38°30′N75°40′W / 38.500°N 75.667°W /38.500; -75.667
Delmarva Peninsula | |
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 A map of the Delmarva Peninsula map with theEastern Shore of Virginia (in yellow), theEastern Shore of Maryland (in orange), and part ofDelaware (also in yellow) | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Delaware Maryland Virginia |
| Largest municipalities by population | Dover Salisbury |
| Population (2020) | 818,000 |
TheDelmarva Peninsula, or simplyDelmarva, is apeninsula on theEast Coast of the United States, occupied by the majority of the state ofDelaware and parts of theEastern Shore of Maryland andEastern Shore of Virginia.
The peninsula is 170 miles (274 km) long. In width, it ranges from 70 miles (113 km) near its center, to 12 miles (19 km) at the isthmus on its northern edge, to less near its southern tip ofCape Charles. It is bordered by theChesapeake Bay on the west,Pocomoke Sound on the southwest, and theDelaware River,Delaware Bay, and theAtlantic Ocean on the east.
The population of the twelve counties entirely on the peninsula totals 818,014 people as of the 2020 census.
In older sources, the peninsula between Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay was variously known as theDelaware and Chesapeake Peninsula or simply theChesapeake Peninsula.
The toponymDelmarva is aclipped compound ofDelaware,Maryland, andVirginia (official abbreviationVA), which in turn was modeled afterDelmar, a border town named after Delaware and Maryland. While Delmar was founded and named in 1859, the earliest uses of the name Delmarva occurred several years later (for example on February 10, 1877, inThe Middletown Transcript newspaper inMiddletown, Delaware[1]) and appear to have been commercial andbooster-driven; for example, theDelmarva Heat, Light, and Refrigerating Corp. ofChincoteague, Virginia, was in existence by 1913[2]—but general use of the term did not occur until the 1920s.[3]
At the northern point of the peninsula theAtlantic Seaboard Fall Line separates the crystalline rocks of thePiedmont from the unconsolidated sediments of the Coastal Plain. This line passes throughNewark, Delaware, andWilmington, Delaware, andElkton, Maryland. The northern isthmus of the peninsula is transected by the sea-levelChesapeake and Delaware Canal. Several bridges cross the canal, and theChesapeake Bay Bridge and theChesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel join the peninsula tomainland Maryland and Virginia, respectively. Another point of access isLewes, Delaware, reachable by theCape May–Lewes Ferry fromCape May,New Jersey.
Dover, Delaware, is the peninsula's largest city by population. The main commercial areas are Dover in the north andSalisbury, Maryland, near its center. Including all offshore islands, the largest of which isKent Island inMaryland, the total land area south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is 5,454 sq mi (14,130 km2). At the2000 census the total population was 681,030, giving an average population density of 124.86 inhabitants per square mile (48.21/km2).
Cape Charles forms the southern tip of the peninsula inVirginia.
The entire Delmarva Peninsula falls within theAtlantic Coastal Plain, a flat and sandy area with very few or no hills; the highest point in the peninsula is only 102 ft (31 m) above sea level.[4] Thefall line, found in the region southwest of Wilmington, Delaware, and just north of the northern edge of the Delmarva Peninsula, is a geographic borderland where thePiedmont region transitions into the coastal plain. Its Atlantic Ocean coast is formed by theVirginia Barrier Islands in the south and Cape Henlopen in the north, encompassing Ocean City, Maryland, and the Delaware Beaches from Fenwick Island to Lewes.The peninsula has ahumid subtropical climate (Cfa) according to theKöppen climate classification. According to theTrewartha climate classification, the northern half has a temperate oroceanic climate (Do).
The culture of Delmarva is starkly different from the rest of theMid-Atlantic region and is much like that of theSouthern United States. While the northern portion of Delmarva, such as theWilmington metro area, is similar to the urban regions of Philadelphia, the Maryland, Virginia, and "Slower Lower" Delaware counties are moreconservative than their "mainland" counties.[5] It has been suggested that Delmarva residents have a variation ofSouthern American English which is particularly prevalent in rural areas.[6]
Delmarva is driven by agriculture and commercial fishing.[7] Most of the land is rural, with a few large population centers, though tourism has been an important part of the region.
