East Dover Hundred in Kent County, Delaware — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
Wolf Creek - A River Changes Course
Photographed by Pete Skillman, April 24, 2026
1. Wolf Creek - A River Changes Course Marker
Inscription.
Wolf Creek - A River Changes Course. . The river we know as the St. Jones was once the deeply forested [unreadable] home of the Lenape, Nanticoke and other native Indians. It was known to them as Wolf Creek. It meandered across its floodplain over a vast period of time creating rich life-sustaining habitats like oxbows, high marsh communities, freshwater hardwood swamps and occasional well-drained forest slopes all the way to the Delaware Bay. However, the geometry of the natural river was hard to navigate by colonial and then American commercial shipping, making transportation of goods to market a slow, costly process. In 1933, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished a 30-year project which created a straight 7-foot channel from the Delaware Bay to Dover.
Straightening the river channel for commerece proved to be neither economically productive nor beneficial for the river ecosystem. With fewer meandering bends in the river to slow the current of incoming tides, salt water was able to intrude further upstream, thus destroying many of the diverse plant and animal populations of the river's freshwater riparian wetlands. The plant community is now dominated by a species tolerant of higher saline environment. Filling and draining wetlands and removal of riparian forest for land development eliminated much of the river's natural legacy. Some remnants of pre-colonial environment, and of its lost native american culture, still remain for the explorer of the St. Jones River Greenway to re-discover.
The Decline of Local Commerce on the St. Jones
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asked vessel owners, masters and agents to report on the commerce along the St. Jones beginning in 1914. Exported fruit and canned goods were the most profitable shipments for the area. Commerce decreased largely due to the expansion of railways and roads.
December, 1896. Steam ship "Mary U. Githens" carried passengers from Dover to Philadelphia. A one way ticket from Lebanon Landing to Philadelphia was $1.00, with roundtrips @ $1.50.
Report Year
| Commercial Goods
1915
11,825 tons valued at $587,926
1922
2,229 tons valued at $59,719
1923
2,597 tons valued at $73,471
1924
3,319 tons valued at $94,117
1929
2,360 tons valued at $54,562
1932
2,635 tons valued at $104,754
For non-emergency information please contact the Kent County Community Services Department at (302) 744-2490.
The river we know as the St. Jones was once the deeply forested [unreadable] home of the Lenape, Nanticoke and other native Indians. It was known to them as Wolf Creek. It meandered across its floodplain over a vast period of time creating rich life-sustaining habitats like oxbows, high marsh communities, freshwater hardwood swamps and occasional well-drained forest slopes all the way to the Delaware Bay. However, the geometry of the natural river was hard to navigate by colonial and then American commercial shipping, making transportation of goods to market a slow, costly process. In 1933, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished a 30-year project which created a straight 7-foot channel from the Delaware Bay to Dover.
Straightening the river channel for commerece proved to be neither economically productive nor beneficial for the river ecosystem. With fewer meandering bends in the river to slow the current of incoming tides, salt water was able to intrude further upstream, thus destroying many of the diverse plant and animal populations of the river's freshwater riparian wetlands. The plant community is now dominated
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by a species tolerant of higher saline environment. Filling and draining wetlands and removal of riparian forest for land development eliminated much of the river's natural legacy. Some remnants of pre-colonial environment, and of its lost native american culture, still remain for the explorer of the St. Jones River Greenway to re-discover.
The Decline of Local Commerce on the St. Jones
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asked vessel owners, masters and agents to report on the commerce along the St. Jones beginning in 1914. Exported fruit and canned goods were the most profitable shipments for the area. Commerce decreased largely due to the expansion of railways and roads.
December, 1896. Steam ship "Mary U. Githens" carried passengers from Dover to Philadelphia. A one way ticket from Lebanon Landing to Philadelphia was $1.00, with roundtrips @ $1.50.
Report Year
| Commercial Goods
1915
11,825 tons valued at $587,926
1922
2,229 tons valued at $59,719
1923
2,597 tons valued at $73,471
1924
3,319 tons valued at $94,117
1929
2,360 tons valued at $54,562
1932
2,635 tons valued at $104,754
For non-emergency information please
Photographed by Pete Skillman, April 24, 2026
2. Wolf Creek - A River Changes Course Marker - wide view
contact the Kent County Community Services Department at (302) 744-2490.
Location. 39° 7.753′ N, 75° 29.769′ W. Marker is in Dover, Delaware, in Kent County. It is in East Dover Hundred. It is on East Lebanon Road, on the right when traveling south. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1681 E Lebanon Rd, Dover DE 19901, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in the American Mid-Atlantic, on the Delmarva Peninsula, and on the Eastern Seaboard. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Netherland, one of the original Thirteen Colonies, and the Antebellum South.
Credits. This page was last revised on May 15, 2026. It was originally submitted on April 24, 2026, by Pete Skillman of Townsend, Delaware. This page has been viewed 17 times since then. Photos:1, 2. submitted on April 24, 2026, by Pete Skillman of Townsend, Delaware.
