Zekiah Swamp
Encyclopedia
Zekiah Swamp is part of the Wicomico River
Wicomico River
The Wicomico River is the name of two rivers in Maryland in the United States:*The Wicomico River , in Wicomico County, Maryland, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay...

 basin in Charles County
Charles County, Maryland
Charles County is a county in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Maryland.As of 2010, the population was 146,551. Its county seat is La Plata. This county was named for Charles Calvert , third Baron Baltimore....

, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

 in the United States. It is largely protected with the Zekiah Swamp Natural Environment Area a 450 acres (182.1 ha) and sits at an elevation of 3 foot (0.9144 m).. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is a government agency in the state of Maryland charged with maintaining natural resources such as the 66 state parks, public lands, state forests, state waterways, wildlife and recreation areas....

 has the authority to purchase an additional 5000 acres (2,023.4 ha) for the park. Additionally Charles County has moved to protect another 65000 acres (26,304.6 ha) of the wetland. The headwaters of the swamp are protected as part of Cedarville State Forest
Cedarville State Forest
Cedarville State Forest is a state forest and protected area in the state of Maryland, near Brandywine, Maryland and Waldorf, Maryland. It offers hiking trails, campsites, and picnic and recreation areas.-External links:...

. It was first accurately surveyed by John Henry Alexander
John Henry Alexander
John Henry Alexander was a noted scientist and businessman, born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1812. The youngest child of William and Mary Alexander, he attended St. John's College in Annapolis and graduated in 1827 at age fifteen...

, Maryland's official cartographer, in 1835, as "Allen's Fresh."

History

Maryland was formed as an English Colony in 1632. One of the original Thirteen Colonies
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...

, the Province of Maryland
Province of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S...

 was established by Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, 1st Proprietor and 1st Proprietary Governor of Maryland, 9th Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland , was an English peer who was the first proprietor of the Province of Maryland. He received the proprietorship after the death of his father, George Calvert, the...

 as a haven for Roman Catholic Englishmen. Much of Zekiah Swamp is now thickly wooded and very swampy, but during the colonial period it was a center of activity for the growing colony. A courthouse was built in 1674 and archaeologists believe they have found the location of a "summer house" constructed by colonial governor
Proprietary Governor
Proprietary Governors were individuals authorized to govern proprietary colonies. Under the proprietary system, individuals or companies were granted commercial charters by the King of England to establish colonies. These proprietors then selected the governors and other officials in the colony....

 Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, 2nd Proprietor and 6th and 9th Proprietary Governor of Maryland , inherited the colony in 1675 upon the death of his father, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. He had been his father's Deputy Governor since 1661 when he arrived in the colony at the age of 24...

. Archaeologists have searched for a fort built in 1680 to resettle a group of "friendly" Piscataway Indians.
The courthouse was built in 1674 at Moore's Lodge. It served as the Charles County courthouse until 1727 when the county government was moved to Port Tobacco. Early maps included a drawing of the courthouse. The drawing has allowed historians to know exactly what it looked like despite being unable to find its precise location for many years.

Charles Calvert
Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, 2nd Proprietor and 6th and 9th Proprietary Governor of Maryland , inherited the colony in 1675 upon the death of his father, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. He had been his father's Deputy Governor since 1661 when he arrived in the colony at the age of 24...

, son of Maryland's founding governor Cecil Calvert, built a home in the area in 1674. The home known as His Lordship's Favor as a summer home and as a retreat from his "political enemies" at the colonial mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

 at Mattapany
Mattapany-Sewall Archeological Site
Mattapany-Sewall Archeological Site is an archaeological site in St. Mary's County, Maryland. It is located at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station on a level terrace approximately 45' above sea level, less than 1000' south of the Patuxent River in an unused wooded/grassy tract...

 which is now part of Patuxent Naval Air Station. Calvert intended to build a brick home rather than the usual wooden structure built by colonists in the area. He had to settle for a wooden home, but did build a brick chimney. Archaeologists found what they believe to be the site of the home, but have not found any artifacts that can be dated back to the 1670s. It is speculated that Calvert never actually occupied the home. Charles Calvert was forced to flee Maryland in 1684 in the aftermath of conflicts between colonists from Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 and Maryland. Archaeologists have yet to find the precise location of a 1680 fort that was built to protect the "friendly" Piscataways from the "hostile" Susquehannock
Susquehannock
The Susquehannock people were Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries from the southern part of what is now New York, through Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Susquehanna in Maryland at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay...

