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Sussex County

Life at Cape Henlopen 1890 FEATURED PHOTO
“Lighthouses are most lonesome places.” Life on Cape Henlopen in 1890. Way Back Machine

“Lighthouses are most lonesome places.” Life on Cape Henlopen in 1890.

"Once upon a time Mark Twain ... said that the only hope of ever accomplishing literary work worth doing was in getting the writer immured in a prison where he would be shut off from all sorts of interruptions. ... If utter isolation and quiet solitude he apply for a job as lighthouse keeper on Cape Henlopen." So began a lengthy article that appeared in…
March 7, 2024
Easter Parties at Cape Henlopen FEATURED PHOTO
The Wild Easter Parties of Days Gone By at Cape Henlopen Way Back Machine

The Wild Easter Parties of Days Gone By at Cape Henlopen

Most of us savor our Easter weekends for the opportunity to celebrate faith, enjoy the spring weather, and visit or video chat with family members and friends. Come Monday morning, it's back to old routines. That's not the way it worked for many decades in Lewes, Del. Between who-knows-when and the 1960s, the day after Easter was a civic holiday of the first order in…
March 2, 2024
Ash Wednesday Storm Delaware Featured Photo
The Storm of ’62: “This Was ‘God’s Country’–Until Last Night” MiscellanyWay Back Machine

The Storm of ’62: “This Was ‘God’s Country’–Until Last Night”

Knowing what happened, it's hard not to shake your head upon finding the weather forecast for Mon., March 5, 1962: "Snow beginning this afternoon continuing tonight and accumulating 2-4 inches or more. High temperature this afternoon 34-40 and lows tonight 25-30. Tuesday cloudy early in the morning but partial clearing during the day with high 28-32. Outlook for Wednesday fair and cold." That Wednesday would…
February 5, 2024
Ash Wednesday Storm Aerial Featured Photo
‘A Seagull’s Eye View:’ The Ash Wednesday Storm in Southern Delaware, 1962 Way Back Machine

‘A Seagull’s Eye View:’ The Ash Wednesday Storm in Southern Delaware, 1962

"Delaware's multi-million dollar playground in Sussex County just isn't there anymore." That's how newspaper reporter William Frank summarized the scenes he saw while taking a ride in an Army helicopter to get a "seagull's eye view of the devastation" caused by the hellacious Ash Wednesday storm of March 1962. The Ash Wednesday storm arrived on March 6, 1962. If it were a normal nor'easter it…
February 5, 2024
Tubman Travels: Harriet's Escape
“Underground Railroad Journeys” Talk by Jim Duffy in Frankford, Del. on Sat., Feb. 10 Good Times & Fun EventsThe Newsroom

“Underground Railroad Journeys” Talk by Jim Duffy in Frankford, Del. on Sat., Feb. 10

Author and storyteller Jim Duffy will share true-life tales of “Underground Railroad Journeys” during a presentation and discussion at the Frankford (Del.) Public Library at 11am on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024. Duffy is the author of "Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva" as well as four other books devoted to travel, history, and culture on the Delmarva Peninsula. He is a frequent guest…
December 31, 2023
Sunset atBlackwater 2013 Featured Image
Storytelling Show in Bethany Beach, Del. on Tue., Nov. 14 The Newsroom

Storytelling Show in Bethany Beach, Del. on Tue., Nov. 14

Author and storyteller Jim Duffy of Secrets of the Eastern Shore will share tales of Delmarva days gone by in a talk sponsored by the Bethany Beach Cultural and Historic Affairs Committee on Tue., Nov. 14. A resident of Cambridge, Md., Duffy is an award-winning writer and the author of five books, including two collections of Eastern Shore Road Trips and the new Shore Fun: The Wanderer’s Guide…
October 26, 2023
Winterfest of Lights in Ocean City, Maryland
CHRISTMAS 2023: The Big Light Shows 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.…
October 22, 2023
Circus Tent Entrance FEATURED PHOTO
CIRCUS ACTS: Strange and Ridiculous Happenings Under the Big Top! Way Back Machine

CIRCUS ACTS: Strange and Ridiculous Happenings Under the Big Top!

The traveling circus was a staple of small-town life on the Delmarva Peninsula in the early 1900s. Here are three stories that show just how strange things could get with those shows and their performers. Circus Act #1! The brawl in Seaford, Del., 1908 (with flying snakes!) You’ve seen old Westerns, right? The ones with scenes where two guys start fighting in a tavern and…
October 13, 2023
Typical Chicken Farm 1940s FEATURED PHOTO from Poultry Industry History
You’ve Heard of Bootleggers? How about Meatleggers? There Were Lots of Them on Delmarva in the 1940s 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…
September 21, 2023
Sunset atBlackwater 2013 Featured Image
The Bethany Beach Book Signing: Sun., July 23, 2023 The Newsroom

The Bethany Beach Book Signing: Sun., July 23, 2023

The award-winning writer Jim Duffy of Secrets of the Eastern Shore will be in Bethany Beach, Del. for a book-signing event on Sun., July 23, 2023. The affair will take place outside of Bethany Beach Books in the heart of town at 99 Garfield Blvd., 6pm-7:30pm. Duffy is the author of the bestselling Eastern Shore Road Trips series. Subtitled “One-Day Adventures on Delmarva,” the two…
June 22, 2023