The Chesapeake Bay Date of this Version The Chesapeake Bay and
the big rivers that feed into it have recently been seen as part
of a much larger watershed encompassing six states and hundreds
of counties. The Bay's ecology has suffered in the twentieth
century, prompting the states that surround it to develop a
regional compact to protect it. The Bay's history as a resource
and a network for trade extend to Powhatan Society, however, and
the Bay's history is marked by regional settlement patterns over
hundreds of years.