Monday, November 27, 2017

Blog #1: Historic St. Mary's City: History and a Founding Ship

recreation of the Dove ship. Credit: trinitysaintmarys.wordpress.com
Last month we made our first trip to Maryland's oldest city, "St. Mary's City." In this blog  you'll learn about it's history,, one of the ships that brought people over to the first colony and ongoing archaeology. 

HISTORY:  St. Mary's City is a former colonial town that was Maryland's first colonial settlement and capital!  Half of the area is also the campus of the public honors college, St. Mary's College of Maryland. St. Mary's City is the historic site of the founding of the Colony of Maryland (then called the Province of Maryland).

BIRTHPLACE OF RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE: St. Mary's City is also considered the birthplace of religious freedom in America. This was the first North American colonial settlement ever established with the specific mandate of being a haven for both Catholic and Protestant Christian faiths.

LIVING HISTORY/RE-ENACTORS: St. Mary's City has several living history museums and the entire complex is staffed by period dressed actors who recreate history theatrically. Unfortunately, we visited on a Sunday, and the museum was closed. We did get to walk around the grounds, though.
St. Mary's City - living museum today.


MARYLAND'S MAYFLOWER - The Mayflower was the ship that brought England's Pilgrims to Massachusetts in 1629. The ship that brought the first residents of St. Mary's City was called the Dove. It was one of the "two original settlers ships that established the first Maryland colony."

ACTIVE ARCHAEOLOGY: St. Mary's City is an internationally recognized archaeological research area and training center for archaeologists today. It's actually the home to the Historical Archaeology Field School.
FUN FACT: Over the last 30 years there have been over 200 archeological digs and they continue. 

NEXT: About the location and how the Colony Came to Be


Who I am

I'm a simple guy who enjoys the simple things in life, especially our dogs. I volunteer for dog rescues, enjoy exercising, blogging, politics, helping friends and neighbors, participating in ghost investigations, coffee, weather, superheroes, comic books, mystery novels, traveling, 70s and 80s music, classic country music,writing books on ghosts and spirits, cooking simply and keeping in shape. You'll find tidbits of all of these things on this blog and more. EMAIL me at Rgutro@gmail.com - Rob

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