La Plata

History

According to an unconfirmed local story, the town was named by one Colonel Samuel Chapman, whose family owned of land in Charles County. The Colonel traveled to South America with his son George, who had contracted tuberculosis, in search of a cure. In his travels, the Colonel had apparently encountered the Río de la Plata, which flows through Argentina and Uruguay, thus naming a portion of his property "La Plata". In the 1870s, a section of the Pennsylvania Railroad had been constructed through the town of La Plata, leading to its 1888 incorporation. The La Plata courthouse had been built soon after the 1819 Port Tobacco courthouse caught fire in 1895 under suspicious circumstances. In 1904, the historic Christ Episcopal Church in Port Tobacco, which dates to 1683 and was reconstructed in 1884, was dismantled and its stones were then transported by oxen and cart to its current lot in La Plata. In 1940, the opening of the then Potomac River Bridge (later, the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge), which carries U.S. Route 301 over the Potomac River, provided a link to King George, Virginia and brought long-distance east coast traffic through the town as an alternative to U.S. 1 and, later, Interstate 95. The bridge was replaced and widened in 2021. Despite being well outside the climatologically favored area for significant tornadoes, La Plata has been impacted by several throughout its history. The most recent tornado to strike the town was an EF1 on February 25th, 2017. 1926 On November 9, 1926, an unusual F4 tornado killed 17 people. Fourteen of them were from the La Plata Elementary School, which was totally destroyed. This is also the deadliest tornado in Maryland's history. 1994 On July 27, 1994, the town was struck by two nonfatal tornadoes,…

Geography

La Plata is located at (38.534258, -76.973377). On February 24, 2020, The Mayor and Town's Council unanimously adopted the Purple Martin as the official Town bird. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, La Plata has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,644
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  8,572
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  7,946
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  7,058
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  6,761
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,189
• Eastern Bluebird

  Sialia sialis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,073
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,982

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2025-10-27
  4 km E of Riverside, Maryland
• M 2.6 — 2021-06-25
  2 km SE of Woodlawn, Maryland
• M 3 — 2010-10-02
  10 km NNW of Ashland, Virginia
• M 3.6 — 2010-07-16
  5 km NNW of Barnesville, Maryland