Five Eras of Humans Lived Here
“For more than 10,000 years, people have hunted, fished, worked and made their homes around what would come to be known as Parkers Creek in Calvert County,” according to the American Chestnut Land Trust.
To begin research on how the people in the Parkers Creek area and their culture “shaped local heritage,” the Trust has been awarded $20,000 from the Maryland Heritage Area Authority.
The grant is the first step in the proposed Parkers Creek Heritage Trail, exploring how the land — preserved as one of the largest contiguous tracts of forest in the county — and the waterways shaped both the environment and the people of the area. Human habitation along the creek divides into five significant eras. One is the tobacco era illustrated in Carl Fleischhauer’s photo of the Woodrow Wallace family planting tobacco.
The results of the research will be shared both online and in interpretation signs along the Trust’s 22 miles of trails and heritage sites, with two new trails slated in the next two years.
At the end of Phase 1, the results will be presented in a community event.
Next steps include developing, then installing, an interpretation plan with signage, plus framework edge display of excavated buildings and sculptures and artwork representing buildings and historic life in the watershed.