For people who live in Southern Maryland, recreation comes with the territory. It is part of the bargain they make with themselves when they move here or decide to stay.
The long commute to work that often is part of the equation of living here is balanced by the easy access to activities on the water or at athletic fields and parks just down the road.
Boats compete in the Screwpile sailing regatta on the Patuxent River near Solomons Island. Dozens of marinas serve boating and sailing enthusiasts.
(Richard A. Carioti For The Washington Post)
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Many people move to Southern Maryland because such amenities are part of daily life. They want the open space of the countryside or a home with a boat dock on the river, creek or bay.
Surrounded on three sides by shoreline, Southern Maryland has always been a place where people spend time on the water -- as a livelihood and for fun. Even as making a living as a waterman has grown more difficult in recent decades, recreation on the water has seemed bigger than ever.
Dozens of marinas serve the area's boating and sailing enthusiasts. Residents and visitors ply the waterways on personal watercraft and in canoes and kayaks.
Anglers can take advantage of one of the nation's best bass fisheries on the Potomac River and tributaries near Smallwood State Park in Charles County. For the hearty, canoe trips on Parkers Creek in Calvert County sponsored by the American Chestnut Land Trust offer a more serene experience.
For many boaters, the area's rivers and creeks are just another way to get from here to there. At many of the waterfront restaurants that are a leisure-time destination, a dock for those who arrive by water is just as essential as the parking lot.
Agriculture, which like fishing and crabbing has defined Southern Maryland's history and traditions, is also adapting to a new era. In recent years, many area farms that were once the foundation of the area's tobacco culture have become tourist attractions.
As tobacco growing fades into history, some farmers have turned to "agri-tourism" as a way to generate income from their land. Visitors are attracted by intricate crop mazes, barnyard menageries and the chance to see a working farm.
Area officials are giving increasing attention to promoting Southern Maryland's history as a basis for recreation and tourism.
St. Mary's County -- the "mother county" -- is home to the birthplace of Maryland, at St. Clements Island, where the first colonists landed in 1634. Historic St. Mary's City is the site of Maryland's first capital and offers a chance to glimpse colonial life through reconstructed buildings, an authentic tobacco plantation, a woodland Indian village and a replica of the Dove, one of the two ships sailed up the Potomac by those first settlers.
In Calvert County, remnants from boats involved in the biggest naval engagement of the War of 1812 -- and in Maryland history -- can still be found in and near St. Leonard Creek. British troops marched through Calvert and Charles counties on their way to Washington, where they burned the Capitol in 1814.
In Charles County, John Wilkes Booth's escape route after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln is a tourist attraction. The highlight of the tour is the restored home near Waldorf of Samuel A. Mudd, the country doctor who set Booth's broken leg and ended up in prison for aiding the conspiracy, accusations that Mudd and his descendants have disputed for 140 years.
Various sports create a seasonal rhythm to life and leisure in Southern Maryland. In the spring, the baseball and fishing seasons begin together. In the fall, it is football and hunting.
The area's youth baseball and recreational softball programs are considered some of the best in the state. There may soon be minor league baseball at a proposed stadium in Waldorf. Charles County is pushing ahead with the project, despite some objections to spending public funds to build the ballpark.
Motor sports fans can watch national drag racing competition at Maryland International Raceway at Budds Creek in St. Mary's County. The adjacent Potomac Speedway features stock-car racing.
Southern Maryland remains a place where people regularly mix pleasure and good works. A glance at the lists of events that follow in these pages reveals a medley of activities that are fun and build the ties and connections that sustain a sense of community.
These suppers, festivals, crafts fairs, golf tournaments, art shows, concerts and parades offer those who attend a good time at events that also benefit local institutions -- churches, volunteer fire departments, rescue units, schools and service groups, to name just a few.
When longtime residents voice concerns about how population growth can change the rural character or small-town traditions of Southern Maryland, it is often these kinds of community events that are the living symbols of that heritage. And the nearly seamless connection between people and place that they help to create is the thing no one wants to lose.
