CJS - Nanticoke Watershed Alliance #1 Traditional Geocache

Over four hundred years ago, Englishman John Smith and a small crew set out in an open boat to explore the Chesapeake Bay. Between 1607 and 1609 Smith mapped and documented nearly 3,000 miles of the Bay and its rivers. Along the way he visited many thriving American Indians communities and gathered information about this “fruitful and delightsome land.” In December 2006 the U.S. Congress designated the routes of Smith’s explorations of the Chesapeake as a national historic trail—the first national water trail.

Are you ready to follow in the wake of Captain John Smith? Visit sites along the National Historic Trail and learn about the native cultures and the natural environment of the 17th-century Chesapeake through the Captain John Smith Chesapeake Geotrail. The Trail provides opportunities for you to experience the Bay through the routes and places associated with Smith’s explorations. Caches will be located in museums, refuges, parks, and towns in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware along the rivers and creeks that Smith and his crew explored four centuries ago.

The Captain John Smith (CJS) Geotrail launched June 4, 2011 with over 40 caches within Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. A trackable geo coin will be awarded to the first 400 geocachers, while supplies last, for locating at least 15 CJS caches. To be eligible for the coin, geocachers must download a passport from either the CJS Geotrail or Maryland Geocaching Society website. Geocachers must find and log at least 15 finds, record the code word from each cache on their passport and post a picture of themselve at each cache location. After discovering the 15 required caches, geocachers may have thier passports validated in person or via mail at the National Park Service, Chesapeake Bay Office located at 410 Severn Ave, Suite 314, Annapolis, MD 21403. Please refer to the passport for complete validation instructions.

Participating in the CJS geotrail is fun and we hope that many people join in. However, it is not a requirement for logging your find on this cache once you find the container.

You are seeking a traditional hide, placed with permission of the land owner. The cache is available 7 days a week from sunrise to sunset. Please NO NIGHT CACHING! The cache is skillfully hidden to blend in with the surroundings.



The Nanticoke River begins its journey in southern Delaware, flowing southwest to the Chesapeake Bay through the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. One of the Chesapeake’s healthiest rivers, its 725,000-acre watershed provides excellent habitat of national significance for many threatened plants and animals. The Nanticoke is the most biologically diverse watershed on Delmarva. It is free of dams and supports excellent fisheries. It has a rich history, properties on the National Register of Historic Places, and the northernmost stands of bald cypress on the Atlantic Coast. It also has the highest concentration of bald eagles in the northeastern United States.

The Nanticoke Watershed Alliance is a consortium of diverse organizations representing industry, agriculture, environmental, and community groups in Maryland and Delaware dedicated to working together for the protection of the watershed. The Alliance is working to bring Green Infrastructure to the Nanticoke watershed. This is an inclusive process, with a focus on positive solutions for community, human health, ecology, business, industry, and working landscapes (our farming and forestry heritage). In order to bring effective conservation to the entire watershed, the Alliance is working to bridge the barriers of state and county lines to produce a plan that encompasses the well-being of all the watershed’s residents.

A signature event of the Alliance and partner organizations is the Annual Shad Planking, celebrated to remember the once-flourishing annual migratory return of the American Shad to the Nanticoke. The Shad is an iconic symbol of the river and of the cultural heritage of the Eastern Shore. Open-fire shad planking was a favorite method of cooking shad, used by early settlers as well as Nanticoke Indian communities. Shad populations have plummeted due to over-harvesting, dam blockage, and poor water quality. Efforts by the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance hope to help restore the habitat for shad and result in higher population numbers.

Captain John Smith and 14 crew members explored the Nanticoke in June, 1608. An initial encounter resulted in a decidedly unfriendly greeting of arrows let loose from Nanticoke Indians on the riverbanks. Smith wrote, “They were not sparing of their arrows nor the greatest passion they could express of their anger.” The next morning, the crew was beckoned to come ashore by Indians holding baskets and dancing. Captain Smith feared an ambush and did not disembark; instead, he ordered a volley of shot to be fired. Later, he and his men spied smoke and rowed ashore to explore 2 or 3 abandoned houses with fires smoldering outside. This was Nause, the village, or fishing and hunting camp, nearest the river’s mouth. By the end of the following day, Captain Smith had been as far up the Nanticoke as present day Delaware, traded with hundreds of Nanticoke, and learned valuable information about a feared Indian nation called the Massowomeck.



Thanks to HiTechMD for helping with this hide and to the Maryland Geocaching Society for assisting with this project!