For 100 years, the National Park Service has preserved America’s special places “for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.” Celebrate its second century with the Find Your Park GeoTour that launched April 2016 and explore these geocaches placed for you by National Park Service Rangers and their partners.
geocaching.com/play/geotours/findyourpark
Come on a journey to remember and commemorate the history and travels of Captain John Smith!
Over four hundred years ago, Englishman John Smith and a small crew set out in an open boat to explore the Chesapeake Bay. Between 1607 and 1609 Smith mapped and documented nearly 3,000 miles of the Bay and its rivers. Along the way he visited many thriving American Indians communities and gathered information about this “fruitful and delightsome land.” In December 2006 the U.S. Congress designated the routes of Smith’s explorations of the Chesapeake as a national historic trail—the first national water trail.
Are you ready to follow in the wake of Captain John Smith? Visit sites along the National Historic Trail and learn about the native cultures and the natural environment of the 17th-century Chesapeake through the Captain John Smith Chesapeake Geotrail. The Trail provides opportunities for you to experience the Bay through the routes and places associated with Smith’s explorations. Caches will be located in museums, refuges, parks, and towns in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware along the rivers and creeks that Smith and his crew explored four centuries ago.
The Captain John Smith (CJS) Geotrail launched June 4, 2011 with over 40 caches within Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. A trackable geo coin will be awarded to the first 400 geocachers, while supplies last, for locating at least 15 CJS caches. To be eligible for the coin, geocachers must download a passport from either the CJS Geotrail or Maryland Geocaching Society website. Geocachers must find and log at least 15 finds, record the code word from each cache on their passport and post a picture of themselve at each cache location. After discovering the 15 required caches, geocachers may have thier passports validated in person or via mail at the National Park Service, Chesapeake Bay Office located at 410 Severn Ave, Suite 314, Annapolis, MD 21403. Please refer to the passport for complete validation instructions.
Participating in the CJS geotrail is fun and we hope that many people join in. However, it is not a requirement for logging your find on this cache once you find the container.
PLEASE STAY ON THE TRAIL AND FOLLOW THE DESCRIPTION BELOW! There is no need to bushwack to this cache.
You are seeking a traditional hide located off of the General's Walking Trail. Trailhead: N38 33.371 W077 11.317. You will need to cross the foot brdige at: N38 33.502 W077 11.304. The hike will be about 1 mile round trip with a rolling terrain. However, the hike is not difficult. The cache is a Lock & Lock stocked with CJS swag.
Smallwood State Park offers a wide variety of recreational facilities including hiking, fishing, boating, camping, and much more! Dogs are allowed in the day use and camping areas of the park.
Day use service charges are $3 per person on weekends and holidays, April through October; $3/vehicle weekdays year round (honor system in effect when toll booth is not staffed). Out-of-state residents add $1 to all day use service charges. Smallwood State Park is open year-round April through October from 5 a.m. to sunset, and November through March 8 a.m. to sunset.
Smallwood State Park takes its name from General William Smallwood, who was born in Charles County. Smallwood was the highest ranked Marylander [Major General] to serve in the American Revolutionary War. In 1785, Smallwood was elected Governor of Maryland, and later served in the Maryland Senate.
His house, called Smallwood's Retreat, has been restored and is open to park visitors seasonally. Besides the restored house, the 628 acre park offers a marina, boat launching ramps, a picnic area, camping area, pavilions, a recycled tire playground and nature trails. On occasion, there are craft demonstrations, military exhibitions and other special events. The second largest of the Chesapeake’s tributaries [following the Susquehanna] the Potomac’s watershed covers a huge area, over 14,600 square miles. When Captain John Smith and his crew sailed up the river during the summer of 1608, they were traveling along a waterway that was already well-used by native peoples for transport and trade between the mountains to the west and the coastal plain to the east. In addition, the Potomac was home to a wide variety of wildlife, including large Oyster reefs – few of which still exist.
In the 17th century, the most powerful Algonquian political organization on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake was the Piscataway chiefdom located along the Potomac River. The name Piscataway Creek reflects the location of the principal territory of the tayac, the supreme chief of the Piscataway nation. On the north shore of the Potomac River, five Indian chiefdoms owed allegiance to the Piscataway. Close to present-day Smallwood Park was a group known as the Pamacocack, whose settlement consisted of three towns with an estimated 250 residents according to Smith’s writings. In later Maryland records, the people are referred to as Pomonkeys [an Anglicization] and Mattawomans. Descendents of the Mattawomans and other native peoples who called the Potomac River home continue to live in southern Maryland to this day, all bearing the name Piscataway.
Thanks to Bocco for helping with this hide and to the Maryland Geocaching Society for assisting with this project!