Piscataway Park

Piscataway Park
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
View of the Potomac River at Piscataway Park
Location	Prince George's County, Maryland, USA
Nearest city	Accokeek, MD
Coordinates	38°40′43″N 77°05′34″W
Established	October 4, 1961 [1]
Visitors	275,070 (in 2025)
Governing body	National Park Service
Website	Piscataway Park
Piscataway Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Nearest city	Accokeek, Maryland
Area	4,216.5 acres (1,706.4 ha)
NRHP reference No.	66000144
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966

Piscataway Park is a National Park Service-protected area located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of downtown Washington, D.C. in and around Accokeek, Maryland. It protects the National Colonial Farm, Marshall Hall, and the Accokeek Creek Site. The park is located across the Potomac River from George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.

Piscataway Park/National Colonial Farm Visitor Center

Piscataway Park is named after Piscataway Creek, itself named for a Native American tribe. The park is home to bald eagles, beavers, osprey, and other wildlife and encompasses areas of wetland, meadow and woodland. It is administered jointly by the Accokeek Foundation, which has a Cooperative Agreement with the National Park Service to steward about 200 acres of the park, and the National Park Service and is managed by National Capital Parks-East.

History

Henry and Alice Ferguson bought more than 100 acres (0.40 km²) of land in the area in 1928. It includes the area of Moyaone, a Native American Piscataway village. The Fergusons bought more property and encouraged friends to settle nearby, where they could protect the environment. After Alice's death in 1951, Ferguson created the Alice Ferguson Foundation, which administered the land. The foundation made arrangements to donate property to the National Park Service for parkland, a transaction completed in the 1960s. This both protected the environment, as well as the historic viewshed as seen from the Mount Vernon mansion, keeping the parkland as it was in George Washington's day, and preventing modern development along the shore of the river.

Historic Shad Hatchery

In 1898 the United States Federal Government established a shad hatchery at Bryan Point, two miles south of Washington, D.C. in modern-day Piscataway Park. In 1918, the Evening Star reported that the hatchery released 78,000,000 shad eggs into the river during the 1917 fiscal year. The goal of the hatchery was to preserve the shad populations because shad fishing was an important part of the region's economy.

Marshall Hall Amusement Park

Piscataway Park includes the Marshall Hall amusement park, which was closed in 1980 due to financial issues. The outlawing of slot machine gambling and racism may have played a role in the demise of the park. While the park was segregated in the early part of its existence, this changed after the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Additionally, its last jousting tournament was held in 1964.

Plants and Wildlife

The park, because it encompasses woodlands, wetlands, meadows, and cultivated spaces, is home to a wide variety of plant and animal life. Many of these plants and animals have significant historic and cultural importance to the Piscataway people. On the portion of the park stewarded by the Accokeek Foundation, numerous trails offer access to these native plants and the animals that rely on them.

Hiking Trails

Piscataway Park has several hiking trails open to the public. Its Pumpkin Ash trail is one such trail. The trail traverses forest, scrub-shrub wetland, and takes visitors to shoreline on the Potomac River. The forest ecosystem on the trail includes pawpaw trees, Tulip Poplar, and American Holly. The wetland, which is tidal, consists of dead Pumpkin Ash trees, Black Willow, Dogwoods, American Sycamore, and Spicebush.

Blackberry Trail is another hiking trail open to the public. Blackberry trail connects Pumpkin Ash trail to the Visitor Parking Lot on one side and the Accokeek Connector Trail on another. Like Pumpkin Ash trail, Blackberry has pawpaw, tulip poplar, and American Holly. It also boasts Eastern Red Cedar, an evergreen conifer. The trail has spring ephemerals like mayapple.

Riverview Trail connects the Pumpkin Ash trail to Persimmon Trail on the other end of the park. It takes visitors along the Potomac, though most of the view is obscured by a riparian forest buffer. The trail includes species such as black walnut, pawpaw, hackberry, swamp white oak, and American Persimmon.

Historic Structures in the Park

On the side of the park stewarded by the Accokeek Foundation, two historic structures are open to the public. One is Laurel Branch, originally constructed in Waldorf, Maryland. It was disassembled, moved to Piscataway Park, and reassembled for the purpose of creating an accurate replica of a colonial farm.

The other structure is a replica of a tobacco barn, also not original to the site. It was created from the remaining good wood from two decaying tobacco barns in Anne Arundel County.

External links

Media related to Piscataway Park at Wikimedia Commons

• Piscataway Park, Prince George's County, Inventory No.: PG:83-12, CH-668, including photo, at Maryland Historical Trust website
• National Park Service Piscataway Park official website
• "Piscataway Park" – Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network