11,000 Miles

L.E.MILLER

11,000 Miles 1

All Rights Reserved ŠLee Miller/L.E.Miller/Aristocrat Photography 2012 1st Edition Printed and bound in Philadelphia

11,000Miles They say the Chesapeake Bay has 11,000 miles of coastline. For this book I drove roughly 700 miles.

Who’s to say how much of the bay region I saw, but no man could cover it all in a lifetime. Unfortunately 11,000 might be a number that gets smaller and smaller as erosion and rising sea levels are consuming the secretive islands of the Chesapeake. Some islands such as Sharp’s Island and Holland Island have already completely vanished. Holland Island saw the last building left consumed by the bay just two years ago.

Other communities in the bay have been abandoned, such as Lower Hooper’s Island.

This will be a continuing project as I move back to Maryland. As facinating and unique as these areas are, they don’t seem to attract much attention. Perhaps this is because they are so far out of the way.

-L.E. Miller

BLACKWATER and HOOPER’S ISLAND

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Skipjacks

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ST. MICHAELS and TILGHMAN ISLAND

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ASSATEAGUE ISLAND

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Blackwater and Hooper’s Island.

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ooper’s Island in Dorchester County, Maryland is actually three separate islands: Upper, Middle, and Lower Hooper’s Island. The top two islands are connected to each other and the main land by bridge. The lower island was once also connected, but after the bridge was destroyed in 1933 by a hurricane the lower island was abandoned.

The population on the island is largely supported by the sea, once largely self sufficient, many of the residents make their living through the crabbing industry. Several crab meat packing operations are located on the island including the international, but Maryland originated, Phillips. The populations are broken into three communities: Fishing Creek, Hoopersville, and Honga. The islands were first inhabited by westerners in 1869, and the islands take their name from the first family to settle.

The islands are home to about 400 people, but are under threat of losing their life style.

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Not only has pollution made living off of the bay difficult, but the islands lose about 24 acres a year to a combination of erosion and rising water levels. The islands are extremely susceptible to erosion because they are mostly made up of oyster shells and a fine layer of sediment. The sediment is both from the many rivers that wash into the Chesapeake and there is a theory that a global weather phenomena around 10,000 BC turned much of the DelMarVa peninsula into a giant dust storm that deposited much of the silt. Some buildings on the island are preparing for rising seas: raising their foundations.

All it would take to destroy the communities on these islands is one hurricane blowing to the east. Many of the buildings are older, and not likely to survive a major storm surge. Many communities in Maryland faced the wrath of Hurricane Isabelle, which blew in such a direction to devastate much of the land just north of Baltimore City.

A few miles to the north east is Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. This wildlife refuge was founded in 1933, but has only seemed to come out of total obscurity in recent years. With a new, gigantic, visitors center it is a favorite with wildlife photographers. Blackwater is one of the best place in the United States to see birds of prey. On some days it seems as though there are many osprey as seagulls, and one might see a dozen bald eagles in the area in the summer.

Several nest here.

Though better known then it was before, the 27,000 acre park is still somewhat of a secret to those unfamiliar with the area. The Wikipedia page for the refuge, for example, was only first created in 2007. This could be because Maryland is relatively poor at promoting its natural resources other than beaches and sport fishing. For those that make the trek to the refuge this is a blessing, as one can take in the sites in relative solitude, the only sounds being the wind and the cries of birds of prey.

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Smoke from wildfires billows in the distance, viewed over the water of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.

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A tree swallow swoops the water in search of a meal at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.

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The remains of logging equipment at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. This area was once heavily logged.

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Trees standing in what is now water display how erosion is moving back the shoreline.

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The pine marshes of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge call thoughts of southern bayous.

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Left: A pair of bald eagles at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.

Right: A photography blind at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.

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Crab traps stacked on a dock by the bridge to Hooper’s Island.

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In for the day, the tools of a crab fisher are left sprawled on this boat.

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Homes in Hoopersville on Middle Hooper’s Island.

