File:02 In the beginning, people travelling from the heights above the river.jpg

Summary

In the beginning, people travelling from the heights above the river on the land that is now Brunswick had only one way to cross the Potomac River: Eel Pot Ford.

Native Americans named the village after the traps they set in the shallow waters of the Potomac. This illustration is captioned: "The Manner of their Fishing".

(Photo and information courtesy of the Brunswick Heritage Museum)

Jeanell Morsberger Willis: I have not only seen eels caught from the Potomac River, I have eaten them. Watched my dad skin them by nailing their head to a post on the back porch and cutting around their gills (just like you would a catfish.) Most interesting thing that I remember about cooking eel; it's translucent flesh becomes very white and opaque after cooking, becomes once again translucent when it cools.

Dorothy M. Van Steinburg: One of the scariest things to happen to me was when my husband and I went fishing together--in Brunswick and the Potomac--early in our marriage. I thought I had caught a catfish and when I pulled it up--a big, old narly eel wrapped itself up my fishing line and scared me silly. Had to cut the fishing line to get it off!