St. Mary's Peninsula

St. Mary's Peninsula, at the southern tip of Maryland's Western Shore

St. Mary's Peninsula is part of the Western Shore region of Maryland. From the Charles County line, just north of Charlotte Hall, Maryland, to the southern tip of St. Mary's County at Point Lookout State Park, St. Mary's Peninsula stretches about 39 miles (63 km).[1] It is bordered on the southwest by the Potomac River, on the north and east by the Patuxent River and on the east by Chesapeake Bay. From the end of these two rivers, the peninsula has about 15 miles[2] of shoreline along the Bay's western shore from Lexington Park, Maryland to Point Lookout.[3] Its shoreline stretches for a total of 536 miles along the Patuxent River, Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay.[4]

Conterminous with the boundaries of St. Mary's County, the peninsula covers a land area of 361.25 square miles (935.6 km2).[5]

Northeast of St. Mary's Peninsula, on the opposite side of the Patuxent River, is the smaller Calvert Peninsula. Like St. Mary's Peninsula, Calvert Peninsula also has boundaries conterminous with a single Maryland county.

  1. ^ As measured from Charlotte Hall to Point Lookout on the Maryland Official Highway Map (2011-2012), approximately 6.5 inches at 6 miles to the inch.
  2. ^ As measured from Cedar Point to Point Lookout on the Maryland, Official Highway Map (2011-2012), approximately 3 inches at 6 miles to the inch.
  3. ^ "St. Mary's County, Maryland". Maryland Manual On-Line. Maryland State Archives. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  4. ^ "St. Mary's County, Maryland, Brief Economic Facts" (PDF). Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  5. ^ "Geography QuickFacts: St. Mary's County, Maryland." Archived 2013-08-21 at the Wayback Machine U.S. Census Bureau.