Distance:

4.5 Miles round trip

River:

Upper Choptank

Start:

Joppa Wharf

Destination:

Melvill’s Tobacco Warehouse site

Route Description:

Launch from Joppa Wharf or across the river at Crouse Park in Denton.  Proceed upriver through the railroad turnstile bridge, under the modern highway bridge.  Continue past Chapel Branck to the warehouse site.

Themes:

Colonial History, American Revolution, Riverine Trade

Best Seasons:

Any Season

Sites on This Trip

Site

Miles From Start

Features

Joppa Wharf, West Denton

0.0

Reconstructed 1880s steamboat wharf and passenger terminal, steamboat warehouse, visitor center of Old Harford Town Maritime Center.

Denton

0.1

Seat of Caroline County after the 1780s; historic downtown district and courthouse square, Rural Life Museum.

Denton Bridges

0.1

Site of 1811 "pivot draw" swing span bridge, 1875 "iron draw bridge", 1913 concrete overhead counterweight single leaf bascule, and present high bridge (1980).

Denton Wharves

0.2

At least two landings are known to have existed on the Denton side of the river by 1775.

Denton Ferries

0.2

A ferry ran between the stream mouth that is not next to the CYRC boat ramp.  By 1807 the western terminus of the    Denton Ferry was opposite the "causeway" - Market Street extended westward through the "cripple marsh". The ferry ran here until the first iron bridge was constructed in 1811.

Neck Meeting House

0.3

Meeting house built in 1802 by the Nicholite sect of the Quakers that was found only in Caroline County.  (Located on the hill above West Denton, next to Choptank Electric.)

Queen Anne Railroad Bridge

0.4

The bridge was once  operated by a hand-cranked turnstile. The bridge rotated 90 degrees so that vessels could pass to either side of the central island, which supported the    turnstile bridge.

Adams Landing

1.2

"Ship ways" (marine railway) have been reported at this site.

Ridgely Waterfront

1.6

The town that was surveyed by land speculators in 1867 extended from the railroad (in the present town) to this stretch of the Choptank River; intended to be a rail and steamboat stop.

Hardcastle Landing

1.8

It is speculated that this landing served as the west "causeway" or landing for Barwick's Ferry from Melvill’s Warehouse.

Barwick’s Ferry

2.0

James Barwick’s ferry carried passengers across the river to the tobacco courthouse; he also operated an inn here.

Melvill’s Tobacco Warehouse

2.2

Site of the warehouse that served as the first county courthouse, where the “Caroline Resolutions” were drafted and adopted.