NEWS
November 16, 2008
On Nov. 16, 1927, Earl Hopkins was the first to drive his car over the Conowingo Dam. U.S. 1 was realigned over the 4,648-foot-long dam, and two weeks later, the old Conowingo bridge was destroyed. The first concrete was poured Aug. 2, 1926. The dam grew section by section, until the Harford and Cecil sides reached the middle. R.G. Rincliff wrote, "To permit riverbed construction work, huge cofferdams, using nearly eight million feet of timber, were built, and over 660,000 cubic yards of concrete were poured before the project was completed."
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | August 24, 2008
By next spring, anglers will likely cast their lines into the Susquehanna River from a $4 million fishing wharf now under construction near Conowingo Dam. Exelon Power, the utility company that operates the Conowingo Hydroelectric Station on the river, has launched construction of an expansive walkway with wide steps leading to the beach at the base of the dam. The area has long been a favorite fishing spot, especially when the shad run in the spring....
NEWS
By Tom Pelton | May 27, 2008
The number of shad migrating up the Susquehanna River in Maryland has fallen by almost half over the past year, part of a worrisome decline up and down the East Coast, scientists say. The drop means that counts of American shad at Conowingo Dam have fallen by more than 90 percent over the past seven years. That is a stark reversal from the 1990s, when the construction of fish lifts at dams - and bans on shad fishing - spurred a revival of what has been called "the founding fish" because of its dominance as a food in Colonial times.
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | March 17, 2008
On a brisk, late-winter morning, Leocea McLanahan walked along the Susquehanna River with her three daughters, the youngest in a stroller. Caitlin, 9, found bluebells and asters emerging amid the ground cover. Five-year-old Malea peered through binoculars, looking for birds with their babies. The McLanahans come often from their home in Conowingo. "We have a guidebook, and we look for different birds and flowers along the water," said McLanahan, who home-schools her children. "We jot down notes to help us remember."
NEWS
November 18, 2007
Four road bridges at Conowingo A group of investors advertised in The Baltimore American on Nov. 17, 1815, that a petition was to be presented to the General Assembly for a law to authorize the building of a bridge over the Susquehanna River. This was the first Conowingo Road Bridge and was completed, according to a letter to the American, on Oct. 2, 1820. The bridge, 1.8 miles upstream of the current site of Conowingo Dam, was washed away in a flood of March 1846. A new company was chartered in 1847 and a new bridge, which crossed the river from Glen Cove in Harford County to near the mouth of the Conowingo Creek in Cecil County, was completed in 1859.
NEWS
June 10, 2007
On an outing last November, my wife, Cathy, took this picture of a bald eagle near Conowingo Dam in Harford County. We love to watch birds and other wildlife and on that particular day we were taking a bike ride on the "Greenway" trail from Susquehanna State Park to the Conowingo Dam. Aberdeen Proving Ground, where I work, supposedly has an eagle population of more than 200. From what I understand, the eagles at Conowingo are actually APG residents who...
NEWS
By Tom Pelton | September 22, 2006
Maryland's park system grew by 72 acres yesterday, as a power company donated a small but historic island in the Susquehanna River to an adjacent state park. Roberts Island was the farthest north that Capt. John Smith ventured as he explored the Chesapeake Bay about 400 years ago. The state plans to put the rocky, wooded chunk of uninhabited land on a tour of places that Smith visited. "The island is rich in Native American history, and will be a welcome addition to the Susquehanna State Park as well as an important landmark along the Chesapeake National Historic Water Trail," said Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Chicago-based Exelon Corp.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | September 5, 2006
PORT DEPOSIT -- Dive teams searched the murky bottom of the Susquehanna River yesterday for a powerboat that broke apart and sank with its driver aboard during a race Sunday. A passenger, the man's 15-year-old son, swam to safety. Paul Henry Sohn, 49, and his son Timothy John Sohn of Grasonville on the Eastern Shore had been racing in their family's Jersey skiff, Jumpin' Jack Flash. The boat, about 20 feet long and capable of speeds of about 80 mph, apparently launched into the air after bouncing off another racer's wake, and then split in half as it hit the water, said Sgt. Ken Turner of the Maryland Natural Resources Police.
NEWS
By JUSTIN FENTON | January 9, 2006
The Conowingo Dam is a magnet for eagle-watchers. Here, as the waters of the Susquehanna River surge through the gates of the 4,500-foot-long dam, anywhere from a half-dozen to 40 bald eagles can be seen perched on electrical transmission towers, soaring overhead and swooping into the frothing current for a meal. Getting the perfect shot with that digital camera, however, is a little harder. Bob Dorsch of Newark, Del., recently was explaining the nature-themed few days he had in store for grandsons Benjamin Dorsch, 9, and Cameron Dorsch, 6, when an eagle suddenly flew overhead.
NEWS
By CANDUS THOMSON | December 8, 2005
You can't get there from here," the punch line to an old New England joke about asking for directions, could also apply to Maryland anglers attempting to find access to the water. It is, however, a cruel joke: a state with thousands of miles of waterfront and fewer and fewer ways to get there. Shoreline development and a bumper crop of "No Trespassing" signs have put the squeeze on folks who don't live on the water or have a boat or have friends who have boats. At a meeting at Department of Natural Resources headquarters earlier this month, perch fishermen ticked off a number of traditional fishing spots that are no longer available to them.