Daugherty Creek Canal

Daugherty Creek Canal. Janes Island State Park—White Tail Trail. , The Daugherty Creek Canal runs southwest to northeast and averages from 6 to 9 feet deep, depending on the tide., For years, watermen intent on going from the vicinity of Crisfield to the oyster bottoms and prime crabbing areas of the Big Annamessex River had no choice but to sail west then follow the shoreline around the island. This often required them to travel through very rough seas to get to their destination. They undoubtedly wished they could somehow get through the narrow isthmus connecting the rest of the main land to what is now Janes Island., A number of efforts to build a canal between the Little and Big Annamessex rivers were made, beginning when a man named Daugherty started digging the canal by hand. He never finished, however, falling victim to the 1918 flu pandemic., A local dentist named Steven Fuller had plans to construct a canal and build a community named "Fullerton" beside it, but that never came to pass., Finally, in the 1930s, the canal was completed, giving watermen a quick and safe route north. The canal was dredged to its present width in the 1960s.