The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-08-09
Frederick Haskin's Letter
ToDns Once Prosperous Now Deserted.

. --E
Washingfon, D. C., Aug. s.-Men
have been building cities and de-
serttng them from time immemo-
rial The usual causes are military
ard ecoAsmic Carthage. one Of
the greatest cities Of early times.
was utterly destroyed after the
Punic wars waged By the Romans.
Virginia City. Nevada, was desert
ed because the mining industry
which made 1t . substantial me
nicipality lapsed upon the exhausN
ton Of the lode. But here in the
east Is q group OF cities which
have fallen from their previous i'm
portance by the operation Of the
forces Of nature.
The great mass Of the people Of
the United States, being distributed
% widely over the expanse Of the
new territory Of the west. lacks the
environment to create realization
OF the antiquity Of the eastern sec
ton. 1t is difficult for the man In
Chicago to realize that the eastern
Americans have lived on this soil
for as long a period under the
British nag as under the American
that the period extending from
the first settlement of the eastern
seaboard up to the American Rev.
olution was as long as that from
the Revolution to the present day.
More than three centuries Of hu-
man occupation bring about Curl
Gus changes in the habitatiops of
men. When the country was first
settled the soil was virgin and, for
the most part, covered with dense
forests. The pioneers built their
primitive houses on the banks of
the streams because the streams
were their easiest roadways. They
felled the trees and planted their
corn and tobacco and, in the course
OF the years, ports sprang up by
the waterside and became thriving
cities. The farms reached farther
and farther back into the Wilder
Kess, large areas being cleared Of
timber.
Southern Maryland furnishes an
excellent example of such develop
ment. Its soil is loamy and was
extremely fertile. As, year after
year, the gently rolling hillsides
were ploughed, the soil was loos-
ened and the rains of each year
washed it down into the streams.
Three centuries Of this erosion
gradually have filled up the
streams. The riverside and bay
side cities which once throve ON
the shipping of the products of the
farm did not keep up with the
erosion of the land. The result was
that the streams filled year by
year until the channels were clog
ged and what once were noble wa
terways now are narrow creeks.
Soil and Streams Ruined.
This erosion was despoiling the
rivers, the highways of commerce,
also was washing off the rich, fer
tile top soil. Therefore the land
which produced the crops, the OBJ
ject Of commerce, disappeared in
company with the streams. 1t was
inevitable that the cities should
decline with both their means of
commerce and the commodities of
commerce taken away by this op-
Grafton of natural forces set in mo-
ton by the plough.
When the Romans took Carthage
they tore down the buildings, SOW
ed salt upon the site and ploughed
it under. The lost cities. of south
ern Maryland, no less, have been
ploughed under. There are three
excellent examples of these places,
Bladensburg. Port Tobacco and
Piscataway.
Bladensburg was a port 10 the
wharves of which came great mer-
chant ships from England that
sailed up the Potomac and follow
ed its eastern branch to the port
which was city long before
Washington was even planned. To-
day no craft larger than a small
motorboat can get up as far as
Bladensburg and. after a dry spell,
even such a small boat is likely to
ground.
Bladesburg was a thriving port
of entry, a great tobacco shipping
point. 1t boosted hotels and ware
houses and numerous beautiful CO.
lonial mansions. several of which
still stand. today it is a village
of small population and probably
would have disappeared altogether
were it not for the fact that it is
near Washington.
Probably the most interesting of
the lost cities is Port Tobacco. Old
maps of Maryland show this place