Nanjemoy is a settlement along

Maryland Route 6 Maryland Route 6 (MD 6) (sometimes called Port Tobacco Road) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs from a cul-de-sac, dead end at the Potomac River in Riverside, Charles County, Maryland, Riverside east to Ma ...

in southwestern

Charles County Charles County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. The ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, United States, and the surrounding large rural area more or less bounded by

Nanjemoy Creek Nanjemoy Creek is a , tidal tributary of the Potomac River in Charles County, Maryland, United States, located between Cedar Point Neck and Tayloe's Neck. Its watershed area (excluding water) is , with 2% impervious surface in 1994. The Natu ...

to the east and north, and the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

to the south and west.

Geography

Nanjemoy is within the

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, 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

Maryland Route 210 Maryland Route 210 (MD 210) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Indian Head Highway, the highway runs from Potomac Avenue in Indian Head, Maryland, Indian Head north to the District of Columbia boundary in Forest Height ...

to the north and

U.S. Route 301 U.S. Route 301 (US 301) is a spur of U.S. Route 1 running through the South Atlantic states. It runs from Biddles Corner, Delaware, at Delaware Route 1 to Sarasota, Florida, at U.S. Route 41. It passes through the states of Delaware, ...

to the east. The Nanjemoy area is becoming increasingly popular with Washington-area

commuter Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

s, particularly those working in nearby Indian Head or Fort Washington in Maryland or in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

. The

Waldorf, Maryland Waldorf is a census-designated place in Charles County, Maryland, United States. Located south-southeast of Washington, D.C., Waldorf is part of Southern Maryland. Its population was 81,410 at the 2020 census. Waldorf has experienced dramatic gr ...

and

La Plata, Maryland La Plata ( ) is a town in Charles County, Maryland, Charles County, Maryland, United States. The population was 10,159 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Charles County. History According to an unconfirmed loc ...

, commercial areas are nearby to the east, along U.S. 301. No rail lines presently serve the area. Other settlements in the Nanjemoy area include Grayton, Maryland Point, and Riverside. Chicamuxen, Doncaster, and Ironsides are nearby to the north. The settlement lends its name to the

Nanjemoy Formation The Nanjemoy Formation is a Formation (geology), geologic formation pertaining to both the Wilcox Group and the Pamunkey Group of the eastern United States, stretching across the states of Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. The f ...

, 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 A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

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.

History

Nanjemoy and the creek draw their names from a Native American tribe. The Confederate-sympathizing area saw occupation by a large force of the Union army during the early part of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, with an encampment of about 12,000 soldiers near Chicamuxen, a few miles (kilometers) north of the Nanjemoy area. In the last years of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, 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 Mallows Bay is a small bay on the Maryland side of the Potomac River in Charles County, Maryland, United States. The bay is the location of what is regarded as the "largest shipwreck fleet in the Western Hemisphere" and is described as a "ship ...

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. The State of Maryland placed Mallows Bay in a protected status in 2002, and in September 3, 2019 the bay became part of the

Mallows Bay–Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary The Mallows Bay–Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary is a National Marine Sanctuary in the United States located in the Potomac River in Charles County, Maryland. It is best known for the "Ghost Fleet," 118 historic shipwrecks in Mallo ...

. The sunken hulls of dozens of the ships still are visible at low tide at Mallows Bay, and they are regarded as the "largest shipwreck fleet in the Western Hemisphere." Famous people born in Nanjemoy include

Raphael Semmes Raphael Semmes ( ; September 27, 1809 – August 30, 1877) was an officer in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. He had served as an officer in the United States Navy from 1826 to 1860. During the American Civil War, Semmes was c ...

, captain of the

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

cruiser ''

CSS Alabama CSS ''Alabama'' was a screw sloop-of-war built in 1862 for the Confederate States Navy. The vessel was built in Birkenhead on the River Mersey opposite Liverpool, England, by John Laird Sons and Company. Launched as ''Enrica'', she was fitte ...

'', and

Matthew Henson Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866March 9, 1955) was an African American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary on seven voyages to the Arctic over a period of nearly 23 years. They spent a total of 18 years on expeditions together.

, with whom

Robert Peary Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being ...

explored the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

in 1909 and who with Peary may have discovered the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

Wild areas

The Nanjemoy area, on the

Atlantic Coastal Plain The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, includes the largest great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') rookery in the

Eastern United States The Eastern United States, often abbreviated as simply the East, is a macroregion of the United States located to the east of the Mississippi River. It includes 17–26 states and Washington, D.C., the national capital. As of 2011, the Eastern ...

north of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, now a preserve owned and managed by

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in ...

. The area also includes

Purse State Park Purse State Park is a former Maryland state park located on the Potomac River in Charles County that has been subsumed into the Nanjemoy Wildlife Management Area. As the Purse Area, the former park is known for fossil hunting on the beaches of ...

, well known for its

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

shark teeth Sharks continually shed their teeth; some Carcharhiniformes shed approximately 35,000 teeth in a lifetime, replacing those that fall out. There are four basic types of shark teeth: dense flattened, needle-like, pointed lower with triangular up ...

, ''Turritella'' snails, and other fossils of Paleocene geological age, and other protected wild areas along the

's freshwater tidal (estuarine) shore. Smallwood State Park, the

Chicamuxen Wildlife Management Area Chicamuxen Wildlife Management Area is a state Wildlife Management Area along Chickamuxen Creek near the Potomac River in Charles County, Maryland. The area includes a variety of landforms from marshland to rolling forest. The area provides du ...

, the

Doncaster Demonstration Forest Doncaster Demonstration Forest is a state park in Charles County of the state Maryland. The park is in size. It serves as an educational resource where a variety of silvicultural practices, forest best management practices and wildlife habit ...

and

Chapel Point State Park Chapel Point State Park is an undeveloped public recreation area located on the Port Tobacco River, a tributary of the Potomac, in Charles County, Maryland. The state park offers fishing and hunting and is under the management of Charles County ...

are also nearby. Th
Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center
operated by the Charles County Public School system, is located along Nanjemoy Creek. It offers trails, a boardwalk through a freshwater tidal

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

, a pier, a pavilion, a laboratory building, and several cabins for use by school groups. An observatory there, operated by the Southern Maryland Astronomical Society, has a dome formerly used nearby at a

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, appl ...

facility.

Recreation

Hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

and

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

have long been popular in the relatively undeveloped Nanjemoy area, and many miles of remote

hiking trails A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Howe ...

are available. More recently, the area's scenic, little-traveled roads have become popular with

cyclists Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world for pur ...

. Public boat landings are provided on the Potomac at

and on the

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

portion of Nanjemoy Creek at Friendship Landing, the latter also popular for

. Recreational boaters, mostly from the

Woodbridge Woodbridge may refer to: Places Australia *Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called ''West Midland'' *Woodbridge, Tasmania Canada *Woodbridge, Ontario England *Woodbridge, Suffolk, the location of **Woodbridge (UK Parliament constituency ...

and Quantico areas on the

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

side of the Potomac, frequently visit the extensive undeveloped river shore in the Purse State Park area.

Kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

ing is also increasing in popularity in the area, both on the Potomac and on the quiet estuary, tidewaters of Nanjemoy Creek.

Notable people

, captain of the

Confederate Navy The Confederate States Navy (CSN) was the Navy, naval branch of the Confederate States Armed Forces, established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the Amer ...

ship ''

''. *

, Arctic explorer.

References

External links

Nanjemoy community website
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Charles County, Maryland Astronomical observatories in Maryland Unincorporated communities in Maryland