On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
Large sailing vessels carrying cargoes of lumber, wheat, fertilizer, and coal, were common on the Chesapeake Bay until the 1930s. With its narrow, winding rivers and shallow harbors, many of the Bay's waterways were difficult to maneuver.
Tugs . . . — — Map (db m138375) HM
On Cherry Street just west of Burns Street, on the right when traveling west.
Where did such a big figurehead come from? A big ship? In this case, it was made for a relatively small vessel—the 88-foot schooner yacht, Freedom. Yacht designer John G. Alden never intended for Freedom to have a figurehead when . . . — — Map (db m138308) HM
Where did such a big figurehead come from? A big ship? In this case, it was made for a relatively small vessel -- the 88-foot schooner yacht Freedom. But yacht designer John G. Alden never intended Freedom to have a figurehead when . . . — — Map (db m158596) HM
Near Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
This small power skiff was made for pleasure fishing and crabbing. Although Katie G. was built with an engine, she has the shape of a sailboat. This is apparent in her "tuck stern," where the back of the boat rises out of the water. Later . . . — — Map (db m138359) HM
Near Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Dovetail boats were built in the early 1900s with gasoline engines and a special stern that looked like a motor racer. Martha was built in 1934 for $350 and was probably used for oyster tonging and trotlining for crabs. She was named after . . . — — Map (db m138357) HM
On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Log canoes built in the Poquoson, Virginia style were rigged as sloops, with a jib carried on a short bowsprit. Built for oyster tonging by Captain Will Knott, Merry Widow was named for a popular musical of her day.
Later, she was . . . — — Map (db m138368) HM
Near Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Old Point was one of a fleet of crab dredging boats that operated out of Hampton, Virginia, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay from the 1910s through the 1960s. From December through March, captains and crews lived on their boats so they . . . — — Map (db m138358) HM
Near Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
A fairly simple and inexpensive boat to build, the skipjack became a popular workboat in the 1890s. Built in 1969, this miniature skipjack was a sturdy daysailer particularly suited for Chesapeake Bay waters.
Formula for designing a . . . — — Map (db m138323) HM
Near Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Most pilothouses had two sections. The forward part housed navigational equipment and served as the steering station, while the after part was for the crew who sometimes worked aboard these boats for many weeks at a time. The after section is where . . . — — Map (db m138369) HM
Built in 1920 by Noah T. Evans, a native Smith Islander, Winnie Estelle was named for his two daughters. Evans was an occasional boatbuilder; his principal occupation was operating buyboats—buying fish and oysters directly from . . . — — Map (db m138370) HM
Near Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
Handling heavy hawsers was hard, dangerous work on tugboats, but it became a little easier with power capstans. This capstan used steam from the same boilers that powered the steam tug America's 450-horsepower engine.
America . . . — — Map (db m158604) HM
Near Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
Like the smaller brogans before them, bugeyes were essentially enlarged log canoes with two raked masts. Chunked from multiple pine logs, their hulls were then planked over, creating shallow vessels with wide decks.
Bugeyes were generally . . . — — Map (db m138316) HM
Near Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
In the 1800s, the once-slow harvest of oysters in the Chesapeake Bay exploded. New technology like railroads and food preservation allowed oysters to reach new markets. To meet the growing national demand for this cold-weather fishery, larger . . . — — Map (db m138320) HM
On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Bushwack boats were originally used for gill netting shad on the Susquehanna Flats at the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay. Waterfowlers adapted them for use with decoys while hunting ducks. The crouching hunters were hidden from view by a canvas . . . — — Map (db m138365) HM
Near Cherry Street just west of Burns Street, on the left when traveling west. Reported permanently removed.
This modest open boat is a replica of one of the most important vessels in American History. In the summer of 1608, a small boat or "Shallop" similar to this was used by Captain John Smith to make the first detailed European exploration of the . . . — — Map (db m61332) HM
On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Watermen used a wide variety of small boats around the Chesapeake Bay for fishing, oystering, and crabbing. Some of their boats were brought from other places along the East Coast, but most were locally built, with designs that suited to available . . . — — Map (db m138362) HM
Local lore hails St. Michaels for "fooling the British" during the War of 1812 by using lanterns to misdirect gunfire high above the town. It is certain that this shipbuilding village successfully fended off two enemy assaults in 1813.
