Ohio Canal, the surrounding Potomac Valley, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The James Rumsey Monument is located approximately southeast of the New James Rumsey Bridge (Maryland Route 34), southeast of the confluence of Town Run with the Potomac River, southwest of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (on the Maryland side of the Potomac), and west of Shepherdstown Railroad Bridge. The monument is a contributing property to the Shepherdstown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. History James Rumsey James Rumsey was born in Bohemia Manor in Cecil County, Maryland, in March 1743. He left his family's farm to operate a tavern on the Bohemia River, moved to Baltimore, and in 1782, he purchased land along Sleepy Creek near Bath, Virginia (present-day Berkeley Springs, West Virginia). Rumsey relocated to the Bath area in 1783, and built and operated a sawmill on his Sleepy Creek property. Rumsey worked in Bath as an innkeeper, general store operator, builder, and millwright. Rumsey was also an inventor and developed innovations in iron mining, smelting, gristmill and sawmill operation, and canal construction. His most significant invention was his development of steam power technology for operating water vessels. In October 1783, he successfully demonstrated a model steam-powered vessel on Sir John's Run at its confluence with the Potomac River, near the present-day community of Sir Johns Run. In Bath in September 1784, Rumsey met George Washington, who was traveling across the Blue Ridge Mountains to assess the feasibility of transportation by road, rivers, and canal. Washington was concerned with unifying the United States through increased trade and improved transportation routes across the Appalachian Mountains, especially via canals and rivers. Rumsey demonstrated to Washington a small, wooden, model steamboat that traveled upstream in Warm Spring Run. Washington was excited by the potential of Rumsey's boat, and Rumsey requested a written statement from Washington to solicit support, and funding from investors and the state of Virginia. Afterward, Washington publicly supported Rumsey over rival inventor John Fitch. Rumsey relocated from Bath to Shepherdstown, which was closer to the Potomac River, where he tested his model steam-powered vessels. Rumsey was hired as superintendent of the Potomac Navigation Company in July 1785. In December 1785, Rumsey tested an improved version of the pipe boiler on the Potomac in Shepherdstown. In December 1787, he successfully demonstrated the practical utility of his steamboat invention in a public trial on the river. In