Dickerson, Maryland
Encyclopedia
Dickerson is an unincorporated area
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...

. It is located on Maryland Route 28
Maryland Route 28
Maryland Route 28 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs from U.S. Route 15 in Point of Rocks east to MD 182 in Norwood. The western portion of MD 28 is a rural highway connecting several villages in southern Frederick County and western Montgomery County...

, between Sugarloaf Mountain and the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

. It is a community situated near the town of Poolesville, Maryland
Poolesville, Maryland
Poolesville is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland United States with a population of approximately 5000 people. It is surrounded by the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve, and is considered a distant bedroom community for commuters to Washington, DC.The name of the town comes from the...

. Dickerson is 61.5 square miles (159.3 km²).

History of Dickerson

Dickerson was officially founded in 1871. It was named after its first postmaster, William H. Dickerson, who served from 1873 to 1897. The earliest land grant known to have been given out in the land that is now Dickerson was granted to Arthur Nelson: he received 97 acres (392,545.4 m²) in 1739. Most of what is now considered Dickerson originally belonged to Nathan Hempstone.

Before the Civil War, Dickerson was little more than a couple roads, a store, and a few houses. After the Civil War, the population began to rise more sharply. This was because after the Civil War, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...

 Company were able to continue their hunt for a route to place the Metropolitan Branch. Travelers wanted a way to travel west toward the capital and other places without having to go all the way to Baltimore first. They decided on a route that passed through Dickerson, and began construction. The railroad line going from Dickerson to Point of Rocks, MD was finished in the year 1871; the entire line was open for public use in 1873.

The Monocacy Site
Monocacy Site
The Monocacy Site is an archeological site at the confluence of the Monocacy and Potomac Rovers, near Dickerson, Maryland. The site spans several eras ranging from Archaic period to the early Woodland period. Projectile points, pottery and soapstone vessels have been found here, with pottery dated...

 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1975.

Neutron Products Inc.

Dickerson is also home to Neutron Products Inc. is a low-level nuclear facility operating since the 1960s EPA ID# MDN000305785. The site is described by the EPA as follows: "The facility had four Nuclear Regulatory licenses, but because of many past violations, is under permanent injunction prohibiting operation of its license to manufacture radioactive materials. Neutron appealed this injunction to the highest court in Maryland, and the court upheld the injunction. Because the facility no longer is licensed to manufacture, the Maryland Department of the Environment is concerned about its economic state, and therefore, its ability to effectively store, handle and clean up radioactive materials." and is listed as a superfund site.

They further note: "From 1989 through 1996, approximately 150 radioactive particles of Cobalt-60 have been found within a kilometer of the Neutron plant. Employee's homes, cars and unrestricted areas of the plant have been found to be contaminated with radioactive material. Radioactive contamination has also been released through effluent to unsecured properties outside the Neutron boundaries, including two adjacent railroad properties." One can download a copy of the Department of Energy report on Nuetron Products from 1994 can be obtained. Also, as late as 2002, the activities continued to make news as reported in the Washington Biz Journal with a small amount of radioactive waste dumped in regular trash.

Dickerson Store and Dickerson Market

The Dickerson Store was originally built for and used as a supply depot for the workers constructing the railroad around 1870. When the railroad was completed, it continued to serve the townspeople and local farmers as a general store. A post office was put in the store in 1891. The store has been moved a total of three times: first in 1890 to allow space for the train station; second, when they widened road in 1910; and last in 1928 when they added a second track to the railroad. It is not currently in use.

The Dickerson Market is located at 22145 Dickerson Rd., Dickerson, MD. It was constructed in 1946, and was originally called Dronenburg's Store after the family that originally operated it. The Post Office was moved from the Dickerson Store to the Dickerson Market in 1960. The store has exchanged hands several times. It was briefly owned by Arthur Stull (at this time called "Stull's Grocery". It then was operated by Robert Thacker, who gave it the name "Dickerson Market". Now, it is owned by Buck Fowler.

Demographics

Dickerson is 86% caucasian, 9.7% African-American, 2.9% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and 1% 'other'. The population is 49.6% female and 50.4% male. The median age is 43 years. The median female age is 42.7 years and the median male age is 43.5 years. There are currently 747 households in Dickerson, and the average size of the household is 2.67 people. The average household income is $89,120. Approximately 67.4% of the people are employed, 1.5% are unemployed, and 31.1% are not in the work force.

Dickerson Generating Station

The Dickerson Generating Station
Dickerson Generating Station
The Dickerson Generating Station is a 853 MW electric generating plant owned by GenOn , located approximately two miles west of Dickerson, Maryland.-Description:...

 started in 1959. The outpour of water from the power plant became the Dickerson Whitewater Course in 1991, a training course for kayakers and canoeists for the 1992 Olympic Games.

The Montgomery County Resource Recovery Facility, a 56 MW generating incineration plant which burns municipal garbage and waste
Waste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...

, is located next to the Dickerson Generating Station. This waste-to-energy
Waste-to-energy
Waste-to-energy or energy-from-waste is the process of creating energy in the form of electricity or heat from the incineration of waste source. WtE is a form of energy recovery...

 plant is also served by the CSX railroad line, which delivers trash from a central collection center in Derwood to the plant. The Montgomery County Resource Recovery Facility is operated by the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, a state-owned corporation. All of the generating plants at the Dickerson Generating Station were built by the Potomac Electric Power Company, which sold them to the Southern Company in December 2000 as a result of the restructuring of the electricity generating industry in Maryland. The station was included in the spin-off from the Southern Company of Mirant in April 2001, which has since operated and maintained the plant.

In 1991, the 900 feet (274.3 m)-long cooling water discharge channel from the power plant, which empties into the Potomac River, became the Dickerson Whitewater Course, a canoe and kayak training facility for the 1992 Olympic Games.

The Montgomery County Resource Recovery Facility began operations in 1995. (from Dickerson Generating Station
Dickerson Generating Station
The Dickerson Generating Station is a 853 MW electric generating plant owned by GenOn , located approximately two miles west of Dickerson, Maryland.-Description:...

)

Transportation

Dickerson
Dickerson (MARC station)
Dickerson is a passenger rail station on the MARC Brunswick Line between Washington, D.C. and Martinsburg, WV . This station was designed by E. Francis Baldwin and built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1891. It is the last station Frederick bound trains pass before branching onto the...

 station on MARC
MARC Train
MARC , known prior to 1984 as Maryland Rail Commuter Service, is a regional rail system comprising three lines in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. MARC is administered by the Maryland Transit Administration , a Maryland Department of Transportation agency, and is operated under contract...

's Brunswick Line
Brunswick Line
The Brunswick Line is a MARC commuter rail line consisting of a main line running from Washington D.C. to Martinsburg, West Virginia and a branch line from just south of Point-of-Rocks station to Frederick, Maryland. The service is operated under contract by CSX Transportation, but is administered...

 provides commuter rail service to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....


See also

  • Dickerson (MARC station)
    Dickerson (MARC station)
    Dickerson is a passenger rail station on the MARC Brunswick Line between Washington, D.C. and Martinsburg, WV . This station was designed by E. Francis Baldwin and built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1891. It is the last station Frederick bound trains pass before branching onto the...

  • Dickerson Whitewater Course
    Dickerson Whitewater Course
    The Dickerson Whitewater Course, on the Potomac River near Dickerson Maryland, was built for use by canoe and kayak paddlers training for the 1992 Olympic Games in Spain. It was the first pump-powered artificial whitewater course built in North America, and is still the only one anywhere with...

  • Sugarloaf Mountain owned and operated by the non-profit Stronghold Inc.
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