The area is served by Maryland Route 6 and other two-lane state highways; the nearest major roads are Maryland Route 210 to the north and U.S. Route 301 to the east. The Nanjemoy area is becoming increasingly popular with Washington-areacommuters, particularly those working in nearby Indian Head or Fort Washington in Maryland or in Alexandria, Virginia. The Waldorf, Maryland and La Plata, Maryland, commercial areas are nearby to the east, along U.S. 301. No rail lines presently serve the area. Other settlements in the Nanjemoy area include Grayton, Maryland Point, and Riverside. Chicamuxen, Doncaster, and Ironsides are nearby to the north.
The settlement lends its name to the Nanjemoy Formation, which outcrops on the nearby shores of the Potomac River. Other fossiliferous formations which outcrop nearby are the Aquia and basal Calvert Formations.
Economy
The village center includes a Post Office and a county-operated community center building that serves the area's population. The area has two children's camps and a sheriffs' training facility. Much of the Nanjemoy area is forest or farmland. Tobacco was formerly commonly cultivated in the area, but is now rarely grown there.[citation needed]
History
Arctic explorer Matthew Henson, photographed in 1910
In the last years of World War I, the Allied sea-power had been weakened by German submarines. The U.S. military used wooden ships, many of which were built and anchored in Widewater, Virginia, but the war ended before they could be used. Most ships were moved across the Potomac river to a secluded bay called Mallows Bay that served as a junkyard. Some were deconstructed but most of the ships sank. In 1970 a representative from the Audubon Society testified that the wrecks had become an "integral part of the ecosystem." In the 1990s the area was found to contain longboats from the Revolutionary era and modern ships. In 2002, Mallows Bay was protected for the state of Maryland, and in November 2015 the site was nominated as a National Marine Sanctuary.[2]
The sunken hulls of dozens of scrapped wooden boats are still visible at low tide at Mallows Bay in the Nanjemoy area which is regarded as the "largest shipwreck fleet in the Western Hemisphere"[3]
Hunting and fishing have long been popular in the relatively undeveloped Nanjemoy area, and many miles of remote hiking trails are available. More recently, the area's scenic, little-traveled roads have become popular with cyclists.
Public boat landings are provided on the Potomac at Mallows Bay and on the estuarine portion of Nanjemoy Creek at Friendship Landing, the latter also popular for fishing.[13]Recreational boaters, mostly from the Woodbridge and Quantico areas on the Virginia side of the Potomac, frequently visit the extensive undeveloped river shore in the Purse State Park area. Kayaking is also increasing in popularity in the area, both on the Potomac and on the quiet tidewaters of Nanjemoy Creek.
