The St. Inigoes State Forest Province property in St. Mary’s County was purchased by the Department of Natural Resources in 2009. The acquisition was one of four properties totaling 4,478 acres previously known as The Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus owned by the Corporation of the Roman Catholic Clergyman. The property is comprised of 938 acres located on a peninsula between St. Mary’s River and Smith Creek bordering the Potomac River. There are 324 acres of woodland, 524 acres of agricultural land and six residential dwellings on the property. The St. Inigoes State Forest property (locally known as Kitts Point) is the most ancient Jesuit establishment in the United States, and probably the oldest in the world that remained in continuous possession. Located at the mouth of the Potomac River it is also one of the earliest settlements in colonial Maryland. Captain John Smith most likely viewed the landscape while traveling up the Potomac River in 1608, but a landing was never documented. The property was originally acquired in 1634 as a grant from the King of England as part of the 400-acre tract. The property consisted of a working farm designed to support Jesuit missions throughout Maryland. A substantial portion of the original property was acquired by the US Government in the early 1940s to further the “War Effort” during World War II and create an outlying field for the newly established Patuxent River Naval Air Station, currently know as “Webster Field” which borders St. Inigoes State Forest to the North.