A 10th Anniversary Tribute

Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail

By Paula Degen

On December 19, 2006, President George W. Bush signed legislation to establish the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Four hundred years earlier, the trail’s namesake boarded one of three ships leaving England on a voyage to the Chesapeake Bay and into American history books.

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the designation of the national historic trail, we honor the visionaries who saw the potential for the trail to connect people to the region’s deep history, remarkable natural beauty, and opportunities for recreation. They believed the trail could inspire people to cherish and conserve the Chesapeake as a national treasure. 

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and Chief Stephen Adkins at May 2006 event to raise support for a new trail, DOI photo

commission’s January 2005 meeting. The idea immediately took hold as representing “the Commission’s comprehensive approach to Bay restoration, balancing water quality and habitat protection with culture, education, and access.” Led by Ann Swanson, executive director, the Chesapeake Bay Commission persuaded its partners on the Chesapeake Executive Council to urge U.S. Senators Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) and John Warner (R-Va.) to sponsor legislation authorizing the National Park Service to study the feasibility of the proposed trail. Congress passed bi-partisan legislation for the feasibility study in July 2005. The Executive Council formally adopted a resolution urging the National Park Service to expedite the study so Congress would have time to act before the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, approaching in May 2007.

Garnering Support

Meanwhile, The Conservation Fund, National Geographic Society, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Commission, Chesapeake Bay Program, state legislators, county commissioners, mayors, tourism offices, tribal leaders, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and many others were working to build public support for the trail.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation reported that thousands of its members signed on to letters to Congress. The fledgling Friends of the Captain John Smith Trail, founded in 2005, was growing along with support for the trail. Noonan assembled an enthusiastic group of talented people at The Conservation Fund to staff the Friends organization and work on the trail project.

The National Park Service completed the feasibility study in record time, noting “exceptionally high” public interest and support for the trail. The study concluded that the routes of Smith’s voyages met all the criteria for designation as a national historic trail.

Senators Sarbanes and Warner were joined by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) in introducing a bill to authorize the trail. The late Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis (R-Va.) and 24 co-sponsors introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives. H.R. 5466 passed the House on December 5, 2006; S.2568 passed the Senate on December 7; and on December 19, President Bush signed Public Law 109–418 establishing the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail as the 25th addition to the National Trails System.

First buoy in Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System deployed at Jamestown, NOAA photo

Reflecting on the successful push to create the trail and what might lie ahead, Pat Noonan wrote in 2007: “Historic National Trails typically have a citizen group that supports them with stewardship, advocacy, and outreach. The trail’s current support group, called Friends of the Captain John Smith Trail…will likely provide a nucleus for whatever association comes next.”

That is, indeed, what occurred. With strong support from The Conservation Fund and other partners, the Friends began building capacity and a robust relationship with the National Park Service Chesapeake Bay Office—the Annapolis-based office designated to administer the new trail. Through a merger in 2010, the Friends of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake Trail and the Friends of Chesapeake Gateways—also a nonprofit organization working with NPS in the region—formed a new organization: the Chesapeake Conservancy.

Signing event at Sandy Point State Park in 2012 to expand the trail, DOI photo

Implementing the Vision

The trail we celebrate today is different from the trail that was designated a decade ago in several ways.

First, we no longer think of it as an all-water trail. The actual language of P.L. 109–418 states: “The John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, a series of water routes extending approximately 3,000 miles along the Chesapeake Bay and the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay in the States of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, and in the District of Columbia, that traces the 1607–1609 voyages of Captain John Smith to chart the land and waterways of the Chesapeake Bay.…”

While “water trail” is not part of the official name, proponents of the trail touted its uniqueness as an all-water trail that followed Smith’s explorations. However, the comprehensive management plan reflected public support for the trail to encompass landscapes as well as a water route, and for visitors to have opportunities for land-based, as well as water-based, experiences. We still think of the trail as the first primarily water-based national historic trail, but we no longer think of it as an all-water trail.

A second important difference is the scope of the trail. The official map attached to the legislation showed the routes of Smith’s explorations as where he could travel by boat. Pennsylvania was not mentioned in the trail legislation. A broader vision of the trail includes not just the travels of Captain John Smith and the Jamestown colonists, but also the lands and rivers populated by American Indians throughout the Chesapeake watershed at the time. In 2012, four rivers in five states—the 

Susquehanna in Pennsylvania and New York, the Upper Nanticoke in Delaware and Maryland, the Chester in Maryland, and the Upper James in Virginia—were officially designated as part of the trail. These rivers, which added 841 miles to the roughly 3,000 miles of Smith’s voyage routes, expanded opportunities for public access, recreation, and tourism, and for telling a larger story of American Indian towns and cultures.

The Chesapeake Conservancy was the prime mover for expanding the trail, first by funding the study to determine the potential for historic connecting components and then building the coalition of water trail groups, state agencies, tribal communities, governors, and others to support the additions. Many of the same people who led the movement to designate the national historic trail were also at the forefront of the expansion. And some of the young staff who worked behind the scenes to help their mentors create the trail are now leaders in the Chesapeake Bay conservation movement. Notably, Joel Dunn, who worked for The Conservation Fund to establish the trail, now leads the Chesapeake Conservancy.

A third difference is less obvious, perhaps, but indicates an evolution in branding and interpreting the trail. Instead of a national trail to memorialize John Smith, as it was often promoted in the early days, we think of it now as the Chesapeake trail. Taking nothing away from the importance of Captain John Smith in providing the historical record of his time here that influenced future European settlement, his story is only part of what the trail represents. The greater Chesapeake story is much richer when it also reflects American Indian perspectives and the natural history of their Chesapeake homelands.

Patrick Noonan at Jamestown 400 event marking official launch of the trail, NPS photo