "Just that the C&O Canal at that time was a conduit for the Underground Railroad, its like, ‘Wow, it really happened here.'"

The focus on slavery comes as local and national historians are marking the 150th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, then a part of Virginia. On Oct. 16, 1859, Brown raided a federal arsenal to seize weapons and arm slaves in an ultimate effort to wage a war against slavery. Brown's attempt failed and he was later executed, but many historians mark the event as an important precursor to the Civil War.

This year's "Life and Death" will also highlight the story of John Cook, a spy who tended the lock just across the Potomac from Harper's Ferry and was involved with Brown's raid. Like Brown, Cook was executed after the failed attempt.

This year's performance of "Life and Death on the C&O Canal" will take place 150 years nearly to the day after the historic raid.

"It underscores the need to tell the story," Justice said of the anniversary. "The Civil War was not just about armies on opposite sides of a field. It was about the issues of what this country really stands for."