Nanjemoy, Maryland

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Nanjemoy is a settlement along Maryland Route 6 in southwestern Charles County, Maryland, United States, and the surrounding large rural area more or less bounded by Nanjemoy Creek to the east and north, and the Potomac River to the south and west.

Geography

Nanjemoy is within the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, approximately 25 miles (40 km) south of the Capital Beltway (Interstates 95 and 495).

The area is served by Maryland Route 6 and other two-lane state highways; the nearest major roads are

The settlement lends its name to the Nanjemoy Formation, which outcrops on the nearby shores of the Potomac River. Other fossiliferous formations which outcrop nearby are the Aquia and basal Calvert Formations.

Economy

The village center includes a Post Office and a county-operated community center building that serves the area's population. The area has two children's camps and a sheriffs' training facility. Much of the Nanjemoy area is forest or farmland. Tobacco was formerly commonly cultivated in the area, but is now rarely grown there. ^{[citation needed]}

History

Nanjemoy and the creek draw their names from a Native American tribe.^{[citation needed]} The

In the last years of World War I, the Allied sea-power had been weakened by German submarines. The U.S. military used wooden ships, many of which were built and anchored in Widewater, Virginia, but the war ended before they could be used. Most ships were moved across the Potomac river to a secluded bay called Mallows Bay that served as a junkyard. Some were deconstructed but most of the ships sank. In 1970 a representative from the Audubon Society testified that the wrecks had become an "integral part of the ecosystem." In the 1990s the area was found to contain longboats from the Revolutionary era and modern ships. In 2002, Mallows Bay was protected for the state of Maryland, and in November 2015 the site was nominated as a National Marine Sanctuary.^[2]

The sunken hulls of dozens of scrapped wooden boats are still visible at low tide at Mallows Bay in the Nanjemoy area which is regarded as the "largest shipwreck fleet in the Western Hemisphere"^[3]

Famous people born in Nanjemoy include Raphael Semmes,^[4][5] captain of the Confederate cruiser CSS Alabama, and Matthew Henson,^[6][7] with whom Robert Peary explored the Arctic in 1909 and who with Peary may have discovered the North Pole.

Wild areas

The Nanjemoy area, on the

The Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center, operated by the

Hunting and fishing have long been popular in the relatively undeveloped Nanjemoy area, and many miles of remote hiking trails are available. More recently, the area's scenic, little-traveled roads have become popular with cyclists.

Public boat landings are provided on the Potomac at

• Raphael Semmes, captain of the Confederate Navy ship CSS Alabama.
• Matthew Henson, Arctic explorer.

References

External links

• Nanjemoy community website