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Advertisement for the Hooper’s Island Volunteer Fire Department’s Gun Bash event, Fishing Creek, Upper Hooper’s Island.

Following pages: Crab Traps stored in a stand of pine trees, Middle Hooper’s Island.

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Workers preparing to work on the docks on Middle Hooper’s Island.

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The docks on Middle Hooper’s Island.

The bridge from Upper to Middle Hooper’s Island.

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An abandoned barn on Middle Hooper’s Island.

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The Phillips crab packing plant on Middle Hooper’s Island. The smoke from the previous Blackwater shot is visible in the background.

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A weather battered house on Middle Hooper’s Island.

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Sometimes it is hard to tell if a structure is abandoned, such as this garage on Middle Hooper’s Island.

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The graveyard at Hoosier Methodist on Middle Hooper’s Island under water.

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Hoosier Methodist was recently raised up to combat rising water.

Following pages: Hoosier Methodist’s graveyard continued.

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Ospreys build a nest on Middle Hooper’s Island.

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A house on Middle Hoopers Island undergoing a foundation raise.

Following pages: The road down Middle Hooper’s Island.

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Left: A great blue heron, one of the icons of Maryland’s coast.

Right: Sunset on the way to Deal Island from Hooper’s Island.

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This is as far south and you can go on Middle Hooper’s Island without a canoe.

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Sunset on the road away from Hooper’s Island to Deal Island.

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The Skipjacks T

he skipjack fleet is the last remaining commercial sailing fleet in the United States. Originally numbering around 800, only 35 remain afloat. Around half that still work the waters as oystering vessels. What’s amazing about the fleet is that they aren’t kept at work simply out of tradition or to be a tourist attractive. It actually makes economic sense to keep the all-wood vessels working.

From 1820 to 1865, oyster dredging was outlawed on the Chesapeake Bay. When it was finally allowed again, it was allowed on the condition that oysters could only be dredged under sail power. This continued until 1965, when engine power was allowed two days a week. The skipjack fleet responded by putting huge engines in their life boats to push the skipjacks like tiny tug boats. On the other five days of the week they could keep bringing in the harvest. The commercial viability of the skipjack

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was somewhat impacted when those two days went from being selected by the government to being any two days a captain wanted.

The last skipjack was built in 1994. Although the skipjack Rosie Parks is currently being so totally rebuilt that it might be considered an entirely new vessel. Unfortunately the nature of an all wood vessel is high maintenance costs.

The life of an independent fisherman isn’t once of riches, when major issues occur stop-gap fixes may be more feasible than actual repairs.

The restoration of the Rosie Parks is estimated to cost $500,000. There are a handful of government programs trying to provide grants to the skipjacks that operate as commerical fishing vessels.

The Rosie Parks was one of the last three skipjacks built by legendary Chesapeake ship builder Bronza Parks. The Rosie Parks was built in 1955, his last skipjack was built in

1956, before Bronza Parks was shot dead in an argument over a ship order. The oldest remaining skipjack is the Rebecca T. Ruark which was built in 1886, but it no longer dredges for oysters.

The future of the skipjacks depends on if the oyster harvest can remain profitable. Pollution and over harvesting of the delicacies put the ships and the industry at risk. Experts say that the oyster population is only at 1% of what it was, harvest are down from as much as 5 million bushels a year in the late 1800s to 200,000 bushels a year. The causes are both over harvesting and disease. There’s a chance that either oyster dredging will be outlawed once more, or the population will totally collapse.

With erosion and pollution both major issues in the bay, the oyster population may need to become more important than a couple dozen relics from the past.

Facing: Watermen unload the skipjack Thomas Clyde on Deal Island.

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Watermen unload the skipjack Thomas Clyde on Deal Island.

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A waterman unloads the days catch of oysters from the skipjack Thomas Clyde on Deal Island.

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Rebecca T. Ruark is the oldest remaining skipjack afloat. Based out of Tilghman Island, this ship was constructed in 1886 and currently does charter trips instead of oyster harvesting. Note the engine in the push boat.

