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Visit a section of river between St. Clements Island and Point Lookout, Md...
St. Clements Island, Md.
Piney Point Lighthouse
St. Mary's City, Md.
Point Lookout State Park
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The Potomac River swells to a width of 11 miles at its mouth. At Point Lookout Park you can look across the river's wide mouth and out into the Chesapeake Bay beyond. Here the salinity has reached the level of the Chesapeake and the fish life is primarily the same. This area of the river offers some of the best fishing for Rockfish in the entire Chesapeake region.
This was the first area of the river settled by Europeans. After John Smith's exploration in 1608, colonists arrived at St. Clements Island in 1634 and then settled on the St. Mary's River. Today you can explore St. Mary's City and learn about the life of early settlers. The Maryland Dove, a full-scale replica of the ship that carried supplies for the 1634 expedition, is an active part of the historic displays.
A mile offshore from Piney Point, MD, a World War II-era German submarine lies at the bottom of the Potomac. After surrendering to the British at the end of WWII, the U-1105 Black Panther was selected by the U.S. Navy as a target for explosives testing and sunk in 1949. Rediscoved in 1985, the submarine was designated as an historic shipwreck preserve in 1994 and provides one of the more interesting scuba diving sites along the Potomac for advanced divers.
Across the River, Reedville is located near Smith Point at the Virginia side of the Potomac's mouth. The town's Main Street was once known as "Millionaire's Row" because of the Victorian mansions built by wealthy fishermen who made their fortunes from the menhaden that were plentiful in the Potomac and Chesapeake until the early part of this century.
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