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Learn about Indian Head, Maryland
Indian Head is a small town located in Northern Charles County. It has been the site of a naval base that specializes in gun and rocket propellants since 1890. The production of nitrocellulose and smokeless powder began in 1900. That was at the Indian Head Powder Factory. The name of the base has changed over the years. It was knowns as the Indian Head Proving Ground, and also the Naval Powder Factory. It was later called the Naval Propellant Plant and then the Naval Ordnance Station. Today, it is the Naval Support Facility Indian Head. The facility’s main tenant is the Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center. It is involved in advanced research in energetic systems. The facility absorbed the function of Naval Ordnance Laboratory, It was located in White Oak and closed several years ago. The Indian Head base employs approximately 3,700 people.
The Indian Head peninsula is a “head” of land overlooking the Potomac River. It was occupied by various cultures of indigenous peoples over the years. The historic Algonquian-speaking American Indian tribe was the Mattawoman. They were likely a band of the Piscataway. The first English settlers found that the Piscataway called the land “Indian Head.” It mean “Indian Peninsula.”
The Town of Indian Head was incorporated in 1920. The town is located between the Potomac River and Mattawoman Creek. The land was known as Mattawoman Cornwallis Neck. It was named for the 1654 grant of 5,000 acres by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, to Capt. Thomas Cornwallis of St. Mary’s County. The Town of Indian Head occupies land that was once part of the territory of the Algonquin Indians. The origin of the name is from the term “Indian Headlands.” The entire lower end of the peninsula was occupied by Native Americans and was an Indian Reservation.
The name Indian Head first appears in the Census and dates to the establishment of the powder factory. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.23 square miles, all of which is land. Indian Head shares a border with the community of Bryans Road to the north, the community of Marbury to the south, and the Town of La Plata to the east.
Indian Head was a thriving small town during World War II and up until the late 1960’s. At that time, the construction of St. Charles, a giant planned community south of nearby Waldorf, began. It contained retail chains and big-box stores. These attracted Indian Head’s shopping dollars and started the demise of local businesses.
Today, Indian Head is rich in history, but is lacking many basic retail and service businesses. Many remedies for this have been attempted, but the desired growth has been slow in coming. Indian Head is bisected by Maryland Route 210, known as Indian Head Highway. It goes directly into the middle of town at the entrance to Indian Head Naval Support Facility. Because of this, the town cannot benefit from through-traffic, but must be a destination in its own right.
Private plans to build a massive “Chapman’s Landing” housing development a few miles to the north were stopped in the 1990s due to actions by environmentalists. The state government purchased the land to preserve it as green space under its “smart growth” program. The preserved land includes an old growth Shell-Marl Ravine Forest ecosystem.
In 2004, the town opened a “black box” stage theater called the Indian Head Center for the Arts. The Town is exploring other revitalization efforts. A railroad was built to the naval facility in 1918. It was converted into the Indian Head Rail Trail in 2008. The trail is a 13-mile paved hiking/biking trail that ends at Route 301 in the community of White Plains. A year-round swimming pool is available at Henry E. Lackey High School. In 2018 the long-abandoned Ely’s store was demolished and a technology education center called the “Velocity Center” was completed in 2020. It is linked to the Naval base (but with opening delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic). Indian Head is also home to General Smallwood Middle School and Indian Head Elementary School.