Chickisalunga Rocks looking to the Southward

Description

Watercolor on paper drawing of "Chickisalunga Rocks looking to the Southward", 1802, from the Latrobe Sketchbooks, by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. In 1801, Latrobe was appointed by the Pennsylvania governor to work with the Susquehanna Canal Company of Maryland to make improvements to the Lower Susquehanna River. He surveyed the river with a small crew from October-November of that year and presented his work to the governor in March 1802. Latrobe's team began the forty-mile survey project to Havre de Grace, Maryland from Columbia, Pennsylvania. To the north of the town is Chiques Creek, a thirty mile tributary that flows into the Susquehanna. At that time it was called Chiquesalunga, which is the Lenape Native American word for "place of the craw fish." Over time, this creek has had several variations and misspellings of the original name. This scene depicts the sheer cliff face where the two bodies of water meet on the eastern bank. Today, this is cliff is part of Chickies Rock Country Park.