A Place For Progress

In the Patapsco Valley, Susquehannock and Pscataway Indians hunted and fished among elk, black bear, bison, gray wolves, and deer before European settlers recognized the valley's fertile and iron-rich soil, fast-flowing streams, and deep shipping channels to Chesapeake Bay and beyond. Beginning in the late 1700s, the valley became a center of Maryland's industrial revolution as iron, paper, grist, and textile mills spread through the landscape, with dams and diverted river flow powering water wheels that ground wheat into flour and turned cotton fibers into cloth. Factories and villages were built along hollows and steep hillsides, but intensive use of natural resources brought erosion, clogged shipping channels and millraces, polluted drinking water, poisoned wildlife, and constant danger from floods and fires. As new technology reduced reliance on waterpower and many industries moved upland, people came to see that progress required conservation and restoration, leading to the establishment of the Patapsco Forest Reserve, now Patapsco Valley State Park, as Maryland's first state park in 1907.

Arbutus, Maryland · United States