Delmarva Peninsula
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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 100km 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 cut by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Bridges cross the canal and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel join the peninsula to the mainland. Other points of access include Lewes, Delaware, reachable by ferry from Cape May, New Jersey. Dover, the capital of Delaware, is in the northeast corner, but the peninsula's main commercial area is Salisbury, Maryland, near the center of the peninsula.
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Political Divisions
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 on the Peninsula. Of the 23 counties in Maryland, 9 are on the Eastern Shore: Kent, Queen Anne's, Talbot, Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset, and Worcester. Two Virginia counties are on the Peninsula: Accomack and Northampton.
The following is a list of some of the larger cities and towns on the Peninsula.
- Wilmington, Delaware, the county seat of New Castle County
- Dover, Delaware, the state capital
- Easton, Maryland, the county seat of Talbot County
- Milford, Delaware
- Ocean City, Maryland, beach vacation town
- Salisbury, Maryland, the county seat of Wicomico County
History
Native American Peoples
The primary Native Americans 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 Cecil Calvert 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.
Economy
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.
Delmarva in Popular Culture
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 of Virginia, which together with Assateague Island of Maryland, is noted for its herd of wild ponies accustomed to the seashore, as described by Marguerite Henry in Misty of Chincoteague.
See Also