An effort to map sites important to African American history in the Chesapeake Bay region has uncovered dozens of previously undocumented examples and shed new light on many more — many with close ties to waterways and the bay itself.

State preservation offices, the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Gateways Network and the National Trust for Historic Preservation collaborated on the five-year, $400,000 project, known as the Chesapeake Mapping Initiative.

The effort centered on documenting places associated with influential Black people and important historical events involving African Americans — before those locations fade into history themselves.

“Even just finding one more historic site that we didn’t know about before was a win,” said Lawana Holland-Moore, director of grantee impact and engagement for the trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. “African American history is American history, and these places are our tangible contributions to it.”

In many cases, researchers learned they were five to 10 years too late. An old structure had been demolished, for instance, or decay had taken its toll, or the human repositories of vital information were no longer alive.

Holland-Moore said she hopes the project helps communities protect more sites important to the story of African Americans in the Chesapeake region.

“Being able to formally recognize these sites is so important to their preservation,” she said.

The initiative focused on three states: Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Because of budget and time constraints, team members narrowed their surveys to portions of each state’s geography.

Many of the featured places and people are connected to the Chesapeake Bay and the region’s rivers, but not all.

In Virginia, where researchers focused on African American watermen, the effort documented 97 sites. In Maryland, team members focused on Calvert, Kent and Somerset counties and identified 350 sites. In Pennsylvania, the effort added 52 places to the state’s catalog of historical sites, added information to more than 50 other sites and identified locations for potential archaeological research.

Here is a look at a few of those sites with ties to the woods and waterways of the bay region.

Kings Landing Park, Calvert County

Along a gentle bend in the Patuxent River, Kings Landing Park in Calvert County presents a full plate of recreational amenities: a 200-foot pier for fishing, horseback-riding trails, tree-lined hiking paths, a swimming pool and a paddlecraft launch within easy reach of Cocktown Creek.

The park offers a window into how young African Americans interacted with nature during the Jim Crow era and beyond.

The 260-acre park was once the setting of a summertime camp for Black youth from Baltimore. The YMCA in the city’s Druid Hill neighborhood purchased the property in 1946 and transformed it into Camp Mohawk. Campers enjoyed swimming, tennis, canoeing, archery, nights around the campfire and other outdoor activities.

The camp operated until 1980. Four years later the state bought the property, and today the Calvert County Department of Parks & Recreation manages it with the Calvert Nature Society.

Visitors can glimpse Camp Mohawk’s history at the park. Seven of the original cabins remain, and they have been restored to bring back their original atmosphere — including authentic, camper-scrawled graffiti.

Outlaw blacksmith shop, Eastern Virginia

For decades, Samuel D. Outlaw served as a vital cog in his community’s economy. In the days before big box hardware stores, farmers, watermen and others turned to him when they needed metal tools.

The small building stands on the outskirts of Onancock, Virginia, a quaint town on the Eastern Shore. Outlaw opened his blacksmith shop in 1927 and ran a successful operation for more than 60 years.

Through the Chesapeake Mapping Initiative’s efforts, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

“Unlike many blacksmiths who learned their trade as apprentices and journeymen, Outlaw attended the four-year blacksmithing program at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute’s Armstrong-Slater Memorial Trade School,” the site’s National Register application noted.

Outlaw used a forge, cast-iron vessels, vises and planers to fabricate metal tools and parts. He contributed to the region’s seafood industry by supplying and repairing crab dredges, clam rakes, oyster tongs, rudder shafts and other items.

Outlaw scaled back operations in 1972 but continued repairing hand tools until his retirement nearly 20 years later.

What distinguishes the privately owned site from many of its brethren in the database is that it’s open to the public. A nonprofit operates the building as a museum, touting it as a “rare surviving example of an African American-owned industrial site.”

Wednesday tours can be arranged by calling 757-656-3460.

Seagull Beach, near Prince Frederick

An advertisement published in 1956 in the Washington Afro-American newspaper proclaimed to readers that this resort was “catering to the DISCRIMINATING YOU.”

Was that a coded message? Racial discrimination had led to segregated beaches throughout the region. In answer to “whites-only” beaches, other locations sprang up that furnished Black audiences with shoreline outlets for fun, music and relaxation. Places like Seagull Beach.

Nestled along the Patuxent River near Prince Frederick, Seagull Beach’s heyday was from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. It drew African American families, church groups, schools and fraternal organizations from across the mid-Atlantic.

They were attracted by swimming in a pool, boating, dancing and fishing. They could buy picnic baskets filled with food or purchase meals at the clubhouse.

The site was also part of the Chitlin Circuit, a network of venues that showcased Black talent during the Jim Crow era. James Brown and Ray Charles performed there.

Michael Kent, a local historian and former president of the Calvert County NAACP, contributed a report to the mapping initiative. He included Seagull Beach, he wrote, to spark memories and renew interest in that chapter of history.

“Having oral histories attached to various places may hopefully inspire younger generations to preserve certain parts of property that relate to local oral history,” Kent wrote.

Seagull Beach and most of the surrounding area are now mostly given over to suburban homes and gated homesteads. But public access is afforded just slightly upriver at the Hallowing Point Boat Ramp and Beach in Prince Frederick.

Available activities include boating, kayaking/canoeing and fishing along the beach.

McAllister’s Mill, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

McAllister’s Mill is memorialized by a historical marker in a parking lot outside a defunct miniature golf course just south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The mill site is on private land about a quarter-mile away on Rock Creek, a Monocacy River tributary.

But it is sometimes open for guided tours through the Historic Gettysburg Adams County Preservation Society. Ruins are all that remain of the 1700s-era stone grist mill that provided shelter to hundreds of freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad, the famous network of routes, residences and supporters that aided people escaping slavery.

Situated only six miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line, McAllister’s Mill was often the first taste of freedom for those escaping bondage. In 1836, the mill also hosted a significant gathering of abolitionists, during which the group agreed to publish the anti-slavery writings of Thaddeus Stevens, who would become one of the top abolitionist voices in Congress.

For information about tours, call 717-659-8827.

Mifflin House, York County, Pennsylvania

A developer once proposed building a warehouse on this 87-acre farmstead overlooking the Susquehanna River in York County. The plan alarmed preservationists because the property was a stop on the Underground Railroad and a Civil War battle site.

In 2019, the developer agreed to give it two years to raise the $5.25 million purchase price. The Conservation Fund put up the money in 2022 and held on to the property until it could be bought by the Susquehanna National Heritage Area.

The site, in Wrightsville, includes a 225-year-old stone farmhouse, historic barns and fields. It is being repurposed into the headquarters and visitors center for the heritage area, which was created by Congress in 2017 to promote the region’s history and attract visitors.

During the first half of the 1800s, the farm served as a safe house on the Underground Railroad. Dozens of freedom seekers are thought to have found refuge at the site, near what was then the only bridge across the Susquehanna between Harrisburg and Port Deposit, Maryland.

And in 1863, about a week before the Battle of Gettysburg, the farm fields and surrounding woods became enmeshed in a skirmish in which 1,500 Union soldiers, including freed Black men, held off 1,800 Confederate attackers.

In May, the site opened for the first time to the public, albeit on a limited basis.

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