Hotel Dump Point Lookout (18ST59)
Site History
The Hotel Dump site (18ST59) at Point Lookout State Park is associated with an antebellum resort located along the mouth of the Potomac River, where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Logan Smith created a 50-acre resort just north of the Point Lookout lighthouse in the summer of 1860. His resort included a two-story hotel, guest cottages, and a steamboat wharf. The coming of the Civil War reduced visitation to the resort, and the property was leased to the federal government in 1862 for the establishment of a Union military hospital and later a prison. After the war ended, efforts to re-establish the property as a resort were unsuccessful and the hotel building burned in 1878. Today, Point Lookout is a Maryland State Park operated by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Archaeological Investigations
Jonathan Kent conducted the first archaeological survey of Point Lookout in the 1970s. Using historic maps to guide his survey, he recorded six sites, including the Hotel Dump site. Artifacts associated with this site included stoneware and earthenware dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. Kent hypothesized that the artifacts may have been associated with the hotel resort, or with the Civil War occupation of the resort buildings.
References
1974 Point Lookout Salvage and Survey Project. MHT# ST 128.
2020 Phase II Evaluation and Phase III Data Recovery for Point Lookout Light Station (Site ST61), Lighthouse Restoration, Scotland, St. Mary's County, Maryland. EAC/Archaeology, Inc. MHT# ST302.
