Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum sit on land believed to be the former Indigenous town of Quomocac. Quomocac appears on Captain John Smith’s 1612 map of the Chesapeake, and would have been established by the Patuxent community from the Middle Woodland period (50-950 AD) until contact with Europeans. Archaeological evidence reveals that Native peoples grew corn, beans, and squash–an Indigenous agricultural technique known as the “Three Sisters”–for over 1,000 years at this site.
The discovery of a Middle Woodland period blade cache in 1980 prompted the creation of the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum and, in 2007, it erected a replica Woodland Indian Village dedicated to educating the public about tribal history on this land. Today, this area contains upward of 70 identified archaeological sites, has revealed thousands of artifacts, and testifies to Indigenous settlement in what is now known as Calvert County, Maryland.
Image: Woodland Village Reconstruction at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum (Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum)
Works Cited and Resources:
https://apps.jefpat.maryland.gov/mdunearth/SiteSummaries/Site18CV17.aspx
https://apps.jefpat.maryland.gov/diagnostic/ProjectilePoints/index-projectilepoints.html
https://apps.jefpat.maryland.gov/diagnostic/PrehistoricCeramics/index-prehistoric.html
