Southern Maryland

Southern Maryland in popular usage is composed of the state's southernmost counties on the "Western Shore" of the Chesapeake Bay. This region includes all of Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's counties and southern portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties.

History

Southern Maryland was originally inhabited by Piscataway Indians. Captain John Smith explored the area in 1608 and 1609. [cite web
url=http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/landfall/schmidt/index.html
title=Capt. John Smith's 1608 Chesapeake Voyage
author=Christine Wright
date=2002
publisher=Calvert Marine Museum
accessdate=2007-12-08
He explored the lower Chesapeake Bay in 1607.] In 1634 St. Mary's City, at southern Maryland's lower tip was the site of the first Roman Catholic English settlement in North America (the site is now a living history museum). Tobacco plantations flourished in southern Maryland during slavery. With a slave economy during the American Civil War, regional white sympathies were very pro-Confederate (as evidenced in the official state song lyrics). From the war's beginning, however, large numbers of Union occupying troops and patrolling river gunboats prevented the state's secession, although nighttime smuggling across the Potomac River with Virginia took place. Southern Maryland was and in most places still is traditionally a rural and agricultural region, linked by passenger and freight steamboat routes. These steamboat routes operated on the Chesapeake Bay and major rivers until the 1930s before the building of highways and the Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge on U.S. Highway 301. Weekend excursion boats also carried Washingtonians to small amusement parks and amusement pavilions at numerous shore locations. From 1949 (1943 in some places) to 1968, the region was popular for its slot machine gambling (now illegal). While the steamboats are long gone, more than three quarters of the land area is still rural, a mixture of forest and farmland. [cite web
url=http://www.marylandtransportation.com/Planning/Southern%20Maryland/Existing%20Conditions%20Exec%20Summar.pdf
title=Summer 2007 — Draft Existing Conditions Summary
publisher=Maryland Department of Transportation
date=2007
accessdate=2007-12-06]

During recent times, the region experienced suburban development as the Washington suburbs expanded southward. This expansion took place primarily in Prince George's County, and around Waldorf (a regional shopping hub) and St. Charles (a planned community in Charles County), Lexington Park (St. Mary's County) and Prince Frederick (Calvert County). This expansion of the Washington DC metropolitan area has caused much of southern Maryland's formerly predominant southern culture to fade giving way to a rapidly growing northeastern culture that is found throughout much of the BosWash area [cite web
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36333-2005Feb18?language=printer
title=Bay's Dialects Slowly Dying
author=David A. Fahrenthold
date=February 19, 2005
publisher=The Washington Post
accessdate=2007-12-08] . However, as noted, land-use maps show that the area is still primarily low-density. [cite web
url=http://www.mdp.state.md.us/INFO/newmaps/pax2_y2k.htm
title=Patuxent River – 2000 Land Use / Land Cover
publisher=Maryland Department of Planning
date=2000
accessdate=2007-12-08]

Many southern Marylanders work at Andrews Air Force Base, the U.S. Census Bureau or at Patuxent River Naval Air Station and its related industries. Other smaller industries include a nuclear power plant [ [http://www.constellationenergy.com/generation/ccnpp.asp Power generation: Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant] . (2006). Constellation Energy. Retrieved December 22, 2006.] and a liquified natural gas terminal [ [http://www.calvertchamber.org/m/20/Dominion-Cove-Point-LNG Dominion Cove Point LNG] . (2005). Calvert Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved December 22, 2006.] (both in Lusby), a Naval ordinance test ground (at Indian Head), [ [http://www.ih.navy.mil Indian Head division, Naval Surface Warfare Center] . (n.d.). United States Department of Navy. Retrieved December 22, 2006.] an electric power plant (at Aquasco) [ [http://www.mirant.com/our_business/where_we_work/chalkpoint.htm Chalk Point Generating Plant] . (n.d.). Mirant Corporation. Retrieved December 22, 2006.] and an oil terminal [ [http://www.mirant.com/our_business/where_we_work/pineypoint.htm Mirant Piney Point] . (n.d.). Mirant Corporation. Retrieved December 22, 2006.] (at Piney Point). The beautiful towns of Solomons Island and Chesapeake Beach are favorite weekend tourist resorts. Maryland International Raceway and Budds Creek Raceway near Chaptico attract many auto racing enthusiasts.

The growing of tobacco, once a dominant crop, has declined greatly because of state government farm buyouts during the 1990s. St. Mary's County is home to Amish and Mennonite communities. In addition, two competing groups (only formally organized in recent years) claim to be the Piscataway Native American tribe, a tribe that lived along the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland (see We-Sorts). Fishing, boating and crabbing are popular activities in this region; large marinas are found in the Solomons Island and North Beach areas. However, the population of fish and other marine life is threatened by pollution and environmental factors. Ancient marine fossils are abundant at Calvert Cliffs.

