Mount Vernon is open 365 days a year, including Christmas Day.
Open 365 days a year, Mount Vernon is located just 15 miles south of Washington DC.
From the mansion to lush gardens and grounds, intriguing museum galleries, immersive programs, and the distillery and gristmill. Spend the day with us!
Discover what made Washington "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen".
The Mount Vernon Ladies Association has been maintaining the Mount Vernon Estate since they acquired it from the Washington family in 1858.
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No occupation was more satisfying to George Washington than farming, but no plantation activity was more lucrative than fishing.
In addition to serving as an important transportation route linking Mount Vernon to major ports, the Potomac River also provided Washington with one of his most profitable business enterprises. The bountiful crop of fish harvested from the river each year provided an income that consistently surpassed Washington's earnings from the cultivation of wheat and other food crops on his 8,000-acre estate.
In Washington's time, it was natural that he would incorporate fishing into his plantation routine and make it a part of the revenue-producing activities of a working farm, following the lead of his father Augustine and half-brother Lawrence.
Descriptions of the Potomac's profusion of fish in the 18th century nearly defy belief today. In 1793, George Washington described the Potomac as "well-stocked with various kinds of fish in all Seasons of the year, and in the Spring with Shad, Herring, Bass, Carp, Perch, Sturgeon, etc. in great abundance ...the whole shore, in fact, is one entire fishery.” One could scarcely thrust a spear in the water, reported an observer, without harpooning a fish. During the spring spawning season, according to another account, the constant thrashing of shad and herring made the entire surface of the water a gleaming white.
Watch costumed interpreters demonstrate Washington's innovative farming and fishing practices, hoe fields, cook over a fire, shear sheep, and harvest crops (activities vary day to day).
Sam Murphy tells us how Washington utilized the Potomac River to create a series of fisheries.
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Illustration of shad by Mark Catsby in 1754 (University of Wisconsin Digital Collections)
Extensive preparations were made in advance for the brief fishing season, which lasted for only a few weeks in April and May.
As the shad and herring ran with the incoming tides, the enslaved plantation workforce toiled day and night to haul in the bounty. Large seine nets, some as large as 500 feet, were stretched between two boats or from boat to shore to catch the teeming flow of silvery fish, which were salted and immediately packed in barrels. Working in shifts, enslaved fishermen gathered hundreds of thousands of fish, and for their efforts, according to a Mount Vernon account book, were rewarded with a pint of rum a day.
During the brief fishing season, the river yielded an amazing harvest—the typical annual herring catch often exceeded one million, and the shad numbered in the tens of thousands.
The bounty was put to good use on the thriving plantation. All year long, a variety of tempting fish entrees graced Mount Vernon's overflowing dinner table. The fish also formed a part of the diet of the enslaved workforce, each individual being provided with 20 fish per month. The first priority during the fishing season was to set aside enough fish to meet this requirement.
Historic Trades Interpreter Deborah Colburn shows us how shad, pulled from the Potomac River, was used in a variety of meals at Mount Vernon among the enslaved workers.
Remains of the Potowmack Company's Great Falls lock in Virginia (Rob Shenk)
While Washington was operating his farms and fisheries and involving himself in the political issues of the day, he was also very much a part of the effort to clear and make navigable the river Potomac.
This was to be a major effort on his part throughout his life, the locks at Great Falls and the canal being a part of his dream of opening a route to the headwaters of the Potomac and a way to connect into the Ohio River to open up the wilderness to settlement and trade.
