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Chesapeake Conservancy soon aims to create a virtual tour of the entire John Smith Trail. To date, Mallows Bay in the Potomac River, the James, the Susquehanna, and now the Nanticoke River have been completed. Richmond-based Terrain360 built and operates a one-of-a-kind handmade boat, equipped with six cameras mounted 10 feet above the water's surface to capture high-resolution, 360-degree images every 50 feet. Those images are then stitched together to create a digital image map of the entire river that viewers can virtually tour from their comfort of their own home.
Visitors to the site can experience these rivers from the perspective of a kayaker, and all from their mobile phone, computer, or tablet. The hope is that virtual tours will inspire real trips to these beautiful natural landscapes. Click to
chesapeakeconservancy.org/riverview to start exploring.
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Nanticoke is the newest river available for a virtual tour. It flows 64 miles through the states of Delaware and Maryland to Tangier Sound before reaching the Chesapeake Bay. The river's 1,133-square-mile watershed is home to hundreds of rare, threatened, and endangered species, including Harper’s beakrush, Parker’s pipewort, and box huckleberry, as well as unique plant communities such as Atlantic white cedar, non-tidal wetlands, and xeric sand ridge forests.
The Nanticoke remains one of the most diverse and intact watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay region. This is one of the few places you can go to see the world as Captain John Smith and the American Indians saw it 400 years ago,” Chesapeake Conservancy President and CEO, Joel Dunn said. “Through this project, the Chesapeake Conservancy is working to connect people and the wildlife and habitats of the Nanticoke. We hope the virtual tour will inspire people to get out and see the beauty of the Nanticoke and the Captain John Smith Trail firsthand and foster a sense of stewardship to ensure the protection of this national treasure.”
The virtual tour will allow users to plan their trip in advance according to Terrain360’s Andy Thompson. “The tour will make the Nanticoke River more accessible by limiting the number of unknown factors. People want to know where they can put their kayaks in and where they can take them out. With this tool, they will know what to expect because they have already seen it.”