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Dorchester County

Spring Sailing Options Delmarva Featured Photo
Sail Away! 20ish Easy Ways to Get Out on the Water DestinationsRoad Trips

Sail Away! 20ish Easy Ways to Get Out on the Water

You don't have to own a boat to get out on the water on the Delmarva Peninsula. Here are a few easy options, available in ticketed fashion rather than by putting a group together and chartering a vessel. • THE STEAM FERRY: The Patriot is a replica 1930s steam ferry that offers narrated cruises on various themes along the Miles River, sailing out of St.…
April 22, 2026
Hoopers Island Christmas 1920 FEATURED Image SIZED
WAY BACK MACHINE: A Hoopers Island Christmas in the 1920s CharactersQuote of the DayWay Back Machine

WAY BACK MACHINE: A Hoopers Island Christmas in the 1920s

The late Tom Flowers, who grew up on Hoopers Island during the 1920s and 1930s, ranks as a legendary figure in Dorchester County, Md. One of the many hats he wore in life was that of storyteller--he would make the rounds of local civic groups and events, sharing tales from days gone by. He collected some of his stories into a book, "Shore Folklore." Here…
December 1, 2025
Deep Freeze and Hudson Seal Muskrat Featured Photo
The Deep Freeze of 1926: Muskrats to the Rescue! Way Back Machine

The Deep Freeze of 1926: Muskrats to the Rescue!

A deep freeze descended on the Chesapeake Bay early in 1926. Then that ice melted, and the big floes rode the waves, causing all kinds of havoc in the area of the Chesapeake Bay around Hooper Straits. Wilmington Evening Journal headline: ICE STORM WRECKS BIG OYSTER PLANTS The story is datelined Wingate, Md., which is in the lower southern reaches of Dorchester County. Property loss…
December 31, 2024
Starving Time Holland Island Featured Photo scene is from Tilghman 1918
The Starving Time on Holland Island. Or Maybe Not? From the BooksWay Back Machine

The Starving Time on Holland Island. Or Maybe Not?

This is a free chapter excerpt from You Wouldn't Believe, my book of stories about days gone by on our peninsula. The subtitle is 44 Strange and Wondrous Delmarva Tales. You can find info on the book and buy it here. There are stories about booze, murder, madness, romance, adventure, and well, flying mayonnaise jars. This one is a wintry affair set on old Holland…
December 28, 2024
Sunset atBlackwater 2013 Featured Image
Fri., March 3, 2023: Author Jim Duffy to Spin Tales of Delmarva in Cambridge, Md. The Newsroom

Fri., March 3, 2023: Author Jim Duffy to Spin Tales of Delmarva in Cambridge, Md.

Author and storyteller Jim Duffy of Secrets of the Eastern shore will spin tales of Delmarva days gone by in a talk at the Cambridge Woman’s Club on Fri., March 3, 2023 at 1pm. A Cambridge resident, Duffy is an award-winning writer and author of five books, including two collections of Eastern Shore Road Trips and the brand-new Shore Fun: The Wanderer's Guide to Delmarva.…
February 25, 2023
Doris Todd Muskat Bikini Featured Photo SIZED
About that Girl in the Muskrat Bikini … CharactersWay Back Machine

About that Girl in the Muskrat Bikini …

A couple of years back the Preston (Md.) Historical Society put a photo of an old newspaper article up on social media. The story was from the Preston News & Farmer in 1939. Headline: "Sleep Walking Child ... Falls from Second Floor About 3 A.M." The gist of the story: "Little Doris Todd, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Todd, fell from the second-floor window of…
February 19, 2023
Robbins Davis Dawgs Featured Image Georgia Cambridge
How Bout Them Dawgs? The Crazy Connection Between Georgia Football and Cambridge, Md. CharactersWay Back Machine

How Bout Them Dawgs? The Crazy Connection Between Georgia Football and Cambridge, Md.

The 2022 college football season begins in earnest in the month I'm writing this, and the defending champion Georgia Bulldogs are once again ranked among the nation's top teams. I can sense the question forming in your mind: What in the world does this have to do with the Delmarva Peninsula? Executive summary: • Georgia's official nickname is "Bulldogs." • The team's rabid fan base…
August 27, 2022
Ben Ross Cabin Featured Photo
Young Harriet Tubman Finds Her Strength, With a Little Help from Her Father MiscellanyTubman TravelsWay Back Machine

Young Harriet Tubman Finds Her Strength, With a Little Help from Her Father

This is an excerpt from my book, Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva. A smidgeon of background: This story begins while an adolescent Harriet Tubman—her name in her younger days was Minty—is in the midst of a long recovery after suffering a near-fatal head injury when hit in the head by a hardware-store metal weight flung by a plantation overseer. (You can read…
May 31, 2021
Harriet Tubman Funeral Featured Image
“Now I’m Almost Home!” The Death and Funeral of Harriet Tubman, 1913 Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

“Now I’m Almost Home!” The Death and Funeral of Harriet Tubman, 1913

When her time came, Harriet Tubman was ready. Among the last recorded words of wisdom that we received from the Eastern-Shore-born heroine of the Underground Railroad comes to us by way of suffragette and civil rights activist Mary Burnett Talbert, who made a pilgrimage to upstate New York upon hearing that Harriet's health was failing. It was February of 1913. Harriet had been living in…
January 31, 2021