CJS - Mathews County Visitor Center Traditional Geocache

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.

You are seeking a traditional hide. Important this cache is only available when the visitor center is open! Monday - Saturday 10:00 to 4:00, and Sunday Noon to 3:00. Call 804-725-4229 or visit www.visitmathews.com for current information. Take a peek around the center and you will find the cache!
Once you find the cache, please be sure to check-in with the staff at the visitor center.

The Mathews County Visitor & Information Center is located in historic Sibley’s General Store. Maps and brochures are available inside as well as a showcase of crafts “Made in Mathews County” plus a collection of historical exhibits and educational displays. The center is open from 10 am to 4 pm Monday through Saturday and from noon to 3 pm on Sundays.

Cruising southward in July 1608, Captain John Smith and his crew aboard the Discovery Barge meant to enter the Rappahannock River north of Mathews County. Steering for the south side of the river’s mouth, he miscalculated the tide and ran the barge aground. Here, the crew took advantage of the plentiful fish in the bay grasses and, by the Captain’s example, began trying to pin the fish using swords. Before long, a southern stingray pierced Captain Smith’s wrist with its barb, causing immediate pain and a tremendous swelling. Convinced he would die, he ordered his grave to be dug. The physician on the crew applied an oil and the Captain recovered enough to eat the stingray for dinner. However, he remained in a painful condition and the crew elected to bypass exploration of the Rappahannock for now and instead to sail southward, passing up exploration of the waterways of Mathews County to head directly for Jamestown.

Before nightfall on the next day, they put in at the Indian town of Kecoughtan where the inhabitants thought for sure that the English had been at war. Captain Smith was still hurt, one of the crew members had a bloody shin, and there were plenty of bows, arrows, shields, and furs on board, making it seem as though these possessions were won in battle. Smith tried to dissuade them of this but, seeing that they wanted to believe the mighty and feared Massowomeck tribe had been defeated, finally gave in to this story.

Many early Chesapeake mariners were run aground on the shoals of the Bay, just like Smith at Stingray Point. After the Revolutionary War, members of the First Congress realized the need to make the coastal waters less hazardous. On August 7, 1789, one of the first acts provided for aids to navigation. Funds were appropriated for the construction of lighthouses, beacons, and buoys. The act also provided for the building of a lighthouse at Cape Henry near the southeast entrance to the Chesapeake Bay.

Cape Henry was the first lighthouse on the Chesapeake, and became operational in 1792. This was an active time for the building of lighthouses and the federal government made plans to construct a second lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay. Old Point Comfort was completed in 1802 by Elzy Burroughs at what is now Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia.

With Thomas Jefferson in the White House, the second Congress authorized construction of the Bay’s third lighthouse on an island at the tip of Mathews County. This one was also built by Elzy Burroughs of sandstone from the Aquia quarry - the same material used in construction of the White House, the Capitol, and other government buildings in Washington, D.C. Jefferson appointed Elzy Burroughs as the first Keeper and New Point Comfort Lighthouse was first lit on January 17, 1805. It is the tenth oldest American lighthouse still standing in the country and the third oldest on the Chesapeake Bay. It is listed on both the Virginia and National Registers of Historic Places.