On . . . — — Map (db m158610) HM
Near Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
Edna E. Lockwood, built in 1889 by John B. Harrison on Tilghman Island, is the last example of an oystering vessel known as a bugeye. Constructed during the heyday of the Chesapeake oyster industry, bugeyes were sailboats designed to pull . . . — — Map (db m138319) HM
Near Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Arks were floating cabins used by watermen as living quarters while they fished for shad and herring on the Chesapeake Bay, far away from home. As the fish made their spring run up the Bay, the watermen would follow, towing the arks behind their . . . — — Map (db m138361) HM
Keeper Ulman Owens met an untimely end at the Holland Island Bar Lighthouse in 1931. The official report ruled that he died by natural causes, but his bruised body and a nearby knife made some suspect foul play. We can't be sure this 1,000-pound . . . — — Map (db m138380) HM
On Talbot Street (Maryland Route 33) at Mill Street, on the right when traveling north on Talbot Street.
Born on Tuckahoe Creek, Talbot County; lived as a slave in St. Michaels area, 1833-1836. Taught self to read and write, conducted clandestine schools for blacks here. Escaped north, became noted abolitionist orator and editor. Returned 1877, as U.S. . . . — — Map (db m3732) HM
On Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
While sailing home from England in 1807, George Law, a member of a prominent Maryland family, rescued Newfoundland puppies from sinking British ship and brought them home to the Chesapeake Bay. The puppies—named Sailor and Canton (the name of . . . — — Map (db m138325) HM
On Station Road, 0.3 miles south of Maryland Route 33, on the right when traveling north. Reported missing.
A leader in his home community and State. In the Revolutionary War he served as a captain, and was wounded twice. In the War of 1812, he commanded the militia in Talbot, Caroline and Dorchester Counties. — — Map (db m61387) HM
On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
The U.S. Lighthouse Establishment built two cottage-style lighthouses in 1892—one in Chesapeake Bay waters at Maryland Point on the Potomac River and one in Sharkfin Shoal on Tangier Sound. Each of these was equipped with not only a lighted beacon, . . . — — Map (db m138377) HM
On Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
After the first lighthouse at Janes Island near Crisfield was destroyed by ice in January 1879, a second screwpile lighthouse identical to the one at Hooper Strait (now located on Museum ground) replaced it. Ice struck the Janes Island Light . . . — — Map (db m138379) HM
On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east. Reported damaged.
This lighthouse was originally located forty miles south of here –in Hopper Strait—where its light marked the location of one of the Chesapeake Bay’s many hidden sand bars. Because the Bay is mostly shallow, sailing a boat from the . . . — — Map (db m61486) HM
A screw like this one was at the bottom of each of the seven pilings (legs) of this lighthouse—allowing the leg to be screwed down into the soft Bay bottom. It would have been much easier to simply drive the leg straight down into the mud, but . . . — — Map (db m61491) HM
On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
The hexagonal screwpile cottage-style light station off Thomas Point was lit in 1875, replacing an earlier tower on the shore. In 1914, the US Lighthouse Service noted that Thomas Point Shoal's fog bell sounded a triple stroke every 30 seconds using . . . — — Map (db m138373) HM
Near Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Kennedy was a child of the Eastern Shore who touched many lives with his vibrant spirit and his love for the Chesapeake Bay.
