Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-08-15

N Oss 1Hs-MSH
wv have been building cities and desert
ing them from time immemorial.
The usual causes are military and economic.
Carthage, one Of the greatest cities of early
times, was utterly destroyed after the Punic
wars waged by the Romans. Virginia City,
Nevada, was deserted because the mining in
dustry which made it substantial municipal
ity lapsed upon the exhaustion Of the lode.
But here in the east Is a group Of cities which
have fallen from their previous Importance
by the operation Of the forces OF nature.
The great mass Of the people of the United
States, being distributed so widely over the
eXpanse Of the new territory Of the west.
lacks the environments to create realization
of the antiquity o the eastern section. 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
flag as under the American--that the period
extending from the first settlement of the
eastern seaboard up to the American revolu-
ton was as long as that from the revolution
to the present day.
More than three centuries Of human oc-
cupation bring about curious changes in
the habitations 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 streams because the streams
were their easiest roadways. They felled
the trees and planted their corn and tobacco,
up by the waterside and became thriving
cities. The farms reached farther and farther
back into the wilderness, large areas being
cleared Of timber.
Southern Maryland furnishes an excellent,
example of such developments, It's soil is
loamy and was extremely fertile. As, year
after year, the gently rolling hill sides were
ploughedb the soil was loosened 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 bayside 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 clogged and
what once were noble waterways now are
narrow creeks.
Soil and Streams Ruined
This erosion which was despoiling the riv-
ers, the highways Of commerce, also was
washing off the rich, fertile top soil. There
fore the land which produced the crops, the
object 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 COM
merce taken away by this operation of nat
ural forces set in motion by the plough.
When the Romans took Carthage they tore
down the buildings, sowed salt upon the site
and ploughed it under. The lost cities of
southern Maryland, no less, have been
ploughed under. There are three excellent
examples of these places, Bladenburg, Port
Tobacco and Piscataway.
Bladenburg was port to the wharves Of
which came great merchant ships from Eng
land that sailed up the Potomac and followed
it's eastern branch to the port which was
a city long before Washington was even
planned. Today no craft larger than a small
motorboat can get - as far as Bladenburg
and, after dry spell, even such small boat
is likely to ground
Bladenburg was thriving port of entry
a great tobacco shipping point. It boosted
hotels and warehouses and numerous beauti-
full colonial mansions, several of which still
stand. Today it is village Of small popula-
ton and probably would have disappeared
altogether were it not for the fact that 1t is
near Washington.
Probably the most interesting of the lost
cities is Port Tobacco. Old maps of Maryland
show this place marked with the large star
or circle as indicating an important center
Marylanders lean strongly on tradition and
even today the maps show Port Tobacco as
a second class city. Not more than three
families live there.
Port Tobacco, obviously, was one of the
busiest of the tobacco exporting points. It
stood on an estuary Of the Potomac. From it
radiated the roads peculiar to southern Mary
land, roads over which the planters rolled
their huge hogsheads of tobacco. It's court
house was the pride of that section. It's
hotel was the social center Of the country.
In its public square was a marble fountain
and its warehouses occupied wide spaces. It
was an important colonial port. Today it is
not port at all. There is no water at Port