Years ago my waterman son Shea came home one evening and asked me “Did you know that our cousin J. Frank was the one who gave away the river?” Knowing that Shea had received his info from the older watermen he was working with at the time, I tried to answer him by explaining the issue as best I could.
However, the more I tried to explain it, the more convoluted it got. At the end of my attempted and ultimately botched explanation, Shea summed it up by saying “Sounds to me like he pretty much gave it away.” He was correct, but with a caveated asterisk.
For a good summation of the issue check out this from Julie King’s Slackwater series: click here for article. However, a second article by Al Gough (excerpt shown above) not only explains the issue in depth but also mentions several South County folks such as my Uncle Cotton Ridgell, Mark and Ed Pratt, Chester Cullison, Harry Yeatman, Mace Burch, Dick Wood and Dukie White. Buzzy’s Country Store even gets mentioned as Al describes reaction to the river doings as follows:
“The facts of the matter did not matter in the ensuing debate which was held literally, in the public square, on the steps of the Court House, and in watering holes along the Potomac from Ridgell’s in Ridge, and Swann’s at Piney Point to the Old Gum st Bushwood and numerous other watering holes of lesser note. “Raley gave the River away…” “
 |
| Dividing Line from Pt. Lookout to Smith Pt (From PRFC.com) |
The fact that the Potomac is governed today by a group based in Virginia while the Bay is regulated by Maryland’s DNR leads to some stupid decisions such as the recent bust by DNR of some local watermen (click here for story.) The watermen were found with a mess of croakers determined to be too small because they were in Maryland waters whereas on the Virginia/river side they would have been legal. Makes little to no sense and something should be done at least to equalize the rules that are or are not enforced by each governing body. I would suggest establishing one governing body but that would probably mean giving away the Bay too!
[Note: I tried finding a link to the Al Gough article but the closest I got was this link to the Historical Society’s website (click here.) If any of you have better luck on this than I did, please let me know.]