Patuxent River

The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeast passing through Baltimore, and the Patuxent River between the two. The 908-square-mile (2,352 km²) Patuxent watershed had a rapidly growing population of 590,769 in 2000.^{[citation needed]} It is the largest and longest river entirely within Maryland, and its watershed is the largest completely within the state.

The river source, 115 miles (185 km) from the Chesapeake, is in the hills of the Maryland Piedmont near the intersection of four counties – Howard, Frederick, Montgomery and Carroll, and only 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from Parr's Spring, the source of the south fork of the Patapsco River. Flowing in a generally southeastward direction, the Patuxent crosses the urbanized corridor between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and opens up into a navigable tidal estuary near the colonial seaport of Queen Anne in Prince George's County, Maryland, just southeast of Bowie. The river is bounded by significant marsh areas for 22 miles (35 km) from the Waysons Corner area to the Hunting Creek confluence. The 52 miles (84 km)-long tidal estuary is never wider than 2.3 miles (3.7 km).

It marks the boundary between Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles and St. Mary's counties on the west and Howard, Anne Arundel, and Calvert counties on the east. The Chesapeake estuary's deepest point, 130 feet (40 m) below sea level, is in the lower Patuxent.

The three largest cities in the watershed are Columbia, Bowie, and Laurel, Maryland. There is a percentage of agricultural activity in the region as well. The mid and lower banks of the river have swamp and marshland ecosystems. Many of those ecosystems are protected by some form of parkland, on the state and local levels, the most notable of which include Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, Merkle Wetlands Sanctuary, and Patuxent River Park. Farther north is the 20 square mile Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge, the largest protected area in the watershed.

The Little Patuxent River, the Middle Patuxent River, and the Western Branch are the three largest tributaries. The Middle Patuxent flows into the Little Patuxent just upstream from the historic Savage Mill in Savage. The Little Patuxent then joins the Patuxent just southwest of Crofton. The Middle Patuxent flows 24 miles (39 km) through the middle of Howard County, while the Little Patuxent flows 38 miles (61 km) through northeast and southeast Howard County and western Anne Arundel County. Western Branch originates under the name Folly Branch in the Wingate Drive area of the northern part of Glenn Dale, assuming the name "Western Branch" in Woodmore, continuing southward through Prince George's County, joined by Collington Branch before it joins the Patuxent near Upper Marlboro.

Native Americans have lived along the Patuxent River since at least 1100 BC. An archaeological dig at Pig Point (just north of Jug Bay at the end of Wrighton Road ) uncovered some of the oldest known artifacts in the Mid Atlantic states, including pottery, arrow and spear points, and remnants of wigwams, fires and foodways. The site was probably a center of trade in the region and has one of the best unbroken archaeological records on the East Coast. The Pig Point site includes remnants of the oldest structures ever found in Maryland, wigwam post holes dating to the third century.

The word Patuxent is derived from the Algonquian language used by the indigenous people living in the area prior to the arrival of the European settlers. Its meaning is debated. According to some sources it means "water running over loose stones" while others believe it means the "place where tobacco grows".

The Patuxent River was first named ("Pawtuxunt") on the detailed map resulting from the 1608 voyage upriver by Jamestown, Virginia settler John Smith. Captain Smith got as far as the rough vicinity of the present-day Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary (Lyons Creek) area, 40 miles (60 km) from the Chesapeake near what is now the Anne Arundel–Calvert–Prince George's County tripoint. This was most likely the second visit by Europeans to the Patuxent, as in June 1588 a small Spanish expedition under Vicente Gonzalez is believed to have anchored for the night in the Patuxent mouth. The river was an important colonial shipping port with the government's garrison situated at the mouth of the river where Charles Calvert was first Collector in 1673. In 1699, Thomas Browne, sometimes referred to as 'The Patuxent Ranger', followed the river from the Snowden plantation to where Clarksville is sited. In 1702 George Plater I was the Patuxent naval officer (later based at Sotterley Plantation), having earlier served as Collector after Calvert, Rousby, Sewall, Digges, and Payne held the collectorship. By the mid and late seventeenth century respectively, colonists spread upriver to Mt. Calvert and Billingsley Point, two 18th-century mansions 43.5 miles (70 km) upriver from the Chesapeake that are today part of Patuxent River Park. By 1705, the Snowden iron ore furnace (also known as the Patuxent Iron Works) just southeast of Laurel, was shipping "pig iron" downriver from the current vicinity of the 1783 Montpelier Mansion, also part of Patuxent River Park.