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Northampton County Archives | Secrets of the Eastern Shore

Way Back Machine

When a Bunch of Birds Lost their Minds and Attacked Hog Island Light in 1900

The scene that unfolded on a February night back in the year 1900 on Hog Island, Va. was straight out of the Alfred Hitchcock horror classic “The Birds.” A flurry of unusual avian activity was in the air along the Atlantic Flyway in those weeks. A long and unseasonable stretch of warm weather had set a whole bunch of birds off on their northward spring…
February 20, 2019
Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day: The Old Woman of Hog Island, 1876

At the end of August in 1876, the magazine Forest and Stream published an article by the writer Hunter Alexander about his visit to Hog Island, Virginia. He met a legendary island character in his travels, and here is what he had to say about Aunt Harriet Doughty: The people of Hog Island number, all told, some seventy souls, all of whom are wreckers and fishermen—a…
August 22, 2016
Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day: The Terrible Scourge That Halted Work on the Cape Charles Lighthouse, 1895

    There is a second Smith Island off of the Eastern Shore, with the lesser known one shown here located all the way down by the mouth of the Bay. It's home to the Cape Charles Lighthouse, which is pretty as can be but just about impossible to go visit. Between the shifting sandbars and the tricky tides, the landing on uninhabited Smith Island is supposedly…
June 28, 2016
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Cape Charles Milkman Remembers-“That Horse’s Name Was Frank”

    History lovers in Cape Charles, Virginia rounded up some grant money a few years back and conducted oral history interviews with some older residents there. Here is David Mitchell, remembering his days of delivering milk aboard a horse-drawn carriage through Cape Charles. At an early age my Uncle Jesse had me working. He used to do a little gardening and he would sell butter beans…
June 5, 2016
DestinationsWay Back Machine

The English Cottage Gas Station that Has a Story to Tell in Cape Charles

    Some empty buildings are just that, unfortunate bits of neglected junk on the Eastern Shore landscape. Others are something else altogether: Dilapidated, perhaps, but still graced with the ability to unravel fascinating secrets behind key turns in the life of the Shore—and even the country—in days gone by. Take this old guy, for example. He stands on the outskirts of Cape Charles, just…
December 5, 2014