Delmarva has longstandingCatholic roots, but now Protestants are more numerous, with Methodism being particularly strongly represented. Numerous Catholic churches dating to the 17th century are still operating, such as Old Bohemia Church, which is dedicated toSaint Francis Xavier inCecil County, Maryland. There are several historically significant Episcopalian churches, such as Old Trinity Church in southern Dorchester County and Christ Church inCambridge, Maryland.
The border between Maryland and Delaware, which resulted from the 80-year-longPenn–Calvert Boundary Dispute, consists of the east–westTranspeninsular Line and the perpendicular north–south portion of theMason–Dixon line extending north to just beyond its tangential intersection with theTwelve-Mile Circle which forms Delaware's border withPennsylvania. The border between Maryland and Virginia on the peninsula follows thePocomoke River from the Chesapeake to a series of straightsurveyed lines connecting the Pocomoke to the Atlantic Ocean.
All three counties in Delaware,New Castle (partially),Kent, andSussex, are located on the peninsula. Of the 23counties in Maryland, nine are on theEastern Shore:Kent,Queen Anne's,Talbot,Caroline,Dorchester,Wicomico,Somerset, andWorcester, as well as a portion ofCecil County. Two Virginia counties are on the peninsula:Accomack andNorthampton.
The following is a list of some of the notable cities and towns on the peninsula.
At its southern tip, the Delmarva Peninsula is connected toVirginia Beach andHampton Roads, Virginia, via theChesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which opened in 1964. The bridge tunnel is owned and administered by theChesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District.
| Rank | Name | Type | Population | Area | County | State | Settled | Inc. | Origin of Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dover ‡ | Capital city | 39,403 | 23.97 sq mi | Kent | Delaware | 1683 | 1829 | Dover in Kent, England |
| 2 | Salisbury† | City | 33,050 | 14.28 sq mi | Wicomico | Maryland | 1732 | 1854 | |
| 3 | Middletown | Town | 23,192 | 12.65 sq mi | New Castle | Delaware | 1861 | Halfway betweenBunker Hill, Maryland, andOdessa, Delaware | |
| 4 | Easton† | Town | 17,101 | 10.56 sq mi | Talbot | Maryland | 1790 | ||
| 5 | Cambridge† | Town | 13,096 | 10.34 sq mi | Dorchester | Maryland | 1793 | ||
| 6 | Smyrna | Town | 12,883 | 6.237 sq mi | Kent/New Castle | Delaware | Ancient Greek city ofSmyrna | ||
| 7 | Milford | City | 11,190 | 9.85 sq mi | Kent/Sussex | Delaware | Named for numerous mills around town | ||
| 8 | Seaford | City | 7,957 | 5.16 sq mi | Sussex | Delaware | 1865 | Seaford, East Sussex | |
| 9 | Georgetown † | Town | 7,134 | 5.02 sq mi | Sussex | Delaware | 1791 | 1869 | Commissioner George Mitchell |
| 10 | Millsboro | Town | 6,863 | 5.43 sq mi | Sussex | Delaware | 1893 |
The largest Virginia city on the peninsula is Chincoteague, with a 2020 census population of 3,341 residents, which ranks as the 23rd largest municipality on the peninsula.
At various times in history, residents of the Delmarva Peninsula have proposed that its Maryland and Virginia portionssecede from their respective states, merging with Kent County and Sussex County, Delaware, to create the state of Delmarva. A Delmarva State Party with this aim was founded in 1992.[9] A combined population with the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia, with the aforementioned two Delaware counties, would be about 750,000, or 921,739 in 2020, roughly the population ofSouth Dakota. IncludingNew Castle County, Delaware, the combined population would be 1,492,458 in 2020, roughly the population ofHawaii orNew Hampshire.
