Local History: Crabs, Fish Thrive in Clear Magothy River

Here’s a dose of some local history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham.

Many people in Anne Arundel County during the 1930s made a living by farming, but a few took to the water. John Dreyer used his entire family to help catch crabs and earn their living.

Dreyer's son and five daughters, including Clara Dreyer, used to help catch crabs along the Magothy.

"Clara Dreyer Bomhardt remembers that the Magothy was twelve feet deep at the end of the pier and the water so clear that she could see the bottom," Cunningham wrote.

"Near the shore, small crabs and fish thrived in the deep and thick seaweed. Multi-colored inch-long minnows swam in the Magothy, and where Hunter's Harbor is now, salamanders lived in freshwater spring.

"Today the Dreyer house and net shed are only memories."

See Also:

• Local History: Girl Scout Camps on the Magothy