Calvert County Among John Smith's New World Visits

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md., -- January 26, 2006 - With this month’s release of New Line Cinema’s major motion picture, “The New World,” Americans can enjoy a blockbuster history lesson highlighting the first interactions between Europeans and Native Americans in the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.

While the movie specifically chronicles John Smith’s first landing at Jamestown, it is interesting to note that Smith and his crew also ventured far into the wilds of the Chesapeake Bay, including its western Calvert County shores, just a year after settling in Virginia. In fact, , as part of the upcoming 400th anniversary celebration, a crew of 14 will embark on a 121-day expedition beginning on May 12, 2007, to retrace the steps of Smith’s 1,700-mile journey all around the Bay.

Efforts are even underway to create the nation’s first historical water trail through the National Park Service. To be named the Chesapeake National Historic Water Trail, the course will map a network of locations along the Chesapeake Bay duplicating Smith’s Bay adventures. Along this trail, kayakers, canoeists, pleasure boat captains and American history enthusiasts can relive the history that Smith experienced 400 years ago and imagine a time when oysters “lay as thick as stones” and there were more sturgeon “than could be devoured by dog or man.” Smith’s journals detail the wide variety of animal and plant life he encountered including porpoise, seals, stingrays, bears, wolves, cougars and “cypress trees that were 18 feet around the base and up to 80 feet tall without a branch.”

Smith’s map of the “Chesapeack” Bay also documented the locations of over 200 Native American villages, including one encountered along Calvert’s Patuxent River shores where Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum (www.jefpat.org) now stands in St. Leonard. The Park’s mission as a state museum of archaeology and history is to preserve, study, exhibit and interpret the diversity of Maryland cultures and more than 9,000 years of human history that have flourished in the Chesapeake Bay region. Modern-day visitors can explore thousands of years of human history by touring archaeological sites and trails, a recreated Woodland Indian village, acres of working farmland, restored farm buildings and museum exhibits and by attending educational programs detailing the more than 70 archaeological sites that have been identified, from prehistoric through the Colonial period.

On August 7, 2007, the Park will join in the national commemoration of Smith’s anniversary during its annual American Indian Heritage Day event. The day will include living history, dancers and drummers, traditional arts and crafts, and a commemoration of the first encounter between the Patuxents and John Smith. A recreated Indian Village is planned to be in place for the event at the park and museum.

Smith’s legacy is evident among the many namesakes that inhabit the Chesapeake region today. Smith Island, Maryland’s only inhabited off-shore island on the Bay, owes its name to the bold adventurer and Calvert Cliffs were originally named “Rickards Cliffes” by Smith in honor of his mother and her family. As he passed by the towering, unspoiled cliffs just north of Solomons Island, he remarked: “All along the shores rest plenty of pines and firs . . . within is a country that may have the prerogative over the most pleasant places known, for large and pleasant navigable rivers, heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation.”

For information on the 400th anniversary celebration of John Smith’s travels through Calvert County and Bay country, visit www.johnsmith400.org.

For more information on the Calvert County, Maryland Department of Economic Development, our visitor sites and attractions and the services available to assist County businesses, call 410.535.4583, 800.331.9771 or 301.855.1880; or send an e-mail to info@ecalvert.com