Plumpton Park Zoo, Maryland

Day 1715

     Plumpton Park Zoo is located in Cecil County, Maryland. This privately own zoo is home to some exotic animals.

     The zoo was started by Edward Plumstead in 1985 on his family estate, initially with deer and a few domestic animals. Now the zoo is home to over 165 animals including giraffes, tigers, bears, deer, wolves, monkey, kangaroos, and llamas, and is run by a professionally trained staff of zookeepers.

     Someone left the gate open

and the peacock roamed freely

     You can get close to the animals and hand feed them

     They even had a horse, recently released from prison.

     The coolest animal there was this Bengal Tiger.

   

     Here this little girl tried to feed him,

     Oh! No. She became his lunch. Oh, well. 

Old Baltimore County

Day 1710

     The first County Seat of Baltimore County was established in 1659 on the Bush River, about 1 mile from our campsite. It barley lasted 40 years, until about 1700 when it was moved to Joppa Maryland. 

      Baltimore Town, as it was then called, was a ferry landing and its tobacco port served the upper bay. It was also a gateway to the wilderness. (It is hard to imagine where we are camped as the gateway to the wilderness). Authorities ordered a courthouse built here in 1674. As populations gradually grew around the Patapsco River, pressure increased to move the County Seat to a more convenient location. Although some renovations were performed on the Baltimore Town Courthouse in the mid-1690s, the area was in rapid decline. 

     By 1712, the County Seat had moved to Joppa Town, but Old Baltimore may have been abandoned as a government center even earlier.

     I hiked down to the site (see above photo), and this is what it looks like today.

Promenade @Havre de Grace, Maryland

Day 1707

     Walked The Promenade at Havre de Grace, Maryland (see day 1047). It is a beautiful sunny day. The tide was out,

which left the fish running high.

     With things opening up, people were out in their pleasure boats. 

Leight Estuary Center, Maryland

Day 1706

     The Anita C. Leight Estuary Center is the research and education facility of the Otter Point Creek component of the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maryland (Whew!). The Estuary Center is dedicated to increasing appreciation and understanding of estuaries (what’s an estuary?) The Center is located where Otter Point Creek meets the Bush River. The Bush River is an Estuary (that part of the mouth or lower course of a river in which the river’s current meets the sea’s tide) of the Chesapeake Bay. 

     Located next to our campground, we visited the small museum there, then hiked the surrounding area. 

     Our hike ultimately led us to a pier with devices measuring the quality of water of Otter Point Creek and the Bush River.

     Since the color of the water was dark brown, I would think it was pretty polluted. Nevertheless, the data is uploaded to the Centralized Data Management Office. The data collected is available at their website: http://cdmo.baruch.sc.edu/dges

     I did not see water quality listed. Maybe because it was so obvious.