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Oxon Cove Park & Oxon Hill Farm

Oxon Hill, MD

Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm are located in the District of Columbia and Prince George's County, Maryland. The site headquarters is located at 6411 Oxon Hill Road, Oxon Hill, Maryland, 20745. Oxon Cove Park was created to provide a variety of recreational activities and to serve as a scenic natural/urban transition for the southern gateway to Washington, D.C. The portion of Oxon Cove Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, was originally acquired for inclusion in the Maryland portion of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and was to continue southward to Fort Washington.

The primary feature of Oxon Cove Park is Oxon Hill Farm which operates as an actual working farm, representative of the early 20th century. You can see a farm house, barns, a stable, feed building, livestock buildings and a visitor activity barn. It exhibits basic farming principles and techniques as well as historical agricultural programs for urban people to develop an understanding of cropping and animal husbandry.

From the 1890's until the 1950`s, Oxon Hill Farm was operated by patients from St. Elizabeth Hospital. It provided therapy as well as food for the patients at the institution. The land area varies from low flat river shoreline to high river terraces with intermediate rolling hills created by a reclaimed sanitary landfill which existed on the site until the mid-seventies.

The park provides an excellent resource for environmental studies, wildlife observing, fishing, and other recreational activities made possible by easy access to the Potomac River. There is open grassland, deciduous forest, and marsh and swamp ecosystems. This natural area supports a wide variety of wildlife providing for nature/environmental study.

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