John Smith Chesapeake Trail Cross Marker to be Installed in Susquehanna State Park

From the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway:

Chesapeake Conservancy will join Maryland Delegate and Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway’s Executive Director, Mary Ann Lisanti, and historians Edward Wright Haile and Connie Lapallo on Tuesday at Susquehanna State Park to install and dedicate the latest granite marker in the Conservancy’s John Smith Chesapeake Cross Marker project.

The 17th century explorer’s journal includes details about crosses—either of brass or as a shape carved in tree bark—that marked the furthest extent of his explorations in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Through the project, the Chesapeake Conservancy has been working to pinpoint the locations of these crosses and mark each spot for modern day adventurers to visit using square granite pillars. This installation will be the 16th of the 24 cross marker sites.

According to Haile, on July 30, 1608, Captain Smith and his crew landed in a shallop (small sailing vessel) at Lapidum and marched up the west bank of the Susquehanna River as far as the cross site, observing the river rapids, which were dubbed Smith’s Falls, and returned to the shallop. The following morning they sailed or rowed out of the river to explore other parts of the upper Bay. On August 6, 1608, Smith and company returned to the river to meet with 60 members of the Susquesahannock Indian tribe at an unknown location near the river’s mouth.