The Wye River is a 16.3-mile-long (26.2 km) tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It was named by the Lloyd family, Edward Lloyd (delegate), and Edward Lloyd (Governor of Maryland), after the River Wye in Wales. It falls within Queen Anne's County and Talbot County, and joins the Miles River near its mouth to the Eastern Bay. The river is very popular with recreational boaters because of its many secluded anchorages, fishing, crabbing, natural beauty and proximity to the tourist attractions of St. Michaels, Maryland. Like many rivers on the Chesapeake Bay, the Wye is largely tidal. The river's most notable feature is the 2,800-acre (11 km2) Wye Island, most of which is part of the Wye Island Natural Resources Management Area, managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources State Forest and Park Service. William Paca, the third governor of Maryland and a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, once owned the island.
The nearby Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Centers (sections of which were formerly known as the "Wye River plantation") hosted the 1998 Mideast Peace talks attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, and hosted by US President Bill Clinton.
The watershed also includes the Wye Research and Education Center, operated by the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES). They conduct agricultural research and education, in cooperation with the nearby Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Centers.
Elián González and his father stayed at the Wye River Plantation briefly in 2000.
Water quality is threatened by development.
Famous quotes containing the words wye and/or river:
“The Wye is hush’d nor moved along,
And hush’d my deepest grief of all,
When fill’d with tears that cannot fall,
I brim with sorrow drowning song.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Nature seemed to have adorned herself for our departure with a profusion of fringes and curls, mingled with the bright tints of flowers, reflected in the water. But we missed the white water-lily, which is the queen of river flowers, its reign being over for this season.... Many of this species inhabit our Concord water.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)