Mark on the Shore

Mark’s Score 8.3

Though Tilghman Island is only a short drive from St Michaels, it very much has a back of the beyond feel about it. It is a small rural island at the end of the Bay Hundred Peninsula. It is not on the way to anywhere; it has no major resorts, beaches, or tourist attractions. In fact, there are few people and even fewer businesses on the island. But that is precisely what makes it special.

Tilghman Island was first settled by English colonists in 1656 and was originally named Great Choptank Island. In 1659 a grant for the island was given to Seth Foster, by the mid-1700s ownership of the island had passed to Matthew Tilghman, and the name weas changed to Tilghman Island.  In the early 1800s the Tilghmans subdivided the land, and sold lots to watermen. By the late 1800s Tilghman Island became one of the most important seafood centers on the bay, as well as a major center for shipbuilding, specializing in making skipjacks. At its height there were multiple villages, schools, and stores on the island. However, after many decades of decline the shipbuilding and packing industries have all closed, and there is now only a small contingent of watermen. 

The drive down the Bay Hundred Peninsula to Tilghman Island takes you through a rural idle of farmland and forests with occasional glimpses of the open bay. You leave touristy St Michaels behind and you are immediately transported back to a rural Maryland that is quickly vanishing. Tilghman Island is mostly rural, covered with marshes, farms, and woodlands. However, when you approach the drawbridge at Knapps Narrows you enter the small village of Tilghman Island. There are some historic buildings in the village, but even though the island has been settled since the late 1600s, almost all the buildings in the village were built within the last hundred years. You will also find the town marina on Knapps Narrows, and though the industry is much diminished, you can still find waterman working on their boats. 

If shopping is your thing, then Tilghman Island is not for you. This island is a rural idle, not a shopping mecca. The only shopping you will find on Tilghman Island is the General Store, which is worth a stop. There are a couple of restaurants, and a couple of hotels, but this is not a resort town. Even though the packing plants have long since closed, many of the watermen are gone, the island is very much about the Eastern Shore as it once was. This is the Eastern Shore described in Michener’s, Chesapeake. It is about the interaction of bay and the land. And much like Devon Island in Michener’s book, you can see the bay slowly reclaiming the island on Black Walnut Point. 

If a resort vacation is your ideal vacation, then stick to St Michaels. But if you want a bit of history, and to experience the old Eastern Shore, then Tilghman Island is the perfect location. It has it all, quant village, sweeping vistas of the open bay, a working harbor, places for hiking, boating, fishing, and it even has several excellent hotels and restaurants.

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