Oxon Cove, the Potomac, and the Chesapeake
The history of Oxon Cove Park is a small part of the larger story of the Potomac River, which is one chapter in the long tale of the Chesapeake Bay. But the three stories overlap in many details and eras.
For thousands of years, the abundance of fish, shellfish, game, and rich soil drew people to the land around you. These same natural riches attracted people to the rest of the Chesapeake region. As people settled the Chesapeake, they changed it.
Tobacco farming exhausted the soil in parts of the region by the early 1700s. As fields lay fallow to recover their fertility, erosion washed soil into Oxon Creek, the Potomac, and the Chesapeake. Sediment began to block the channels and harbors of the Potomac at least 300 years ago.
Today, the millions of people in the Chesapeake watershed change the rivers and the bay in different ways. Farming, fishing, industry, cities, and suburbs are all part of the area’s modern ecosystem.
Map of the Mid-Atlantic states with the Chesapeake watershed highlighted.
Courtesy of Chesapeake Bay Program.
The Chesapeake Bay watershed drains 64,000 square miles from New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Nearly 16 million people live in the watershed. Fifty rivers and roughly one hundred smaller streams and creeks drain into the bay.
Marker is on Oxon Hill Hiker Trail west of Bald Eagle Road, on the left when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
