" It just kind of blows your mind that you could have 400 years pass and have a landscape like this remain unchanged.

--Ann Swanson

Executive Director, Chesapeake Bay Commission

History

As the 1500's closed and the 1600's began, Europeans competed to establish settlements in the New World of America. The English had their eye on the Chesapeake Bay. The bay provided a reach deep into the mid-Atlantic and safe harbors for ships. It was a rich land, and Capt. John Smith proclaimed he had never seen a place "better fit for human habitation."

Capt. Smith had earned his title as a soldier in European wars. He joined the Virginia Company and became a leader of the Jamestown Colony, which in 1607 established the first permanent English settlement in America. More than any colonist, Smith preserved the colony through its difficult early years. He led the English contact with the American Indians, who had lived in the Chesapeake for more than 15,000 years.

The relationships Smith developed with the local people kept the colonists alive through the first difficult winters. The English knew little about farming in this land. Learning from the people who already lived around Jamestown Island and trading and raiding for corn kept them alive.

This necessity of finding food and establishing relationships drove Smith's early explorations of the bay. But his later explorations were propelled by his desire to fulfill the charge given him by the Virginia Company. The company, which financed the Jamestown settlement, wanted the colonists to assay the region's natural riches and to find a passage through America to the Far East.

In the summer of 1608, in two rapid voyages, Smith went looking. He sought gold and silver and the route to India. He never found these riches, yet he left a rich legacy.

Smith explored a land abounding in natural resources and came face-to-face with the well-developed cultures of people who had lived in the Chesapeake region for millennia. He observed, he took notes, and he made a map that proved so accurate it remained the definitive map of the region for nearly a century. His detailed writings, the reports of his comrades, and his marvelous map remain vital sources for anthropologists and historians, and provide us a tour guide to the  beginning moments of our nation's history.

These events marked an historical pivot point, setting the Chesapeake Bay region on a course that would forever transform its culture, its commerce, and its environment. The Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail is of national significance, according to the National Park Service, for its association with the themes of Ethnic Heritage (Native Americans), Exploration and Settlement, and Commerce and Trade.