On Apr 16, 2007, at 2:00 AM, [email protected] wrote: Linda Reno wrote: > Rt. 5 South from Waldorf, just south of Rt. 488, you pass over a small > bridge (that's Zachiah Swamp). About a mile, you're in Bryantown... I went to Google Earth and Google Maps and Yahoo Maps and searched for Bryantown, MD In all three Zachiah Swamp shows up clearly. At the Google sites you can see the aerial photos and Zachiah Swamp is easily visible. It's also visible if you search for Port Tobacco or LaPlata. Those of us not native to or residents of Charles County have to adjust our thinking. A swamp there is a flowing stream on the Everglades model, not a large body of stagnant, mucky water and vegetation that we, in Minnesota, associate with the name "swamp." The troubles come when you begin to match today's maps with the survey maps from the 18th century. One of the creek names mentioned in the survey description of Hopewell and Maiden's Pleasure that I've tried to locate applies to two different creeks: one near the north end of Zachiah Swamp and one southwest of Bryantown. (I am currently leaning to the more southerly location, since later censuses describe the people as living in the Port Tobacco east hundred.) And names change. And those banded oak trees just don't always serve as permanent markers for 300 years. Such fun. Ken Wedding Northfield, MN