Popes Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed August 15, 2011 stream in

Charles County Charles County is a county in Southern Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. Charles County is part of the Wash ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and a tributary of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

Power plant

The

Potomac Electric Power Company The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is an American utility company that supplies electric power to the city of Washington, D.C. and to surrounding communities in Maryland. It is owned by Exelon. The company's current trademarked slogan ...

(PEPCO) built the two coal units of the

Morgantown Generating Station The Morgantown Generating Station is a 1,477 MW electric generating plant owned by GenOn Holdings LLC., located in the unincorporated town of Newburg, Maryland, near Morgantown, on the Potomac River. The station was built in 1970.GenOn En ...

in the 1960s in

Morgantown, Maryland Morgantown is an unincorporated community in Charles County, Maryland, United States. It lies south of the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge on the Potomac River at Lower Cedar Point. Morgantown is known for the Mirant Morgantown Generating ...

, near the mouth of Pope's Creek. This facility, now owned by

Mirant GenOn Energy Holdings, formerly Mirant Corporation, was a subsidiary of GenOn Energy, and is now a part of NRG Energy. The company was spun off from its former parent, Southern Company, on April 2, 2001. The company was merged into GenOn Energy ...

, is sometimes referred to the Pope's Creek Power Plant.

Railroad

In 1853 the State of Maryland chartered the Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road Company to construct a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

from the city of

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

via Upper Marlboro and

Port Tobacco Port Tobacco, officially Port Tobacco Village, is a town in Charles County, in southern Maryland, United States. The population was 13 at the 2010 census, making Port Tobacco the smallest incorporated town in Maryland. Overview This was historical ...

to a point on the Potomac River between Liverpool Point and the St. Marys River, and any branches of at most in length. This rail line, now operated by CSX Transportation, is known as the

Pope's Creek Subdivision The Pope's Creek Subdivision is a CSX Transportation railroad line in Maryland, running from Bowie to Morgantown where the Morgantown Generating Station is located and the Chalk Point Generating Station. History The Pope's Creek Subdivision ...

and carried passenger service until 1949. Today it is primarily used to haul

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

to the power plant.

References

Rivers of Charles County, Maryland Rivers of Maryland Tributaries of the Potomac River {{Maryland-river-stub