Growing up as a swimmer, boater, fisherman, and hunter, he was an Eagle Scout who worked summer jobs that would take . . . — — Map (db m138360) HM
On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
Henry McShane started his Baltimore foundry in 1856, and by the late 1800s McShane Bell Foundry employed 90 people and produced tens of thousands of bells and chimes for churches, firehouses, public buildings and fog-alarm bells for lighthouses, . . . — — Map (db m138374) HM
Near Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
Hundreds of armed schooners sailed from Baltimore during the War of 1812, carrying cannons like this to defend themselves or to capture a poorly defended British merchantman. Baltimore was such a hub of privateering trade that it attracted a . . . — — Map (db m158641) HM
Hand tonged in the Miles River in 1939 by local seafaring legend Frankie Alberto Morgan Wilkenship, this rope dates back to 1813. It was used during the British Invasion of St. Michaels. Maritime forensic experts claim the line "a true nautical . . . — — Map (db m62851) HM
On South Talbot Street (Maryland Route 33) just north of Mulberry Street, on the right when traveling north.
The original portion of this building was constructed as a residence in 1806 and was remodeled for Maryland National Bank St. Michaels Office in 1963. — — Map (db m138301) HM
A fairly simple and inexpensive boat to build, the skipjack became a popular workboat in the 1890s. Built in 1969, this miniature version of a skipjack was a sturdy, swift daysailer particularly suitable for Chesapeake Bay waters.
Length: . . . — — Map (db m61496) HM
Eagle, Dodson and Higgins Houses have looked out over the St. Michaels waterfront for well over a hundred years now. When they were first built, the town's harbor would have been full of work boats, everything from oyster tonging skiffs and canoes . . . — — Map (db m61335) HM
On Cherry Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
Higgins, Dodson, and Eagle houses have looked out over the St. Michaels waterfront for well over a century. When they were built, the harbor was full of workboats, from oyster tonging skiffs and canoes to large commercial sailing vessels. Between . . . — — Map (db m138307) HM
The Chesapeake Bay is the greatest oyster factory on earth. Along its length, fresh water from the mid Atlantic states combines with salt water from the sea in just the right proportions (and at just the right depths and temperatures) to create the . . . — — Map (db m61480) HM
When fog hides a lighthouse’s beacon, sailors need an audible signal to guide them. So a fog tower containing a bell was frequently built alongside a lighthouse. Large bells, such as the 1100 pound bell in this tower, were used because their sound . . . — — Map (db m61483) HM
On Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
When fog hides a lighthouse's beacon, sailors need an audible signal to guide them. So a fog tower containing a bell was frequently built alongside a lighthouse. Large bells, such as the 1,100 pound bell in this tower were used because their . . . — — Map (db m138371) HM
Near Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Waterman Lock Brando used this little skiff to catch crabs with a trotline, and perhaps to tong for a few oysters. The boat is steered by a simple mechanism with a stick on the starboard or right side, connected by ropes to the rudder in the stern. . . . — — Map (db m138353) HM
Museum craftsmen are restoring this historic skipjack, which was built in 1955 to dredge oysters from the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay.
Why is this skipjack important? The celebrated Dorchester County boatbuilder Bronza Parks built Rosie Parks . . . — — Map (db m61527) HM
Near Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
In 1975, Edna E. Lockwood was stripped to her log hull and restored from the waterline up. Now, those nine 127-year-old logs are finally in need of repair. Edna is currently undergoing a major restoration to replace her falling logs . . . — — Map (db m138318) HM
On Maryland Route 33, 0.8 miles east of Maryland Route 579, on the right when traveling west.
Here, August 26, 1813, General Perry Benson, with 600 militia, most of them from Talbot County, halted a British force of 1,800. The Easton artillery manned the road, the 4th and 26th infantry the woods, and the 9th cavalry the wings. — — Map (db m3177) HM
On Mill Street just west of Burns Street, on the left when traveling west.
