Explore Fort Smallwood Park

Fort Smallwood Park is a county park in northeastern Anne Arundel County, near Riviera Beach and Pasadena, Maryland, United States. It is located on the outer Patapsco River as it meets the Chesapeake Bay, on a peninsula known as Rock Point. On April 1, 2006 it became a regional park in the Anne Arundel County Park System, after being transferred from the Department of Recreation and Parks of Baltimore City after extensive decades-long negotiations. On September 19, 2009 County Executive John R. Leopold officially dedicated the 380-foot (120 m) fishing pier at Fort Smallwood Park "Bill Burton Fishing Pier", named for the long-time Baltimore Sun outdoorsman/reporter and columnist. The previous pier was destroyed in 2003 by Hurricane Isabel. It provides a view of the Sparrows Point plant of Mittal Steel Company (formerly owned by Bethlehem Steel Corporation), one of the largest steel manufacturing complexes in the world. Fort Smallwood Road (Maryland Route 173) leads from Patapsco Avenue and Pennington Avenue in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay in southern Baltimore City across Curtis Creek, past the U.S. Coast Guard Yard through the Arundel Cove-Hawkins Point area to Riviera Beach and Pasadena coastal communities across Stony Creek to the old fort and park. A cluster of rock outcroppings known as White Rocks is located in the water northwest of the park.