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The dredging rig on an unnamed skipjack on Deal Island.

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The helm of the same unnamed skipjack.

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The skipjack City of Crisfield at dock on Deal Island.

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The skipjack Rosie Parks being rebuilt at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

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Left: The skipjack Rebecca T. Ruark at dock on Tilghman Island. They say the skipjack fleet wears more rust than paint.

Right: The unnamed skipjack on Deal Island.

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A tattered American flag on the mast of a skipjack on Deal Island.

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An oil slick from the Deal Island docks consumes a crab shell.

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St Michaels and Tilghman Island.

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ilghman claims to be the home of the skipjacks.This former shipbuilding port remains the home of several of the legendary vessels. Unfortunately this is not a good place to see many of the vessels. So there is little reason for the average tourist to find the island unless they wandered off from nearby St. Michaels. It is a quiet waterfront community that is a popular destination for higher income residents to set up a comfortable living with a nice view over the bay. Over 800 people currently reside on the island.

Many still make their living off of the water here, and its piers are lined with crab and oyster harvesting vessels. Some are in better shape than others. Access to the island is by drawbridge, which provides for a picturesque scene of working fishing vessels returning to port under the rising steel.

Overshadowing the community on Tilghman Island is the community of St. Michaels, which is by no means a secret. It is where Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in recent years built homes, but for our purposes it is home to

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a historic main street and a fantastic maritime museum. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum takes up 18 acres of waterfront land and features dozens of historic vessels including the last remaining Chesapeake Bugeye. The bugeye was a type of oystering boat that predated the skipjack. They also own a skipjack that they are rebuilding after it sank.

The town of about 1,000 was originally founded in the late 1700s, where the industries were tobacco farming and shipbuilding. Fredrick Douglass lived here as a slave, and returned during Reconstruction. During the War of 1812 ships laid down here top part in naval combat, and the British eventually attempted an invasion of the town. Although they destroyed the town battery, they couldn’t destroy the shipyards.

Legend says the residents of the town turned off all of their lights, and hung lanterns in the nearby woods to confuse the British artillery.

Off the coast of Tilghman Island is what might be simply considered a historical footnote but is of great significance to the future of the coastal communities of the Chesapeake Bay. One

can see the leaning tower of the Chesapeake: Sharps Island Lighthouse. There are two levels of importance to this lighthouse. The first being that it sits in ten feet of water where there was once an island. Erosion and rising water levels have removed all traces that 150 years ago there was a community here. The second level of importance can be seen in the lighthouse itself.

It sits at a 15 degree angle after being struck by an iceflow in 1977. This was the last time the Chesapeake Bay froze completely over.

One can imagine the terror of being cut off from the mainland as your wood hulled ships are slowly crushed by iceflows. However, that may prove to be a walk in the park as the world warms and more island communities disappear.

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A house displaying the Maryland flag in downtown St. Michaels.

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A row of colorfully painted houses in downtown St. Michaels.

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Dock workers improving a pier in St Michaels.

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The small craft building at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

Following pages: Oysters coat the shoreline in St. Michaels.

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Left: Don mac Leod works in the boat workshop at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

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Right: The underside of the vessel.

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Both pages: Inside the boat shop at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

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The last remaining Chesapeake bugeye. The Edna E. Lockwood.

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The Lady Alison returns to port at Tilghman Island.

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A battered and rotten boat sits in a parking lot on Tilghman Island.

The corpses of fishing boats dragged to shore on Tilghman Island.

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Various commercial fishing vessels at dock in Tilghman Island.

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A possibly abandoned boat in Tilghman Island.

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Some of the more undeveloped waterfront on Tilghman Island.

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Paint peels from an abandoned boat on Tilghman Island.

A non-traditional waterfront home on Tilghman Island.

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A pier on Tilghman Island.

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A treehouse near a waterfront home on Tilghman Island.

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An old pick up truck on Tilghman Island.

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An abandoned farm house near St Michaels.

