Putting the Potomac on the Map

John Smith and his crews explored the Potomac in June 1608, and the river, which he called the Patawomeck, appeared on his famous map of Virginia. After returning to England in 1609, Smith created the map from notes, sketches, and memory, and it proved remarkably accurate for the tools available at the time. First published in 1612, it remained the primary map used by colonists for nearly a century and, together with Smith’s published descriptions, encouraged European settlement. The map also recorded information about Chesapeake Bay Indians, helping archeologists locate Indian towns and offering clues about cultures that had thrived for thousands of years before English settlers arrived. In the early 1600s, Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay in search of precious metals and a passage to Asia, traveling the James, Chickahominy, and York rivers in 1607 and leading two major expeditions from Jamestown in 1608. He and his crew sailed and rowed a primitive 30-foot boat nearly 3,000 miles, reaching as far north as the Susquehanna River. Although he found neither gold nor a river passage to the Pacific, his precise map and detailed observations of American Indian societies and the region’s abundant natural resources guided future explorers and settlers. At the time of his explorations, an estimated 50,000 American Indians lived in the Chesapeake region in sophisticated societies with arts and architecture, systems of government, extensive trade and communication networks, and shared spiritual beliefs, sustaining themselves by hunting, fishing, growing crops, and gathering food and raw materials from the land and waterways.

Virginia · United States