Baltimore County Stream Renamed in Honor of Reds Wolman
Map showing where the stream is located
Thanks to efforts by Johns Hopkins University alumni, faculty and former faculty, and other prominent geomorphologists and hydrologists from throughout the nation, and with the gracious endorsement of Baltimore County Councilman Wade Kach, a unanimous vote of the Baltimore County Council, and supporting letters from U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin as well as other public officials, a previously unnamed tributary of Baisman Run in Oregon Ridge Park in Baltimore County (see map) has been officially renamed as “Wolman Run.” (For more information on this effort, check out this article from the Baltimore Sun.)
Baisman Run has become famous to hydrologists and geomorphologists throughout the world because of research begun there by Reds Wolman and colleagues more than 50 years ago, and research continues there to this day. In fact Wolman Run is the site of ongoing research by current Johns Hopkins professor Ciaran Harman and his graduate students.
The naming proposal was approved by the US Geological Survey’s Board on Geographic Names at its April 12, 2018 meeting. The new name has been entered into the Geographic Names Information System, the nation’s official geographic names repository, which is available and searchable online at https://geonames.usgs.gov. The entry reads as follows:
Photo of the late M. Gordon (“Reds”) Wolman along Jones Falls in Baltimore, shortly after Hurricane Agnes in fall of 1972.
Wolman Run: stream; 0.35 mi. long; heads 0.5 mi. SW of Oregon Pond, mi. ESE of Big Spring, 2.6 mi. WNW of Cockeysville at 39°29’11”N, 76°41’34”W, flows generally S through Oregon Ridge Park to enter Baisman Run 0.8 mi SSW of Oregon Pool; the name honors Markley Gordon (Reds) Wolman (1924-2010), a Johns Hopkins geomorphologist who conducted research at the stream; Baltimore County, Maryland; taken39°28’53”N, 76°41’35”W; USGS map – Cockeysville 1:24,000
A dedication ceremony is being planned and will be broadcast to subscribers of this newsletter when more information is available.
