Skip to main content
Tag

Wicomico County

Christmas Poem McKinsey 1919 Featured Photo SIZED
Delmarva Storytelling Comes to Bivalve on Fri., Jan. 23, 2026 The Newsroom

Delmarva Storytelling Comes to Bivalve on Fri., Jan. 23, 2026

Author and storyteller Jim Duffy of Secrets of the Eastern Shore will spin fun and fascinating true-life “Delmarva Tales” on Fri., Jan. 23, 2026 in western Wicomico County at the West Side Community Center in Bivalve, Md. The show begins at 6:30pm. Jim Duffy The talk will include stories from Duffy’s new book, Ordinary Heroes of Old Delmarva: Inspiring True Tales of Courage, Kindness, and…
December 30, 2025
Salisbury Fire 1886 Featured Photo
The Great Salisbury Fire of 1886 Never Should Have Gotten Out of Hand Way Back Machine

The Great Salisbury Fire of 1886 Never Should Have Gotten Out of Hand

The key moment in the 1886 fire that destroyed downtown Salisbury came seven years before the first spark. In 1879 a waterfront business called Jackson’s Mill caught fire—and that blaze looked at first to be a dicey situation. Salisbury didn’t have a “modern” fire department (in the late 1800s sense of that term) at this point, so an old-fashioned bucket brigade went to work. Meanwhile,…
October 6, 2025
The One Best Place WC Thurston Poet Featured Photo SIZED
Quote of the Day, 1938: “The Eastern Shore is a most delightful land; the one best place … to live and love and work.” Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

Quote of the Day, 1938: “The Eastern Shore is a most delightful land; the one best place … to live and love and work.”

In 1938 a beloved Salisbury book shop owner and poet named W.C. Thurston served as editor of a book titled The Eastern Shore in Song and Story: A Tribute from its Loyal Sons and Daughters to a Pleasant Peninsula. It's a compilation of essays about and samples from various writers and songwriters whose work sings the praises of our Eastern Shore. I haven't read the…
May 17, 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
Green Hill Church Wicomico County Featured Photo
GOING PLACES: Green Hill Church, a Colonial Gem Built in 1733 DestinationsRoad Trips

GOING PLACES: Green Hill Church, a Colonial Gem Built in 1733

The Delmarva Peninsula has its share of big tourism draws that we all love to visit. But for me the best joys of the place involve wandering along country backroads lined with lush farm fields and pine stands in search of this, that, or another hidden treasure. Let's start this excursion in the year 1733: • George Washington, hero of the Revolution, celebrated his first birthday.…
June 16, 2023
This Rug Tells a Bedtime Story: When Pittsville Was “the Strawberry Capital of the World” Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

This Rug Tells a Bedtime Story: When Pittsville Was “the Strawberry Capital of the World”

"The Strawberry Capital of the World:" That's the title of the artwork above by a famous "rug hooker," Mary Sheppard Burton. The setting is our own Pittsville, Md., one of the towns just off of Route 50 between Salisbury and Ocean City. (The artwork is below here as well, in a bigger size at the end of the story.) Burton was born in Salisbury in…
May 28, 2023
What This Old Building Says About Salisbury–and all of Delmarva Way Back Machine

What This Old Building Says About Salisbury–and all of Delmarva

In 2022 The City of Salisbury, Md. received a big state grant to help get started on a plan to rescue and revitalize the dilapidated old Union Station building on Railroad Avenue. Seeing those headlines inspired me to put together this bullet-point look at how that old structure fits into the fabric of the history of Salisbury—and, in fact, the whole of the Delmarva Peninsula.…
April 18, 2023
Helen Lowe Bullet Point Bio Featured Photo Delmar
BULLET-POINT BIOGRAPHY: The Graduate (Delmar High, 1903) CharactersWay Back Machine

BULLET-POINT BIOGRAPHY: The Graduate (Delmar High, 1903)

A couple of years back one of those social-media waves rolled through, inspiring everyone to post their old high school graduation picture. No disrespect intended to all my friends who played that game, I didn't see anyone on my newsfeed who had a better old photo than that of Helen Lowe, a 1903 graduate of Delmar High School. I came across her photo in the…
April 18, 2022
The Greatest Honeymoon in History CharactersHome Page Feature

The Greatest Honeymoon in History

NOTE: This is one of the fun stories from my book, You Wouldn’t Believe! 44 Strange and Wondrous Delmarva Tales. You can find more information about the book–including how and where to buy it–at this link. When 19-year-old Vernon Cooper landed at the mouth of the Wicomico River, the Wisconsin native didn’t catch on immediately that he’d found his forever home. He didn’t have a crystal ball. He…
January 28, 2022
Holly Making for Story on Fruitland Market Featured Photo
Fruitland’s Accidental Auctioneer: A Christmas Holly Tale CharactersWay Back Machine

Fruitland’s Accidental Auctioneer: A Christmas Holly Tale

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book, You Wouldn't Believe! 44 Strange and Wondrous Delmarva Tales. Find out more about that (and my other books) here. Another chapter in this book, “When Delaware Delivered the ‘True Spirit of Christmas,’” tells the story of how the seasonal holly wreath industry took off in the late 1800s and early 1900s, starting in Southern Delaware and then…
December 13, 2021