John Smith Explores the Chesapeake

Captain John Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay in the early 1600s seeking precious metals and a passage to Asia. He traveled the James, Chickahominy, and York rivers in 1607, and led two major expeditions from Jamestown in 1608. Smith and his crew sailed and rowed a primitive 30-foot boat nearly 3,000 miles, reaching as far north as the Susquehanna River. Although Smith did not discover gold or a river passage to the Pacific, his precise map and detailed observation of American Indian societies and the abundant natural resources guided future explorers and settlers. In the Chesapeake region he encountered thick forests of giant pines, oaks, and hickories, vast marshlands, huge turtles, 800-pound sturgeon, great schools of shad and striped bass, massive flocks of ducks, geese, and swans, and enormous oyster reefs rising above the water’s surface. At the time of his explorations, an estimated 50,000 American Indians lived in the Chesapeake region, where their ancestors had dwelled for thousands of years. Their sophisticated societies included arts and architecture, systems of government, extensive trade and communication networks, and shared spiritual beliefs, and native peoples hunted, fished, grew crops, and gathered food and raw material from the land and waterways.

Maryland · United States