Dover Archives - Secrets of the Eastern Shore

Foxxy Terrier from book You Wouldn't Believe FEATURED PHOTO

From the Books: The Foxxy Terrier Who Found Itself

In the book You Wouldn't Believe! storyteller Jim Duffy serves up 44 Strange and Wondrous Delmarva Tales that run the gamut from true crime to romance and adventure and comedy. Every story is true. Every chapter is a story unto itself, perfect for relaxed flipping and browsing. This free excerpt is the shortest chapter in the book--and one of the cutest, in my humble opinion.…

Secrets of the Eastern ShoreOctober 29, 2025

Winterfest of Lights in Ocean City, Maryland

Good Times & Fun Events

CHRISTMAS 2023: The Big Light Shows

Here is all the info you need on the biggest and best season-long light shows of the 2023 holiday season! Winterfest of Lights in Ocean City, Md. Nov. 16 to Dec. 31 This is the 31st time around for Winterfest of Lights at Northside Park in Ocean City, Md. Take an outdoor walking tour through incredible light displays. Afterwards, see Santa in the gift shop.…

Secrets of the Eastern ShoreOctober 22, 2023

Typical Chicken Farm 1940s FEATURED PHOTO from Poultry Industry History

Way Back Machine

You’ve Heard of Bootleggers? How about Meatleggers? There Were Lots of Them on Delmarva in the 1940s

What you see up top here is an ordinary Delmarva chicken farm in the early 1940s. But that decade was anything but ordinary for the poultry industry: Think black marketeering, bushel baskets of cash hidden in attics, and military roadblocks set up on DuPont Highway. These were World War II years. Among the array of complex logistics in that conflict was the task of feeding…

Secrets of the Eastern ShoreSeptember 21, 2023

From the Books Way Back Machine

Flirtation to Fury: The Chocolate Candy Murders

This is a free excerpt from my book, You Wouldn't Believe! 44 Strange and Wondrous Delmarva Tales. More info about that and my other books exploring the history, travel, and culture on the Eastern Shore and in Delaware here. If Shakespeare had written tragedies in early 1900s America instead of early 1600s Britain, he would have had another character named Cordelia to write about. The plot…

Helen HutchinsonJanuary 27, 2023

Dover Ingenuity Road Trip Featured Photo

Destinations From the Books Road Trips

Road Trip! The Dover Ingenuity Trio

This is a free excerpt from my book, Eastern Shore Road Trips #1: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. More info about that and my other books exploring the history, travel, and culture on the Eastern Shore and in Delaware here. When Eldridge Reeves Johnson graduated from Dover Academy in 1882, the school’s director gave him some blunt advice: “You are too god damned dumb to…

Helen HutchinsonAugust 3, 2022

Neil Armstrong on the moon in ILC Dover suit

Way Back Machine

A Frederica Story: From Ladies Undergarments to Man on the Moon

Sometimes the stories Delmarva has to tell are hiding in plain sight. Consider, for example, the generic-looking, aluminum-clad buildings that make up the ILC Dover complex along Carpenter Bridge Road on the outskirts of Frederica, Del. Passersby could be forgiven for assuming this was just another warehouse or widget maker. The postal address contains a clue that something else is afoot: 1 Moonwalker Road. The…

Secrets of the Eastern ShoreApril 15, 2018

Destinations

Spence’s Bazaar: Visiting a Delaware Classic

Delmarva traditions can be funny things sometimes. Take Spence’s Bazaar in Dover, for example. When I approached the sprawling old marketplace for the first time recently, it had the look of a joint that hadn’t changed one iota since the day it opened eightysome ago. The flea market outside was old school, with table upon table upon table set under sweet shade trees.…

Secrets of the Eastern ShoreOctober 10, 2017

Tubman Travels Way Back Machine

“TUBMAN TRAVELS” EXCERPT: The Miraculous Escape of the Dover Eight

The story of the Dover Eight that follows is excerpted from Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva, a book by Secrets of the Eastern Shore that tells stories of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and many other men and women whose journeys in slavery and out of bondage went through the Eastern Shore and Delaware. BIG PICTURE: The Pressure Cooker of 1857 The lush…

Secrets of the Eastern ShoreMarch 1, 2017

Jehu Camper, Master Whittler of Delaware

Characters Way Back Machine

Harrington Character of the Day: The Master Whittler of Delaware

This piece about Jehu Camper, the master whittler of Delaware, is a free excerpt from Eastern Shore Road Trips: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. t's from a Road Trip that visits a trio of interesting little museums in Dover, including one that features works by Mr. Camper. Here goes: Over the course of a long life stretching across 91 years, Jehu Camper jumped from this to…

Secrets of the Eastern ShoreDecember 5, 2016

Destinations Way Back Machine

The Biggest, Baddest Cargo Plane in the History of the World

Generally speaking, cargo planes are ho-hum workhorses that do not rise to the level of daytrip destination. But the C-5A Galaxy is no drab little workhorse. It is the biggest, baddest cargo plane in the history of the world. You can see one up close at the Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover. If your timing is right, you'll even be able to climb inside…

Secrets of the Eastern ShoreFebruary 5, 2015