ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Map, News) - Some 575 acres of farmland, including the ruins of a historic tobacco plantation, have been purchased by the Smithsonian Institution, it was announced on Wednesday.

The site will be turned over to archaeology research and the public will be able to visit.

The Contee Farm off Route 468 on the Rhode River is about 300 years old. It will become part of the neighboring Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, which has been conducting studies into Chesapeake Bay ecology and other subjects for 43 years, officials said.

Anson Hines is director of the Smithsonian center. He said the land is in a fast-developing area south of Annapolis and will be preserved with a conservation easement.

"This is a fabulous resource and a great opportunity for us," Hines said. "We will continue to operate it as a farm, and allow the public to see active farming and forestry done in a way to improve the bay watershed."

The institution's scientists have long used the land for research. It was bought for $6.2 million last week from the Kirpatrick-Howat family. The farm was named after John Contee, a second lieutenant on the USS Constitution during the War of 1812, helping to defeat a British warship in a battle off the coast of Brazil.

Contee took reward money he got for seizing the enemy ship and bought the plantation around 1818. But the farm is about 100 years older than that.

Besides the ruins of the old plantation house, researchers found other archaeological sites on the property, including campsites of Piscataway Indians.

With the purchase, the amount of land owned by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center will grow to about 2,500 acres from about 1,925 acres. The center will install new paths and water trails to let the public hike and canoe around the land. And the ruins of the plantation house will be turned into an exhibit to teach people about 18th and 19th century American farms.

---

Information from: The (Baltimore) Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com