The Maryland Port Administration hosts the annual Port of Baltimore Open House at the Cox Creek Dredged Material Containment Facility, 1000 Kembo Road, Curtis Bay, MD 21226 — typically held on a Saturday in mid-to-late October from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, giving local citizens the opportunity to learn about the Port of Baltimore and its dredging program, explore the adjacent Swan Creek wetland, meet community partners, and enjoy van tours, fishing, and birding. The 2026 date has not been independently confirmed at time of writing. Check the Maryland Port Administration website (mpa.maryland.gov) for the official 2026 announcement — the event has historically occurred in mid-to-late October (October 19, 2024 was the most recent). This guide covers the venue, activities, access, and transportation for whenever the 2026 edition is scheduled.
- Typical date: Saturday in mid-to-late October. 2026 date TBA — check mpa.maryland.gov.
- Location: Cox Creek DMCF, 1000 Kembo Road, Curtis Bay, MD 21226.
- Free admission. No registration historically required (confirm with MPA for 2026).
- Activities: Van tours, fishing, birding, Swan Creek wetland access, community exhibitors.
- From downtown Baltimore: ~8 miles, 15–20 minutes south via Hanover Street or Potee Street.
- Why attend: Rare public access to an industrial facility and one of Baltimore's top birding sites.
Port of Baltimore
port activity
Swan Creek
Baltimore
Event Details
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Typical date | Saturday in mid-to-late October (2026 TBA) |
| Typical hours | 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM |
| Location | Cox Creek DMCF, 1000 Kembo Road, Curtis Bay, MD 21226 |
| Admission | Free |
| Host | Maryland Port Administration (MPA) |
| Activities | Van tours, fishing, birding, wetland access, exhibitors |
| Confirm | mpa.maryland.gov |
What Happens at the Open House
Port Education
Learn about the Port of Baltimore — one of the nation's busiest ports, generating 15,300 direct jobs and nearly 140,000 jobs linked to port activity across the regional economy. The open house explains the dredging program that keeps Baltimore's shipping channels navigable, recent project updates, how dredged material is managed and repurposed, and how the port connects to the broader regional economy. The Cox Creek Dredged Material Containment Facility is where that management happens — the open house puts visitors inside an infrastructure that is essential to the port's function but rarely visible to the public.
Swan Creek Wetland
The Cox Creek facility is adjacent to the Swan Creek Conservation Area — ranked among the top birding sites in the Baltimore region, with over 200 species recorded. The open house provides guided access to the wetland for birding and nature exploration. Swan Creek is a significant birding destination in its own right; the open house combines industrial education with genuine natural history access that most Baltimore residents don't know exists this close to the Inner Harbor. Past events have featured youth fishing programs organized by the Pasadena Sportfishing Group, adding an active outdoor component alongside the passive birding and wetland observation.
Van Tours of the Cox Creek Facility
Guided van tours of the Cox Creek facility provide access to areas not normally open to the public. The tours explain how dredged material is managed, how the facility operates, and how the site is being used for environmental restoration alongside its industrial function. For visitors interested in infrastructure, engineering, or environmental management, the van tour is the distinctive element that makes the Port Open House different from a typical community fair.
Community Exhibitors
Past events have included the Anne Arundel County Health Department, the Orchard Beach Volunteer Fire Department, community organizations, and environmental partners. The format is community-fair style — walk between exhibitor stations, talk to port staff, and learn about programs that serve the Curtis Bay and surrounding communities. The open house serves as a bridge between the Maryland Port Administration and the communities most directly adjacent to port operations.
Getting to Cox Creek
The Cox Creek facility is at 1000 Kembo Road, Curtis Bay, MD 21226 — on the south side of the Patapsco River in Anne Arundel County, downstream from the Inner Harbor. The location is industrial and unfamiliar to most visitors; GPS routing to the site can produce multiple route options that vary in directness.
On-site parking at the Cox Creek facility is available. The industrial setting provides ample parking space without the congestion of downtown events. Tip: Use the full address (1000 Kembo Road, Curtis Bay, MD 21226) in your navigation app rather than searching for "Cox Creek" or "Port of Baltimore" — the facility address produces the most reliable routing to the correct entrance.
