Visitor Center

Rockets built by eighth-graders at Patuxent Valley Middle School will be launched tomorrow in the fields behind the school on the school's annual Rocket Day. The six rockets were built as part of a study of forces and motion. The launch will be held from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. and from 12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors are asked to check in at the school office for a visitor's badge before going to the field for the launch. Information: 410-880-5840. `Creepy Critters' event Oct. 29 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Visitor Center will sponsor a "Creepy Critters" Halloween event, with snakes, spiders and other live animals, exhibits, crafts and activities for all ages, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 29. Information: 301-497-5898 or http:--patuxent.

At Historic London Town and Gardens in Edgewater, office staffers, volunteers and custodial workers scurried yesterday to set up a party after the ribbon cutting for the $5.1 million visitor center. That doesn't mean it's open yet. The eight-year-long project, delayed by construction slowdowns and last-minute code compliance glitches, is not expected to be completed until later in the fall. But for the former Colonial-era settlement known as "a lost town on the Chesapeake Bay," the lateness is just a blink of an eye in time.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Visitor Center will offer bird walks for youths ages 16 and older and adults from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sept. 6; 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sept. 14; and 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sept. 20. Participants will have an opportunity to search for birds in several refuge habitats on the guided hikes. Field guide and binoculars are recommended. A bird walk for all ages is scheduled from 8:15 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sept. 24. "The Basics of Birding" will be taught from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sept.

The recent heavy rains have damaged roads and other facilities at Patuxent Research Refuge. As a result, the North Tract entrance to the refuge, off Route 198, is temporarily closed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has also had to stop operation of its daily tram tours at the National Wildlife Visitor Center, because the gravel tram route near the visitor center has been severely damaged. The rains, combined with water releases from upstream reservoirs on the Patuxent River caused flooding in the North and Central tract areas of the refuge.

John Paul Jones Day Celebrate the life of naval hero John Paul Jones Saturday at the Naval Academy's Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center in Annapolis. Jones, a naval captain during the American Revolution, was famous for saying, "I have not yet begun to fight" in response to a British commander's request for surrender. John Paul Jones Day will include walking tours of the academy and its Jones sites, a lecture on the naval leader, fife and drum demonstrations, cannon loadings, a living-history presentation by John Wilson (who will portray Jones)

Wildlife photography -- The Hollingsworth Art Gallery at the Patuxent Research Refuge, in the National Wildlife Visitor Center in Laurel, is showing the work of wildlife photographer Joan Anne Dubbs this month. The visitor center is at 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, except federal holidays. 301-497-5760.

Nearly 19 percent of the people who stopped by the Baltimore Visitor Center in recent months reported that they stayed in Baltimore at least a day longer than planned, netting an estimated extra $3.5 million for the city, according to a study released yesterday. The study, conducted between July 2004 and June 2005 by the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Temple University for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, showed that 26 percent of local travelers spent an estimated $107 more per day than originally planned, as a result of information and services received at the Baltimore Visitor Center.

Construction is expected to be completed this month on the conversion of an abandoned sewage treatment plant into a $5.1 million visitor center-museum-classroom-archaeology lab at Historic London Town and Gardens, the faded Colonial tobacco port that is now a historic site. "We're down to final inspections," said Richard H. Ormsby of James F. Knott Construction Co. of Timonium, the general contractor. The new center, mostly underground, is designed to explain the significance of the 23-acre, county-owned park, making a cohesive story out of what remains, what has been re-created, what's gone and what's being dug up. Aboveground, visitors will see two single-story buildings of faded wood and glass.

Baltimore's Fort McHenry should have a new visitors center in time for the bicentennial anniversary of the War of 1812, with the help of an $11 million federal grant, officials announced yesterday. The money -- included in a recently approved transportation bill -- is expected to help complete decades of planning to replace a building that National Park Service officials believed was too small and limited from the time it opened in 1964. "This is really a very exciting day. We've been working for this for a long time," said Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, who helped secure the funding.