Park 18: National Capital Parks: Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm

5/18/13. Today we started our big end-of-the-semester vacation. Catherine, Jason, his girlfriend Kelsey, and I headed out in my Mazda 5 for the drive to Florida. Since we left a couple hours earlier than planned, I quick checked the Google Earth map that the National Parks Traveler's Club has created to see what little park unit might be on the way and close to I95.

We found just the thing at Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm just off of I 495 at the border of Maryland and Virginia. The day had been drizzling, but the rain stopped while we visited the farm site. According to the National Park website: Beginning in the early 19th century, Oxon Cove Park witnessed changing land patterns typical of the southern Maryland region. These changes began with the Debutts family who bought the property and established the Mount Welby Plantation.
The Mount Welby period represents only one layer of the park's deep and diverse history. The park has been home for many generations of human habitation during the past 10,000 years--beginning with the Native American peoples who have hunted for wild game and gathered plants up until the 17th century.
Forty-eight years after the Debutts sold the property, the land was acquired by the United States Government to establish a therapeutic farm for St. Elizabeths Hospital known as Godding Croft.
The property was entrusted to the National Park Service in 1959 to protect its natural and cultural resources from the threat of increased urban development, and to continue to tell the story of the land and how it has changed overtime.

The farmland was stunning beautiful on this wet spring day and it was a little oasis just outside the city. We walked around, looking at the displays outside the buildings and toured the tiny visitor center. I was delighted to realize that this was park of the Capitol City region and we got our first red stamps. We bought Kelsey a passport so she can keep a record of where we visit on this vacation.

After about 45 minutes, which was plenty of time to see this site, we got back on the road, heading south for our first leg of the trip which ended in Fayetteville, NC. Tomorrow we will make it the rest of the way to Orlando.