Who Attends and What to Bring
The open house is designed for local citizens and community members — not industry professionals or trade visitors. Families, students, birding enthusiasts, fishing groups, and residents of Curtis Bay, Brooklyn, and surrounding Anne Arundel communities make up the typical audience. The event is genuinely community-focused: the Maryland Port Administration hosting it reflects an institutional commitment to transparency about port operations and environmental stewardship that's worth both attending and supporting.
For birding: bring binoculars if you have them. Swan Creek's 200+ recorded species and the wetland access during the open house make this one of the more productive birding opportunities of the year for enthusiasts who can't normally access the site. For fishing: past events have included youth fishing programs; confirm with the MPA whether this component runs in 2026. For families with children: the combination of van tours, exhibitors, and outdoor wetland access creates enough variety to hold attention for the full four hours, though the industrial setting is not purpose-built for entertainment the way a museum or festival is. Dress appropriately for an outdoor industrial site in October — work shoes rather than dress shoes, layers for the weather.
Transportation to an Industrial Site
The Cox Creek facility is on Kembo Road in Curtis Bay — a south Baltimore industrial corridor that most visitors don't navigate regularly. GPS routing works, but the industrial approach road can produce routing uncertainty on first visit. For group transportation from other parts of Baltimore or the region, a pre-booked vehicle handles the navigation to a site that most GPS apps don't route to intuitively. Driver familiarity with the south Baltimore industrial corridor removes the first-visit navigation uncertainty from an event that otherwise requires full attention as a participant rather than a driver.
For birding groups traveling from across the Baltimore metro specifically for Swan Creek access, a shuttle service from a central Baltimore pickup point handles the group without requiring individuals to coordinate separate cars to an unfamiliar address in a light-industrial neighborhood. For community organizations, school groups, or neighborhood associations attending as a coordinated group, pre-arranged group transportation allows the participants to arrive together and depart together without the van-tour scheduling coordination of multiple individual vehicles. For out-of-town visitors using BWI airport as their arrival point before attending the open house as part of a Baltimore visit, the airport-to-Curtis Bay route is entirely manageable with a pre-booked vehicle — BWI to Cox Creek is about 10 miles via I-695.
The Port of Baltimore in Context
The Port of Baltimore is one of the most economically significant ports on the East Coast, generating 15,300 direct jobs and nearly 140,000 jobs linked to port activity across the regional economy. The port handles automobiles, bulk cargo, containerized freight, and forest products at terminals spread across the Baltimore waterfront. The Cox Creek facility specifically manages the dredged material that is continuously removed from Baltimore's shipping channels to keep them navigable — a function that is essential to the port's operation but almost entirely invisible to the public and to most Baltimore residents.
The 2024 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the subsequent channel-clearing operation brought the Port of Baltimore's dredging infrastructure to national attention in a way that the annual open house never had. For visitors attending the open house after that event, the Cox Creek facility's role in channel management has a different cultural weight than it did in previous years — the operation that the open house explains and demonstrates is the same class of operation that cleared the channel following the bridge collapse. For residents of the Baltimore region who watched that process unfold over months of news coverage, the open house provides direct contact with the infrastructure and the people who manage it, in a setting that official press releases and news coverage cannot replicate.
Group Transportation to the Port of Baltimore Open House
Bayside Limousines has served the Maryland, D.C., and Northern Virginia area for over 33 years. For the Port of Baltimore Open House at Cox Creek — an industrial site that most GPS apps route to imperfectly — we handle the navigation so your group arrives at the right entrance without the first-visit uncertainty. Fixed rate, your schedule. We own every vehicle and employ every chauffeur directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Event format and activities based on the 2024 Port of Baltimore Open House. The 2026 date and specific programming are subject to MPA confirmation — check mpa.maryland.gov for current information before attending. For events listings in the region, Visit Baltimore's events page covers Port-adjacent community programming.