Calvert Marine Museum

Calvert Marine Museum is s. off SR 2/4 at 14200 Solomon's Island Rd. The museum showcases local maritime history and the environmental culture of Southern Maryland. Exhibits include vessels, models, artifacts and displays depicting the maritime history of the Chesapeake Bay. The Patuxent: A River and Its People exhibit explores the history of human habitation along the Patuxent River. Also featured is Clues from the Cliffs, which has fossils from the Miocene epoch collected from the nearby Calvert Cliffs along with a life-size skeleton of a Megalodon shark. The River to Bay exhibit has 14 tanks with representative animal life from the Chesapeake Bay and tributary rivers. In the hands-on Discovery Room, children can dig for fossils, climb a model lighthouse, play in the keeper's house, pet a horseshoe crab or diamondback terrapin in a touch tank and hoist the sail of a skiff.

Also on the grounds is the restored and furnished cottage-type Drum Point Lighthouse, commissioned in 1883 and moved to this site in 1975. The J.C. Lore and Sons Oyster House, one mile south, has exhibits and films chronicling regional oyster processing. One-hour river cruises are available aboard the historic bugeye Wm. B. Tennison. Special sailings also are offered on the skipjack Dee of St. Mary's. A small craft shed houses a collection of boats documenting the bay's fishing industry, and a marsh walk passes a river otter habitat. Nearby Cove Point Lighthouse is open seasonally. Special events are held throughout the year.

Guided tours are available. Time: Allow 1 hour minimum.