In the summer of 1608, a small boat or a "shallop" like this was used by Captain John Smith to make the first detailed European exploration of the Chesapeake Bay. In the decades that followed, the knowledge gained from Smith's voyages played a key . . . — — Map (db m138304) HM
On Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Sharptown barges developed on the Nanticoke River to fish for shad. Shad runs were a staple of Chesapeake springs on the 18th and 19th centuries, and their importance to the colonial Chesapeake economy earned them the nickname "The Founding Fish." . . . — — Map (db m138367) HM
This centerboard was the retractable keel for the skipjack Martha Lewis, a near sister to Rosie Parks, which can be found afloat along the Museum waterfront. — — Map (db m138382) HM
On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Smith Island watermen used boats like this to sail to their crabbing grounds, where they caught soft crabs with a dip net. Although engine-powered boats appeared in the area around 1907, sailing skiffs such as this continued to be used in the . . . — — Map (db m158639) HM
On South Talbot Street (Maryland Route 33) just east of Seymour Avenue, on the right when traveling west.
This town was attacked by a British force during the night of August 10, 1813, but they were driven back to their boats at sunrise. A gun used in its defense is mounted in the town square. — — Map (db m61386) HM
On Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
When the St. Michaels Packing Company constructed this building in 1933, the Great Depression was at its height. To economize, the company bought a freight terminal in nearby Claiborne, Maryland from Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway . . . — — Map (db m138363) HM
In front of you, the Miles River is carrying freshwater down to the Chesapeake Bay. Twice a day, saltwater tides from the Atlantic Ocean push back the fresh water flow of the Miles River and some 150 other rivers, creeks, and streams. This mixing of . . . — — Map (db m61529) HM
On St. Mary's Square, on the left when traveling north.
This Cannon was used against the British in Defence of St. Michaels, MD -- August 10, 1813 and mounted here August 11, 1913 by the following Centennial Commission.
Thomas H. Sewell, Charles H Fogg, Richard S. Dodson, John T. Mansfield, O. . . . — — Map (db m61337) HM
On this Victorian bandstand, musicians played for holiday visitors at Tolchester Beach, in Kent County.
In the mid 1800s people from Baltimore and other Mid-Atlantic cities traveled to Tolchester Beach and other Eastern Shore destinations on . . . — — Map (db m158582) HM
On Mill Street near Burns Street, on the right when traveling east.
From 1880 until 1962, musicians entertained summer visitors from this bandstand at Tolchester Beach, a resort town and amusement park in Kent County, Maryland. Constructed to attract daytrippers traveling by steamboat from Baltimore and . . . — — Map (db m158583) HM
Chesapeake waterman used all these tools to harvest oysters. This hardware tells a story of human ingenuity and greed.
Hand tongs, in use since the early 1700s, extended human reach to oysters too deep to gather by hand. A hundred years later, . . . — — Map (db m61493) HM
Near Mill Street just east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
Chesapeake watermen used these tools to harvest oysters. Over time, oystering tools ranged from simple to complex, reflecting changes in technology, regulation, and oyster populations. A hundred years later, dredges—much more efficient, but . . . — — Map (db m138351) HM
Eleven British barges advanced on the small battery guarding St. Michaels at Parrott’s Point August 10, 1813. Their mission was to capture or destroy any armed vessels rumored to be operating on the river.
American defenders fired twice, then . . . — — Map (db m80676) HM
On Saint Mary's Square just north of East Chestnut Street, on the right when traveling north.
Dedicated to the men and women of St. Michaels and the Bay Hundred area who courageously served their country in time of desperate need. Special gratitude is given to those who made the ultimate sacrifice as a result of that service. — — Map (db m138299) WM
During the War of 1812 the young United States was embroiled in conflict with Great Britain. From 1812 to 1815 Americans fought to protect their rights and economic independence. They faced superior enemy forces on the homefront and the high seas.
. . . — — Map (db m158611) HM
Near Mill Street east of Burns Street, on the left when traveling east.
A waterman harvests fish and shellfish for a living. Each season has its catch to harvest and its gear to prepare.
Watermen and their families have worked on the Bay for hundreds of years. To succeed, they must be flexible. Their living depends . . . — — Map (db m138352) HM
On Mill Street at Burns Street, on the right when traveling west on Mill Street.
If you could drill down and pull up a sample, oyster shells would be up to 10 feet deep in some places. But that wasn't always the case. Two hundred years ago you would have been standing on low marshy land. As industries like oyster shucking . . . — — Map (db m138314) HM
