Delmarva Peninsula
The
Delmarva Peninsula is a large
peninsula on the
East Coast of the
United States, occupied by portions of three
U.S. states:
Delaware,
Maryland, and
Virginia. Named as a
portmanteau of the letters of the states that occupy it, it is almost 300 by 100 km or about 180 by 60 miles, and is bordered by the
Chesapeake Bay on the west, and the
Delaware River,
Delaware Bay, and
Atlantic Ocean on the east.
Its northern
isthmus is transected by the
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, effectively making Delmarva an
island (as no entry nor exit to the peninsula can be made without crossing a body of water). Several
bridges cross the
canal, while the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel join the peninsula to
mainland Maryland and Virginia, respectively. Other points of access include
Lewes, Delaware, reachable by
ferry from
Cape May,
New Jersey.
Dover, Delaware's capital city, is located in the northeast corner, but the Peninsula's main
commercial area is
Salisbury, Maryland, near its center.
Roughly south of
Wilmington, Delaware is the
fall line, a geographic borderland where the
Piedmont region transitions into the
coastal plain, a flat, sandy area with very few or no hills.
At various times, some residents of the peninsula have proposed that the Maryland and Virginia portions of the peninsula should secede from their respective states, and merge with Delaware to create a new state of Delmarva.
The border between Maryland and Delaware consists of the east-west
Transpeninsular Line and the perpendicular north-south portion of the
Mason-Dixon line extending up to
the Twelve-Mile Circle, which forms Delaware's border with
Pennsylvania. The border between Maryland and Virginia on the Peninsula is a surveyed line from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Pocomoke River and then follows the river to the Chesapeake Bay.
All three counties in Delaware —
New Castle,
Kent, and
Sussex — are located on the Peninsula (though upper New Castle county only in part). Of the 23 counties in Maryland, 9 are on the Eastern Shore:
Kent,
Queen Anne's,
Talbot,
Caroline,
Dorchester,
Wicomico,
Somerset, and
Worcester, as well as a portion of
Cecil County. Two Virginia counties are on the Peninsula:
Accomack and
Northampton.
The following is a list of some of the notable cities and towns in the Peninsula region.
*
Wilmington, Delaware, the county seat of New Castle County (although the city is several miles North of C&D Canal)
*
Dover, Delaware, the state capital
*
Cambridge, Maryland, the county seat of Dorchester County
*
Easton, Maryland, the county seat of Talbot County
*
Milford, Delaware*
Ocean City, Maryland, beach vacation town
*
Salisbury, Maryland, the county seat of Wicomico County
*
Chincoteague, VirginiaAmerican Indian peoples
The primary
Indians of the Peninsula prior to the arrival of Europeans were the
Assateague, including the Assateague, Transquakin, Choptico, Moteawaughkin, Quequashkecaquick, Hatsawap, Wachetak, Marauqhquaick, and Manaskson. They were all under the guidance of the Chief of the Assateague. They ranged from
Cape Charles, Virginia to the
Indian River Inlet in Delaware. The Assateague made a number of treaties with the colony of Maryland, but the land was gradually taken for the use of the colonists, and the native peoples of the Peninsula assimilated into other
Algonquin tribes as far north as
Ontario.
Colonization
James I of England granted Virginia (400 miles of Atlantic coast centered on
Cape Comfort, extending west to the
Pacific Ocean) to a company of colonists in a series of charters from
1606 to
1611. This included a piece of the Peninsula.
In the
1632 Charter of Maryland, King
Charles I of England granted "all that Part of the Peninsula, or Chersonese, lying in the Parts of America, between the Ocean on the East and the Bay of Chesapeake on the West, divided from the Residue thereof by a Right Line drawn from the Promontory, or Head-Land, called Watkin's Point, situate upon the Bay aforesaid, near the river Wigloo, on the West, unto the main Ocean on the East; and between that Boundary on the South, unto that Part of the Bay of Delaware on the North, which lieth under the Fortieth Degree of North Latitude from the Equinoctial, where New England is terminated" to
Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore as the colony of Maryland. This included all of present-day
Delaware.
The land that is currently Delaware was colonized by
Sweden and the
Netherlands before coming under British control in
1664. The land was transferred from the
Duke of York to
William Penn in
1682 and was governed with
Pennsylvania. The exact border was determined by the Chancery Court in
1735. In
1776 the three counties of
Kent,
New Castle, and
Sussex declared their independence from Pennsylvania and entered the
United States as the State of
Delaware.
The peninsula was the premier location for truck farming of vegetables during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Though it has been largely eclipsed by California's production, the area still produces significant quantities of
tomatoes,
green beans, and other popular vegetables.
The Eastern Shore is also known for its
poultry farms, the most well-known of which is
Perdue Farms, founded in Salisbury, Maryland.
The area was romanticized in
Chesapeake, a fictional account of life in the area written by
James Michener. A favorite sight on the Atlantic side of the peninsula is
Chincoteague Island in Virginia, which together with
Assateague Island in both Virginia and Maryland, is noted for its herd of wild ponies accustomed to the seashore, as described by Marguerite Henry in
Misty of Chincoteague.
*
List of U.S. multistate regions*
Eastern Shore of Maryland*
Eastern Shore Baseball League*
List of railroad lines in the Delmarva Peninsula*
WBOC-TV*
Wicomico Regional Airport*
*
