The Washington region is full of eccentrics. Many claim they’re pursuing a more just world. Others, it seems, simply want to be “infinitely powerful.”

For years, WTOP’s Mark Segraves has been visiting on and off with a man called “Naked Ned, the beaver man of the Potomac.” Turns out, he actually prefers to be called “Chaosmi The Infinite.”

Chaosmi spends most of his time building dams of varying lengths. He uses thousands of rocks, strategically placing each by hand. Segraves reports:

Chaosmi says he wanted to slow down the rushing river, “to see if it would slow down the flow of the nutrients and the plants could absorb them before they got to the Bay.”

Judging from the looks of things, he has succeeded.

In the Spring and Summer. the river rushes past this area. Behind Chaosmi’s dams, small pools are home to many fish and the plant life flourishes. Ducks and geese frequently spend time resting here.

So, why exactly is he naked?

Chaosmi says he doesn’t like to wear clothes, particularly cotton, because the production of clothing is bad for the environment.

“The Russian Empire diverted all this water to grow cotton, he explained to me one day while taking a break from dam building. “Now the Aral Sea is only about half as big as it used to be.”

It turns out that’s true. I had to Google it when I got home. It was one of the many things I learned from our chats.

And why does he chose to camp on the rocks by the river under a worn beach umbrella?

I asked him if he was searching for something. “Yes,” he told me.

“My goal is to be infinitely smart and infinitely powerful, but whether I’ll reach that I don’t know.” he says, but he’ll keep trying one stone at a time.