A 'Goodly Bay,' Rediscovered

An old-new trail to explore the Chesapeake, 400 years after Capt. Smith

THE CAPTAIN John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, enacted by Congress and signed into existence by President Bush in December, is unlike any other facility in the federal government's large portfolio of parks and trails. It is an all-water trail, so signage will be, if not impossible, at least unorthodox -- think of accessing real-time information by dialing a buoy from your cell phone.

Rather than following a linear path, as most trails do, it entails a 1,700-mile loop, beginning and ending in Jamestown, Va., and tracing Capt. John Smith's two main voyages of discovery up the Chesapeake Bay as well as his explorations of the York and James rivers nearly four centuries ago. In this year, the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, the Chesapeake trail is a tip of the hat to an astonishing episode of American history. It is also a vital new educational tool to draw attention to the bay -- its unique beauty, its stunning natural resources and the serious environmental threats that imperil it.

A chain of new national historic trails has been created in recent years, under the aegis of the National Park Service. Unlike the iconic Appalachian Trail, created in the 1930s, these newer trails, some of which are in urban areas, are less recreational than commemorative; they are corridors of special identity. In the case of Chesapeake, the trail is meant to bind the voyages of discovery undertaken in 1608 by Capt. Smith, whose explorations of what struck him as "a very goodly bay" provided European settlers with their first and best map of the area -- one used for almost two centuries.

But its purpose is more than folkloric. The bay is hurting, afflicted by oxygen-starved "dead zones," sick and dying fish, and rapidly dwindling crab stocks. It badly needs a constituency to press for its revival, and the new national trail could help build one.

Amid all the hoopla surrounding the Jamestown anniversary -- musical performances, a commemorative stamp, Queen Elizabeth II's first state visit to this country in 16 years -- the Chesapeake trail's inaugural event will be rather subdued but remarkable nonetheless. In the spirit of Capt. Smith's journeys, a crew of a dozen sailors, oarsmen and naturalists will set out next month to retrace and reenact his Chesapeake voyages. Embarking May 12 from Jamestown in a facsimile of Capt. Smith's 30-foot "shallop," a sturdy open boat, the crew will make more than 30 stops in the course of its summer-long trip in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District. Today's natives are likely to be nearly as amazed as those who encountered Capt. Smith and his crew.