This is the first complete history of the Tidewater Potomac (Washington DC to the Chesapeake Bay). It covers the full period from the settlement of Maryland and Virginia in the early 1600s to the late 1960s. The author, editor of the Chronicles of St. Mary's (the monthly magazine of the St. Mary's County Historical Society), tells of the generations of men who worked, fought and sailed the waters of the lower Potomac for over three centuries. For more than 50 years he observed the happenings on the river and deplored the pollution and waste of resources of this beautiful arm of the Chesapeake. During this period, he accumulated a considerable store of river lore. Included in the story is data concerning the effect of several wars and the losses and suffering of the river front people in these wars. The establishment of the Federal City, the "Oyster Wars," steam-boating, great freezes and hurricanes are part of the river story. Boat building on the river is traced from the original Indian dugout canoe through the pinnace, shallop and sloop, and in later years, the pungy, schooner, bugeye and the Potomac River "dory." A chapter on boyhood reminiscences is a nostalgic recall of youth, and the author closes with an appeal to help make the Potomac safe and beautiful for the generations to come. Edwin Beitzell's "Life on the Potomac River" remains the primary reference on the Potomac. His meticulous documentation of the region's watermen and their boats is particularly valuable to anyone who is interested in the history of the Potomac River. We welcome the reappearance of this long out-of-print classic. - Richard Dodds, Curator, Maritime History, Calvert Marine Museum. A wealth of charming illustrations and vintage photographs, as well as a full name plus subject index augment this work.

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The story of the Potomac is the story of America—take a historic hike with this fascinating guide. The great Potomac River begins in the Alleghenies and flows 383 miles through some of America's most historic lands before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. The course of the river drove the development of the region and the path of a young republic. Maryland's first Catholic settlers came to its banks in 1634 and George Washington helped settle the new capital on its shores. During the Civil War the river divided North and South, and it witnessed John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry and the bloody Battle of Antietam. In this book, Garrett Peck leads readers on a journey down the Potomac, from its first fount at Fairfax Stone in West Virginia to its mouth at Point Lookout in Maryland. Combining history with recreation, Peck has written an indispensible guide to the nation's river.

Stanton celebrates the Potomac in words and in previously unpublished historical photos. Through the recollections of a 19th-century boatman, old photo albums, and interviews with area residents, Stanton recreates life on the Potomac River in the 18th and 19th centuries. 54 photos.

The Potomac River Basin, stretching from Pennsylvania through West Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, is home to a variety of wildlife and culture. The Potomac flows through the landscape, offering its shores to bathers and fishermen, its rapids to adventurous kayakers, and its natural beauty to all who live nearby. But, over the centuries and specifically since the coming of European settlers to the area 400 years ago, the region and the river have been transformed. Many of the changes that have affected the Potomac were the result of human actions--the introduction of maize about 1,900 years ago, the accidental importation of the Chestnut blight in 1904, and the increased industrialization of the region. In this pictorial history, readers will have the opportunity to learn about the long-lasting effects of deforestation, mining, and pollution, the plant and animal life that call the region home, and the river's restorative power and enduring grace in striking views from the past 200 years.

The Potomac", one of the most celebrated volumes in the Rivers of America series. Frederick Gutheim follows the Potomac from its source in West Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay. Along the way, he brings to life the planters and presidents, frontiersmen and industrialists who have shaped the region's history. From Captain John Smith's 1609 expedition upriver to John Adam's doubting view of the still undeveloped federal city, from the insurrection at Harper's Ferry to the rapid transformation of twentieth-century Washington into a living- and at times unruly- metropolis, "The Potomac" traces the life of a great river and of the people who have lived along its banks.

Five-year-old Clara Bynum is dead, drowned in the Potomac River in the shadow of a seemingly haunted rock outcropping known locally as the Three Sisters. River, Cross My Heart, which marks the debut of a wonderfully gifted new storyteller, weighs the effect of Clara's absence on the people she has left behind: her parents, Alice and Willie Bynum, torn between the old world of their rural North Carolina home and the new world of the city, to which they have moved in search of a better life for themselves and their children; the friends and relatives of the Bynum family in the Georgetown neighborhood they now call home; and, most especially, Clara's sister, ten-year-old Johnnie Mae, who must come to terms with the powerful and confused emotions stirred by her sister's death as she struggles to decide what kind of woman she will become. This highly accomplished first novel resonates with ideas, impassioned lyricism, and poignant historical detail as it captures an essential part of the African-American experience in our century.