The Potomac River: A History & Guide

Learn about the Potomac River and its significant role in American history.

The great Potomac River begins in the Alleghenies and flows 383 miles through some of America's most historic lands before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. The course of the river drove the development of the region and the path of a young republic. Maryland's first Catholic settlers came to its banks in 1634 and George Washington helped settle the new capitol on its shores. During the Civil War the river divided North and South, and it witnessed John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry and the bloody Battle of Antietam. Author Garrett Peck leads readers on a journey down the Potomac, from its first fount at Fairfax Stone in West Virginia to its mouth at Point Lookout in Maryland. Combining history with recreation, Peck has written an indispensable guide to the nation's river.

Garrett Peck falls down Georgetown's Exorcist stairs every chance he gets, yet he can't exorcise his passion for history. A literary journalist and history dork, he is the author of The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet and Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren't and leads the Temperance Tour of Prohibition-related sites in Washington. The Potomac River: A History and Guide is his third book. A native Californian and a Virginia Military Institute graduate, he lives in lovely Arlington, Virginia.