Exploring the Nanticoke
Two Fine Day Trips
By Tom Horton
A bald eagle watches from a tall cypress, reflected in the still waters of the tidal creek. Just downstream an osprey wheels above the green golden plumes of a sun spangled wild rice marsh. Something big, a largemouth bass or maybe a beaver, splashes beneath the broad-leaved spatterdock lilies that line the shallows of the river edge.
It's just another ordinary, magnificent summer day on the Nanticoke River around Phillips Landing, where paddlers can launch a unique day trip into history, retracing Captain John Smith's route of exploration in June of 1608.
Phillips Landing is a small park near the historic shipbuilding town of Bethel, DE--the whole village is on the National Register of Historic Places. The landing marks Smith's farthest penetration of the Eastern Shore and Delmarva Peninsula during his 2,500 mile journey that mapped the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers. 
A monument there explains how the English sea captain and founder of the Jamestown Colony nailed brass crosses, 27 in all, to designate the limits of where he actually traveled. His map, which facilitated English settlement of the Chesapeake region displayed these long-gone crosses, setting a new standard for accuracy. Indeed, a paddler equipped with nothing but a copy of Smith's four-century old map could probably navigate the Nanticoke today.
