The Rhode River is a short tidal tributary of Maryland’s West River within the Chesapeake Bay estuarine landscape, its shoreline divided into creeks and coves such as Muddy Creek and Cadle Creek. Its shores preserve evidence of early colonial settlement: Rhode River Hundred appears in some of the Province of Maryland’s earliest records, and in 1651 Robert Harwood surveyed Harwood Plantation there. A deed concerning Hookers Purchase at the head of Muddy Creek links the area to some of the first English landholding in this part of the Chesapeake. Later, the river supported local water transport, and today it also serves environmental research and recreation.