Geography

The region's northern boundary passes through Prince George's County and Anne Arundel County, east of Washington. Its eastern boundary is the Chesapeake Bay and its southern and western boundary is the Potomac River, Maryland's boundary with Virginia.

Food and Cuisine

Perhaps the most notable food dish originating from Southern Maryland is stuffed ham, which is cabbage, kale, onions, spices and seasonings that are chopped and mixed, then stuffed into deep slits slashed in a whole, corned ham.Fact|date=December 2007

Seafood is popular amongst Southern Marylanders, given the region's location along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Both steamed crabs and crab cakes are considered Southern Maryland delicacies due to the large amount of harvesting of blue crabs from the bay. Also popular are oysters, which were once fished from the bay in great numbers, and served either fried, raw or stuffed. Rockfish is considered one of the most prized fish dishes in Southern Maryland.Fact|date=October 2007

Towns and communities in Southern Maryland

Towns and places in Southern Maryland include:

Anne Arundel County:
*Deale
*Shady Side

Calvert County:
*Chesapeake Beach
*Dunkirk
*Huntingtown
*Lusby, Maryland
*North Beach
*Prince Frederick (county seat)
*Port Republic, Maryland
*St. Leonard, Maryland
*Solomons

Charles County:
*Bryans Road, Maryland
*Indian Head
*Hughesville, Maryland
*La Plata (county seat)
*Nanjemoy, Maryland
*Waldorf
*St. Charles

Prince George's County:
*Accokeek
*Brandywine
*Clinton
*Eagle Harbor
*Upper Marlboro (county seat)

St. Mary's County:
*California, Maryland
*Charlotte Hall, Maryland
*Hollywood, Maryland
*Leonardtown (county seat)
*Lexington Park
*Mechanicsville, Maryland
*St. Mary's City

ports

Notable Southern Marylanders

* Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md), Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, represents southern Maryland as the representative for Maryland's Fifth Congressional District and lives in Mechanicsville, Maryland.

* Two former first ladies hail from southern Maryland: Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, and Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor, wife of Zachary Taylor.

* Longtime Maryland State Comptroller Louis Goldstein was from Calvert County; also Maryland Senate President Mike Miller currently lives there.

* Co-discover of the North Pole, Matthew Henson and Captain Raphael Semmes of the Confederate ship "Alabama" were born near Nanjemoy, Charles County. Prominent revolutionary war statesmen John Hanson, Thomas Stone, and General Smallwood were from Charles County. Dr. Samuel Mudd, convicted of conspiracy to murder in the Abraham Lincoln assassination, was also a native of Charles County.

* Best-selling Spy thriller novelist Tom Clancy lives in Calvert County in a home on Chesapeake Bay.

* Television journalists Ted Koppel, Judy Woodruff, Al Hunt, newspapermen Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, and weatherman Doug Hill all have houses in St. Mary's County.Fact|date=June 2008

* Theoretical ecologist Dr. Robert Ulanowicz lived in Calvert County prior to his retirement in 2008 with Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, where he was a member of the faculty.

* Roger Brooke Taney, the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice who presided over the Dred Scott decision, was born in Calvert County near Prince Frederick.

* Former Maryland comptroller Louis L. Goldstein lived in Calvert County. A portion of Route 2-4 in Calvert County was renamed in his honor after his death.

* Arthur Storer, first astronomer in the American colonies and the original namesake for Halley's Comet, lived the latter part of his life in Calvert County. A planetarium in Prince Frederick bears his name.

*Thomas Johnson, the first elected governor of Maryland and U.S. Supreme Court justice. The Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge connecting Calvert and St. Mary's counties was named in his honor.

*Television and film screenwriter and producer Alfred Gough hails from Leonardtown in St. Mary's County.

* Former Maryland State Senator and Patuxent River advocate Bernie Fowler lives in Calvert County. Every year, in Broomes Island Fowler will hold a "wade-in" with other public officials to help determine the clarity levels of the Patuxent.

* Singer Christina Milian once lived in Waldorf. [cite web
title =Christina Milian Biography
work =ChristinaMilian.org - The Official Site of Christina Milian
publisher =Milian Corporation
date =
url =http://www.christinamilian.org/bio.php
accessdate =2007-12-14 ]

* Joel and Benji Madden from the band Good Charlotte grew up in Waldorf. [Citation| last =Hoard| first =Christian| title = Young, Hopeless, Rich, and Famous| magazine =Rolling Stone| year =2003| date =April 9, 2003| url =http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/good_charlotte_young_hopeless_rich_and_famous ]

* Turkey Tayac, Piscataway tribal leader and herbal medicine man

* Robert Stethem, murder victim during hijacking of TWA Flight 847 was from Pinefield,the northern section of Waldorf

* Senator and Astronaut John Glenn trained at Patuxent River Naval Air Station many years ago, as did Alan Shepherd and other future astronauts.

Colleges in Southern Maryland

Colleges in Southern Maryland include:
* The College of Southern Maryland, a community college with campuses in Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's counties
* St. Mary's College of Maryland

References