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A seawall on Tilghman Island leaks as strong winds blew inland.

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A fisherman moves around a Tilghman Island dock on golf cart.

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The sun begins to set at a public pier on Tilghman Island.

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At the south tip of Tilghman Island the sun is consumed by a snow squall being blown across the bay.

Following pages: The Sharps Island Lighthouse viewed from Tilghman Island.

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Previous spread: High winds push evening tides up into a seawall on Tilghman Island.

Left: Sunset on Tilghman Island.

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ASSATEAGUE ISLAND A

ssateague Island did not exist until 1933, when a massive hurricane ripped the thin stretch of land from the barrier peninsula of Maryland and Delaware (and Virgina, but all of Virginia’s part is now on the island). Relatively uninhabited, this land was left an island as the new channel into the bays between the mainland and the peninsula was considered to be a good thing for the business in Ocean City, Maryland.

In 1950 the land was made available for development in spite of calls to make the land a park. A main street was paved down the center of the island and construction began. One of the only significant stretches of natural coast on the east coast was under threat until 1962 when yet another major storm battered the island.

This time much of the main road, Baltimore Boulevard, and many of the new structures

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were destroyed. Some property owners wished to rebuild, but in 1965 Assateague National Seashore was established. In 2006 the last of the private owners gave up their land. The island also has Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the southern Virginia tip, and Assateague State Park on the very north tip of the Maryland half.

The island is a destination for people looking to avoid the hustle and bustle of nearby Ocean City as well as people looking to camp and enjoy the wilderness. One can go to Assateague Island and have vast stretches of the beach to themselves and no sounds but the wind and the waves. Campfires are allowed, and certain stretches of beach allow vehicles to drive onto them. Off of the beach, trails through the dunes and woods provide a site to a rare world that is more desert than anything else. The howling

winds and nutrition free sands make the ocean side a site to see in a country where most ocean front property is dotted with high rises. Walking down the remains of Baltimore Boulevard has a vaguely apocalyptic feel to it.

Of course, for most the draw is the bay side where Assateague’s famous feral herds of horses live. Although they are pony sized, they are actually horses dwarfed by their environmental conditions. The herds in Maryland are given contraceptives to manager their numbers, while the herds in Virginia are wrangled and sold to buyers once a year. Hunting is allowed in the middle of the island, but not of the horses. The two parks are actually separated by fence to keep the population of horses separate. Perhaps because its three hours from any major airport or city, this national treasure is never very crowded.

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A close up of the sand near the water in Assateague State Park.

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Previous pages: From a low angle, the sand kicked up by strong wind is visible.

Remains of a crab in Assateague State Park.

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Left: A bald eagle takes off in Assateague State Park.

Right: The horseshoe crab that the bald eagle was eating. Horseshoe crabs come to Assteague Island to breed.

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On the west side of the dune line in Assateague State Park.

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On the ocean side of the dunes in Assateague Island National Seashore.

Following Pages: A stretch of the destroyed Baltimore Boulevard.

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A warped stretch of Baltimore Boulevard.

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A wind prunned pine tree in the dunes in Assateague Island National Seashore.

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A foal in the bay side marsh of Assateague Island National Seashore.

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A mare in the bay side marsh of Assateague Island National Seashore.

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A mare in the bay side woods of Assateague Island National Seashore.

Following pages: Dunes in Assateague Island National Seashore.

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Previous pages: Herd of horses in the bay side marsh.

Left: Sand blows on the beach.

Right: A foal walks through thorn bushes.

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Both pages: Wild horses of Assateague.

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The trail leading from the ocean to the bay side.

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A bayside observation platform.

Following pages: A herd of horses viewed from afar.

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The bay coastline.

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A bed of clams cakes the bay side shoreline.

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Left and right: Boardwalks through the wetlands on the bay side.

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Following pages: A horse wanders towards the sea.

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A trail on the edge of the dunes leading into the woods.

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A lump of moss in a freshwater pond on the island.

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A hoof print in the mud.

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A buoy washed ashore on the bayside.

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