The Flotilla Project: Preliminary Report 1997 Fieldwork

Abstract

The 1997 Flotilla Project investigated several different areas in the Patuxent River drainage. These include St. Leonard’s Creek where three different sites were inspected to the upper Patuxent in the vicinity of Hill Bridge.

Each area had special research interest. In St. Leonard’s Creek, Grover’s Creek Cove was thought to contain two gunboats dating to the War of 1812 but only a single vessel was actually found. This was a late nineteenth century plank-on-frame bugeye (Babits 1998). The shoreline and dock area of St. Leonard’s Town was also inspected. Here a number of promising features including vessel parts and a wharf were found. Aerial photographs taken in the 1930’s suggest the possibility that some remnants of a boom placed across the creek in 1814 might still be present in the narrows between Grover’s Creek Cove and St. Leonard’s Town.

In the upper Patuxent, magnetic anomalies recorded during the late 1970’s and again in 1980 were reinspected and ground-truthed. A major problem surfaced during this effort when it became apparent that considerable silting occurred over the last fifteen years. Additional research shows that the course of the stream migrated south and east since 1814 causing the northern, and western banks to build up as the stream migrated. Consequently, hydroprobing to a depth of fifteen feet proved unprofitable and was an ineffective means of defining potential sites.