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“Bite-Size Bits of Local, National, and Global History”
“Bite-Size Bits of Local, National, and Global History”
Eastport in Annapolis in Anne Arundel County, Maryland — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
 

From this spot, you can see 1608 - Captain John Smith's Chesapeake Voyages

Annapolis Maritime Museum

 
 
From this spot, you can see 1608 - Captain John Smith's Chesapeake Voyages Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), March 10, 2018
1. From this spot, you can see 1608 - Captain John Smith's Chesapeake Voyages Marker
Inscription. You're looking out across the mouth of the Severn River where it meets the Chesapeake Bay. In the summer of 1608 Captain John Smith sailed within sight of this spot four times during his "voyages of discovery" up and down the Chesapeake Bay. His journal never mentions the Severn, but if he had explored the river he might have met some of the Algonquian-speaking Indians who occasionally hunted and camped along its shores, feasting on oysters and other Bay seafood. A large buried pile of oyster shells discovered near here shows that ancient Indians used this area for many centuries. They called the Bay "Chesepiooc," an Algonquian word meaning "Great Shellfish Bay."

Indians of the Chesapeake region fashioned dugout canoes from logs, using tall, straight cypress or cedar trees. Carvers used fire to burn the part of the log they wished to hollow out, then scraped away the charred wood and shaped the hollowed log into a seaworthy vessel. These canoes could be quite large, up to 45 feet long and 3 feet deep, and could carry up to 40 people. When early English settlers arrived, they copied this technique because sawn boards were scarce and logs were plentiful.

Key
1. Indians used dugout canoes for harvesting fish and oysters and for traveling across the open waters of the Bay.
2.
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Captain John Smith explored the Bay in a small open boat called a "shallop."
3. Horn Point, the end of the peninsula where you're standing now.
4. Greenbury Point, on the far side of the Severn River.
5. Kent Island, on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
6. Chink's Point, on the other side of the mouth of Back Creek.
7. Ospreys dive for fish. Look for their large nests on a nearby piling.
8. Red wing blackbirds feed on horseshoe crab eggs in the spring.
9. Little green herons stalk the creek bank for fish and other critters.
 
Erected by Chesapeake Bay Trust.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: ExplorationNative AmericansSettlements & SettlersWaterways & Vessels. A significant historical year for this entry is 1608.
 
Location. 38° 58.131′ N, 76° 28.563′ W. Marker is in Annapolis, Maryland, in Anne Arundel County. It is in Eastport. Marker can be reached from 2nd Street south of Bay Shore Avenue, on the right when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 799 2nd Street, Annapolis MD 21403, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. From this spot, you can see 1672 - Providence: Settlement on the Severn (here, next to this marker); From this spot, you can see 1887 - The Age of Steam
From this spot, you can see 1608 - Captain John Smith's Chesapeake Voyages Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), March 10, 2018
2. From this spot, you can see 1608 - Captain John Smith's Chesapeake Voyages Marker
(here, next to this marker); From this spot, you can see 1774 - The "Annapolis Tea Party" (here, next to this marker); From this spot, you can see 1919 - Oysters: The Bay's "White Gold" (here, next to this marker); Oysters: Vital to Commerce. Vital to Culture. (here, next to this marker); Oysters: Vital to Nature. Vital to Our Future. (here, next to this marker); Oysters: Vital to the Lifeline of the Chesapeake (here, next to this marker); From this spot, you can see 1998 - Annapolis: America's Sailing Capital (here, next to this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Annapolis.
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on September 18, 2023. It was originally submitted on March 11, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 254 times since then and 14 times this year. Photos:   1, 2. submitted on March 11, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.

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Mar. 29, 2024