The Calvert Marine Museum is a must-visit destination if you visit Solomons Island, MD. At the museum, you’ll learn about maritime history on the Chesapeake Bay, the area’s paleontology (and there’s quite a bit of that!), life working on the water in the Chesapeake Bay, and local estuarine life of the Patuxent River and the Bay.
The museum presents several exhibits, including an extensive collection of historic working boats (if you’ve ever wanted to see an historic bugeye, this is where you’d go for that! There’s a beauty in those boats that’s worth seeing.
This museum pairs well with a visit to the nearby Annmarie Sculpture Garden!
What to Expect
In addition, you can climb up into the Drum Point Light, which the museum restored to how it would have looked during its working life.
A high point of the museum are its several aquatic exhibits, including an outdoor habitat for the North American river otter, and indoor aquarium exhibits for the sting ray, skates, the non-native lionfish, and numerous other species native to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
Children of every age will enjoy the “Dinosaurs of Maryland” exhibit, which explores the diversity and history of Maryland fossils (and fossil hunting), which makes it a good pairing with a hike to nearby Calvert Cliffs and fossil-hunting for ancient shark teeth.
Drum Point Lighthouse
This historic lighthouse is a screwpile light, with a traditional cottage on top. It’s one of only three remaining from the original 45 that once served the Chesapeake Bay region. The lighthouse functioned until 1962. Sadly, then vandals and neglect had their way. Finally the museum moved the decaying lighthouse to its current location in 1975.
Now, it’s restored to the time period of early 20th century, and is one of the museum’s main attractions!
You can easily spend a couple hours exploring the exhibits. The littles will enjoy climbing up into the lighthouse and marveling at the fish. They’ll laugh at the otters and learn about the hard life as a waterman working on the Chesapeake Bay. In fact, this is a great place to bring the little ones, there’s so much to grab their imaginations and spark an endless curiosity.
Know Before You Go
Getting there: 14200 Solomons Island Rd S, Solomons, MD
Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; closed major holidays.
Website: Calvert Marine Museum
