If you are planning your yearly pilgrimage to see the fabulous sunflowers at the 1,971-acre McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, you may want to thank English immigrant, Richard Brightwell, who purchased the original 1,086 acres along four miles of the Potomac River in 1695.
At the age of 21, Brightwell came to Maryland from Suffolk, England as an indentured servant to Captain Thomas Trueman. The first colonists came to Maryland only 29 years before.
This area was wilderness and the Maryland colony appointed Rangers to traverse the area to spot Native American bands and determine if they were friendly or hostile to the White settlers. There were only a few wagon roads and indigenous trails available for the early settlers.
Brightwell became a Maryland Ranger and traveled all the native trails in upper Montgomery, and Monocacy Country, patrolling the western and northern frontiers, from the Potomac River on the west to the Patuxent River on the east.
He was impressed with the abundance of elk, deer, wolves, bears, wild turkeys, and even buffalo that roamed the Potomac Valley. Brightwell said, “this country was a howling wilderness with only Indian paths, Indian camps and wild animals. No white settlers would dare these trails…that the Senacas (sic) used as their hunting grounds.”
Brightwell was familiar with this wilderness, and when the area became Prince Georges County in 1696, he was appointed one of only two PG county Captains of the Horse Rangers. The same year “Brightwell’s Hunting Quarter” was patented and Brightwell sought to establish a settlement there far from his neighbors, where he and his friends could enjoy the pleasure and excitement of fishing and hunting. Brightwell died only two years later at the age of 56.
Brightwell’s Hunting Quarter passed to his eldest son, Richard, who was content there with his dogs, pet bears, and deer for companions. The tide of settlements moved up the Potomac, bringing Richard his first neighbor at Brightwell’s Hunting Quarter about 1743.
Today, Brightwell’s Hunting Quarter is part of the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area. It serves essentially the same purpose as it did 330 years ago, “to conserve and enhance diverse wildlife populations and associated habitats while providing for public enjoyment of the State’s wildlife resources through hunting and other wildlife-dependent recreation.”