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The Potomac: Oh You Roiling River
The Potomac: Oh You Roiling River
By Joe Motheral
Did you ever wonder why the stretch of the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia lies in Maryland when most state-to-state boundaries exist in the center of rivers?
In 1632, King Charles I sought to accommodate Cecil Calvert, the Baron of Baltimore in part to keep the Dutch from encroaching into the new British colonies. The Baron named the new colony Maryland after Charles I’s wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. In the process, Virginia lost control of the land north of the Potomac River and Maryland retained the rights to the River. The Charter of 1632 officially established the colony of Maryland and reduced the size of Virginia.
Then in 1776, the first constitution of Virginia validated the Maryland charter although it didn’t define the limits of Maryland’s claim to the Potomac. Virginia did assert the right to use the river for navigation and have use of the water and the shoreline in what is considered riparian rights.
There followed a series of negotiated settlements in 1785, 1877, and 1958. Several Supreme Court decisions defined how the boundary line was to be handled. These settlements had a legal sense but lacked markers on the ground that could be established by surveys.
In 1877, Virginia and Maryland agreed to designate a “commission of arbitrators” to determine the exact location of the boundary between the two states. That commission determined that the boundary is at the low water mark on the Virginia side of the river where it is located to this day.
Oysters at one time occupied the Potomac. All through the 1700s, “quiet” battles were waged between the watermen of Maryland and Virginia. It apparently became so intense that in the 1800s, the state governments got involved and there was conflict between them and the oyster harvesters. Barges plied the River to monitor the watermen, often leading to conflict.
The Potomac was an excellent breeding ground for oysters. The whole process started with Native Americans who dined on oysters and passed the practice on to the British settlers who found them delicious in most any form.
In 1947, The Washington Post wrote, “Already the sound of rifle fire has echoed across the Potomac River, only 50 miles from Washington men are shooting one another. The night is quiet until suddenly shots snap through the air. Possibly a man is dead, perhaps a boat is taken, but the oyster war will go on until the next night and the next.”
Finally, in 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed the Potomac Fisheries Bill establishing a bi-state commission to oversee the Potomac River.
A few other Potomac River anecdotes:
—In the 1950s, when gambling and liquor were legal in Maryland but not Virginia, Colonial Beach and Prince William County had slot machines located on boats docked in the river off the Virginia shoreline. (Customers would park in Virginia, then walk out on a pier and into Maryland.)
— Today if you want to get married on a boat in the middle of the Potomac River you need a Maryland marriage license.
