The Rockville Chapter was formed in 1933 through the efforts of Jack Stole, then president of the Washington D.C. Chapter and Dr. DeArcy McGee. Members Bill Riggs, Joe Fisher, Tony Darby, Brooke Edmonston, and Ralph Mathias worked with Stole and McGee to start a local chapter in the then rural area of Rockville, Maryland. With no place to meet, Montgomery County graciously permitted the Chapter to meet in the Court Room of the County Court House in Rockville. The Chapter was chartered with 42 members.

 These men were all fishermen and hunters, owning either bird dogs, rabbit dogs, or coon hounds. They soon obtained a 100 years lease on a piece of property between the C&O Canal and the Potomac River at Violets Lock. The B&O Railroad owned the property at the time. They built a narrow bridge across the two locks, and erected a clubhouse composed of a meeting room with a fireplace, a small kitchen on the back and a screened porch across the front toward the river. Meetings were held in the clubhouse from May through October. After that the mud on River Road and Violet's Lock Road precluded travel by auto, so during the winter months the meetings were again held in the County Court House.

 After World War II, the Chapter experienced a lot of trouble with vandalism at the cabin at Violets Lock. It was then that the Chapter received 35 acres on Waring Station Road, donated by Mrs. Emma Snyder. The membership built a new Chapter house at that location will all volunteer labor and much of the materials donated. The Chapter maintained both houses for a time, but the vandalism became so bad that the Violets Lock house was finally let go. A stone carved with the date the Chapter was chartered was taken from the original Chapter house and placed at the base of the new Chapter house flagpole. Soon after the Chapter house was completed, another 15 acres was purchased for a minimum price. It was on this piece of land that our Chapter lake was built.

 The Chapter built a rifle range in 1955 for sighting in deer and groundhog rifles, and built a trap range in 1956. The pistol range was built in the 50's, along with the standing archery range. In the early 80's, as residential housing developments began to encroach our property, the pistol and rifle ranges were closed and re-engineered. The new ranges opened with acclaim from the Montgomery County Range Approval Committee. In 1994, the Chapter opened a 3D Archery range with more than 30 life size targets.

 The Rockville Chapter has been involved in conservation and environmental causes since its' inception. In the early years, the Chapter built dams in front of the locks at Pennyfield and in front of Violets Lock. These areas were planted with wild rice for duck food. Long before the SOS program was created, members did work on Mill Creek between Redland and Derwood, and on Turkeyfoot Creek which runs under Veirs Mill Road and into Rock Creek. We have built trout rearing ponds on the Dunbar Stone Farm in Potomac and bass rearing ponds on the Hanson Farm on Trivilah Road. We have implemented both a Wood Duck Habitat Program and a 4-H Food Patch for Wildlife Program. Our Chapter was instrumental in the introduction and adoption of the Non-Game and Endangered Act by the Maryland legislature. Recently, the Chapter established a Tree Farm Program for our Chapter's 50 acres. This involved a selected harvest of many of our mature trees which were replanted with over 400 new trees.

 As the National IWLA organization celebrates its 75th year, the Rockville Chapter has grown from its 42 charter members to an average of 450 members a year and continues to be engaged in conservation work and legislative action.