The Potomac River has long been significant in the country’s history. Colonists traveled on the river and shipped tobacco, timber, and grains from its ports, and the river remains a vital resource through shoreline nature preserves, wildlife, and commercial and recreational activities that support the local economy. In May 1608, John Smith and a small party left Jamestown to explore the Potomac River, including sections of the Occoquan Creek shoreline, and his maps and journal gave later colonists information about this wilderness. Smith wrote of beavers, otters, bears, martins, minks, and fish so abundant that his party tried unsuccessfully to catch them with a frying pan. When the area was settled in the 1600s, land along the Potomac River and its tributaries was especially desirable because planters needed access to waterways for importing and exporting goods and produce. During the early 18th century, Colchester and Dumfries emerged as local ports. Belmont Center stands on land once within the Burbage Dividend, a large tract on the southern shore of Occoquan Creek granted to Thomas Burbage in 1653. In 1738, John Tayloe consolidated much of the Burbage Dividend with adjacent land and called it Deep Hole Plantation because of its navigable shoreline. In 1717, George Mason II acquired the land here and Mason’s Neck and named the tract Occoquan Plantation. His grandson George Mason IV later lived and worked at Gunston Hall Plantation.