. The Piscataway lived at the fort for about 12 years and enjoyed a working relationship with English colonists during that time.
Following the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...

 fled into Zekiah Swamp. Booth entered the swamp after being treated for the broken leg he suffered after leaping from the balcony at Ford's Theater by Dr. Samuel Mudd
Samuel Mudd
Samuel Alexander Mudd I, M.D. was an American physician who was convicted and imprisoned for aiding and conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the 1865 assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson and released from prison in 1869...

. Booth and his co-conspirator David Herold
David Herold
David Edgar Herold was an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. After guiding fellow conspirator Lewis Powell to the home of Secretary of State William H. Seward, whom Powell intended to kill, Herold fled and rendezvoused outside of Washington, D.C., with Booth...

 were guided through the swamp by a black tobacco farmer to the home of a Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 sympathizer, Samuel Cox. Cox led Booth and Herold to Thomas A. Jones who helped them the rest of the way through the Zekiah Swamp and across the Potomac River to Virginia.

Ecology

Zekiah Swamp is a greenway
Greenway (landscape)
A greenway is a long, narrow piece of land, often used for recreation and pedestrian and bicycle user traffic, and sometimes for streetcar, light rail or retail uses.- Terminology :...

. Greenways are often long, narrow strips of undeveloped land that are surrounded by urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

, suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

an or agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 development. A tributary of the Wicomico River
Wicomico River
The Wicomico River is the name of two rivers in Maryland in the United States:*The Wicomico River , in Wicomico County, Maryland, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay...

, the swamp is 21 miles (33.8 km) of braided stream, stretching the length of Charles County. Zekiah Swamp Run begins in Cedarville State Forest near Charles County's border with Prince George's County. It passes through two parcels of privately owned, but undeveloped land, to Zekiah Swamp Natural Environment Area where it empties into the Wicomico.

Maryland is home to a wide array of ecological habitats, ranging from barrier island
Barrier island
Barrier islands, a coastal landform and a type of barrier system, are relatively narrow strips of sand that parallel the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a few islands to more than a dozen...

s and beaches, to saltwater estuaries
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

, coastal plain
Coastal plain
A coastal plain is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features. One of the world's longest coastal plains is located in eastern South America. The southwestern coastal plain of North America is notable for its species diversity...

s and the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

. It is estimated that prior to European settlement that the state was 95% forested with the remaining 5% being tidal marsh
Tidal marsh
A tidal marsh is a type of marsh that is found along coasts and estuaries of which the flooding characteristics are determined by the tidal movement of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean . According to the salinity of the flooding water, freshwater, brackish and saline tidal marshes are...

lands. Most of the forests and marshes have since been destroyed by development. Zekiah Swamp Natural Environment Area is one of the few places in Charles County to be disturbed. Moves to protect all of the swamp have been taken by the Maryland state government and the Charles County government.

Zekiah Swamp is the largest hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...

 swamp in Maryland. It is considered to be one of the "most important ecological areas on the East Coast" by the Smithsonian Institute. Sediment buildup in the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 will be slowed or prevented by the protection of plant life in the swamps. The plants work to absorb much of the runoff
Runoff
Run-off or runoff may refer to:* Surface runoff, the flow of water, from rain, snow melt, or other sources, over land* Runoff model , a mathematical model describing the rainfall-runoff relations of a rainfall catchment area or watershed...

that would otherwise pollute the waters.
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