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Talbot County

St. Michaels, The Town That Fooled the British
Secrets of the Eastern Shore Featured on WMDT-TV Story About St. Michaels, “The Town That Fooled the British” The Newsroom

Secrets of the Eastern Shore Featured on WMDT-TV Story About St. Michaels, “The Town That Fooled the British”

Secrets of the Eastern Shore co-founder Jim Duffy was featured recently in a news story on WMDT-TV Channel 47 News in Salisbury, Md. Reporter Erica Murphy visited St. Michaels, Md. to explore the mix of fact and legend behind the story of how St. Michaels became "The Town That Fooled the British" after a battle during the War of 1812. Duffy is the author of…
March 18, 2019
Twin Bridges of Dorchester County: Harrington Bridge and Malkus Bridge
PICTURE THIS: The Story Behind the Twin Bridges of Dorchester County Way Back Machine

PICTURE THIS: The Story Behind the Twin Bridges of Dorchester County

You know how the traffic goes on Kent Island come summer weekends? The backups begin many miles before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Then a legion of goofballs make it worse by looking for shortcuts when they don’t have a clue where they’re going. The poor local people end up trapped inside their houses, afraid to even run a little errand. Things used to be like…
November 9, 2018
Cannery Poem from Defender Plant in Trappe, Maryland
QUOTE OF THE DAY: In an Old Tomato Cannery, “the Satisfication of All Our Work Done Right” Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: In an Old Tomato Cannery, “the Satisfication of All Our Work Done Right”

One winter day a few years back I drove out to St. Michaels, Md. to hear a presentation at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum by a panel of local folks whose families were involved in various old canneries that used to be so central to the economy in the mid-Shore region--and all around the Delmarva Peninsula. One of the presenters passed around a copy of…
September 16, 2018
Tilghman Island Seine Haulers Painting by Bill Cummings
SITES & STOPS: The Tilghman Watermen’s Museum Destinations

SITES & STOPS: The Tilghman Watermen’s Museum

    The Tilghman Watermen’s Museum is chock full of interesting stories from days gone by, but one story in particular lingered in my mind after a recent visit. That was the story of the way the museum itself took shape, how one couple’s dreams of a peaceful retirement led them into a project full of new discoveries and fresh challenges. Mary and Hall Kellogg…
May 13, 2018
Moses Viney in Talbot County, Maryland
TUBMAN TRAVELS: How the Other ‘Moses’ Kept the Dogs of Slavery at Bay Tubman Travels

TUBMAN TRAVELS: How the Other ‘Moses’ Kept the Dogs of Slavery at Bay

The story of Moses Viney 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. Moses Viney had a pretty fun go of it for…
March 27, 2018
Growing Up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the 1850s
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “How dear to our hearts are the scenes of our childhood” on the Eastern Shore Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “How dear to our hearts are the scenes of our childhood” on the Eastern Shore

J.B. Seth was 71 years old when he finally got around to publishing his memoirs in 1926. The Talbot County native was an Eastern Shore railroad man in his work-life, but the part of his days that is the focus here is a boyhood spent in the Talbot County countryside during the 1850s. To enjoy golden days a child should be brought up from infancy…
January 7, 2018
0804 Fight of Life Frederick Douglass
TUBMAN TRAVELS: Young Frederick Douglass in the Fight of His Life Tubman TravelsWay Back Machine

TUBMAN TRAVELS: Young Frederick Douglass in the Fight of His Life

This is an excerpt from Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva. More info about the book is here. Standing in downtown St. Michaels today, with its tourist-friendly bevy of upscale shops and interesting eateries, it’s not easy to imagine the sort of place this town was when Frederick Douglass arrived from Baltimore in the early 1830s. Still known as Fred Bailey then, he…
July 28, 2017
The Grand United Order of Odd Fellows
A St. Michaels Coffee Shop Chock Full of Black History DestinationsWay Back Machine

A St. Michaels Coffee Shop Chock Full of Black History

    The histories of little towns on the Eastern Shore are full of twists and turns that brush up against the biggest stories in the whole wide world in fascinating ways. The next time you’re in St. Michaels, I suggest that you pull up a chair at the pretty little Blue Crab Coffee Co. on Fremont Street and give this phenomenon some thought over…
July 11, 2017
Strawberry Field in Fairmount, Somerset County
DELMARVA CLASSIC: The Sweet Strawberry Boom of Days Gone By Way Back Machine

DELMARVA CLASSIC: The Sweet Strawberry Boom of Days Gone By

The story behind the variety of strawberries we enjoy nowadays is a global affair that stretches across several centuries and three continents. Strawberries were a modest little culinary thing in Europe as far back as ancient Rome--there is talk in writings dating to those days about how wild strawberry bushes had medicinal properties. But farmed strawberries were another matter. The first mention of strawberry bushes…
May 16, 2017
The Plesaure Point House in Neavitt, Maryland
QUOTE OF THE DAY: How Royal Oak Became the “Healthiest Place in America” Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: How Royal Oak Became the “Healthiest Place in America”

    The writer Dickson J. Preston got to the bottom of this burning question when he put together a brief portrait of the boom times that came to Royal Oak  during the latter part of the 1800s. This is from Preston's book Talbot County: A History, which was published back in 1983. Royal Oak, an ancient community, gained momentum when the steamboats and railroads began bringing…
April 10, 2017