As mentioned in my previous post about Aquia Church, stone cut from Aquia Creek in Stafford County was used to build the US Capitol, White House, and other government offices. Now though, its quarry on Government Island is a 17-acre public park with an unusual distinction of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places. An island trail overview at its entrance describes the property as a "rustic park" advising caution but the island is well maintained with good walking trails. Park rules are simple, asking visitors to stay on the trails and not to litter, but they also ask people not to hunt for relics as it is an important archaeological site.
Sandstone quarried from Aquia Creek was a favored building material because its composition was fine-grained, pure white in color, and easy to carve for architectural trim. In 1791, the federal government purchased most of the island (hence Government Island) from private owners to mine stone for constructing the White House and it continued to extract large amounts throughout much of the Early Republic. One acre of land that remained privately owned by a man named Robert Steuart was marked with his initials (R.S.) to delineate those boundaries still visible today.
Quarrying was labor-intensive during the late 18th and early 19th centuries with master masons supervising numerous skilled workers, common laborers, and enslaved people who used simple tools to cut, carved, and then ship stone blocks upriver to construction sites in Washington, DC. Marks from these tools can still be seen on exposed rockfaces. Before settlement by Europeans though, rocks from Government Island had been utilized by Native Americans for millennia. Artifacts have been recovered from across the property overlooking Aquia Creek including a Clovis projectile point indicating a human presence before 8,000 BC.
Although park rules advocate for a "Leave No Trace" policy, I was intrigued to see that almost every tree was scarred with countless names and initials along the walking paths. Despite having no walls to graffiti, visitors still found ways to leave their own mark like so many other places of historic importance.
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