Legislative attempts to break away the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and join them with Delaware were made several times. In November 1776, delegates from the Eastern Shore attempted to insert a clause into theMaryland Declaration of Rights that would allow the shore counties to secede from Maryland, with the clause being defeated 30–17. In 1833, the secession movement came close to succeeding: a Delaware resolution proposing theEastern Shore of Maryland be absorbed into Delaware passed theDelaware Senate andDelaware House of Representatives, then passed theMaryland House of Delegates with a 40–24 vote, but failed to be voted out of committee by theMaryland Senate. The following year, a Caroline County representative proposed allowing the Eastern Shore to secede via referendum, but the Maryland House of Delegates voted 60–5 to indefinitely postpone the measure, and that proposal was never taken up again. In 1851, Dorchester County delegate and future Maryland GovernorThomas Holliday Hicks proposed an amendment that would give the Eastern Shore the right to vote itself into Delaware, but the amendment failed 51–27.[10]
| Year | Democratic | Republican | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 50.9%394,993 | 47.4%367,806 | 1.7%13,899 |
| 2020 | 53.0%402,229 | 45.3%343,352 | 1.7%13,049 |
| 2016 | 47.6%322,702 | 47.2%320,387 | 5.2%35,135 |
| 2012 | 53.0%340,859 | 45.4%292,042 | 1.6%10,172 |
| 2008 | 55.5%354,566 | 43.2%276,438 | 1.3%8,324 |
| 2004 | 48.4%279,880 | 50.6%292,716 | 1.0%5,567 |
| 2000 | 51.0%251,836 | 45.8%226,268 | 3.2%15,766 |
| 1996 | 48.8%202,681 | 39.8%165,360 | 11.3%46,940 |
| 1992 | 41.2%183,693 | 38.3%170,585 | 20.5%91,437 |
| 1988 | 41.2%157,129 | 58.2%222,013 | 0.6%2,452 |
| 1984 | 37.7%143,171 | 62.0%235,378 | 0.3%1,319 |
| 1980 | 44.4%156,436 | 48.5%170,788 | 7.2%25,251 |
| 1976 | 51.1%173,700 | 47.8%162,669 | 1.1%3,875 |
| 1972 | 35.8%119,150 | 62.9%209,460 | 1.2%4,148 |
| 1968 | 38.0%118,585 | 45.1%140,933 | 16.9%52,896 |
| 1964 | 59.6%173,647 | 40.3%117,394 | 0.2%549 |
| 1960 | 49.7%142,583 | 50.0%143,578 | 0.3%751 |
Some studies have shown that Native Americans inhabited the peninsula from about 10,000 BC to 8000 BC – since thelast ice age.
Recent research indicates thatPaleo-Indians inhabited Maryland during thepre-Clovis period (before 13,000BP). Miles Point, Oyster Cove, and Cator's Cove archaeological sites on the coastal plain of the Delmarva Peninsula help to document a pre-Clovis presence in the Middle Atlantic region. Thus, these sites suggest a human presence in the Middle Atlantic region during theLast Glacial Maximum.[12]
In 1970 a stone tool (abiface) said to resembleSolutrean stone tools was dredged up by the trawlerCinmar off the east coast ofVirginia in an area that would have been dry land prior to the rising sea levels of the Pleistocene Epoch. The tool was allegedly found in the same dredge load that contained amastodon's remains. The mastodon tusks were later determined to be 22,000 years old.[13] However, studies conducted on nearby Parsons Island demonstrate that the stratigraphy of the region is disturbed.[14] In addition several archaeological sites on the Delmarva peninsula with suggestive (but not definitive) dating between 16,000 and 18,000 years have been discovered by Darrin Lowery of the University of Delaware. These factors led Stanford and Bradley to reiterate in 2014 their academic advocacy of pre-Clovis peoples in North America and their possible link toPaleolithic Europeans.[15]
Native settlements relocated as natural conditions dictated. They set up villages – scattered groups of thatch houses and cultivated gardens – where conditions favored farming. In the spring they planted crops, which the women and children tended while the men hunted and fished. In the fall they harvested crops, storing food in baskets or underground pits. During the harsh winter, whole communities would move to hunting areas, seeking the deer, rabbit and other game that kept them alive until the spring fishing season. When the farmland around their villages became less productive – the inhabitants did not practicecrop rotation – the native people would abandon the site and move to another location.[16]
The primaryIndigenous peoples of the ocean side of the lower peninsula prior to the arrival of Europeans were theAssateague, including the Assateague, Transquakin,Choptico, Moteawaughkin, Quequashkecaquick, Hatsawap, Wachetak, Marauqhquaick, and Manaskson. Their territories and populations ranged fromCape Charles, Virginia, to theIndian River inlet in Delaware.[17]
The upper peninsula and the Chesapeake shore was the home ofNanticoke-speaking people such as theNentigo andChoptank. The Assateague and Nentigo made a number oftreaties with the colony of Maryland, but the land was gradually taken and those treaties dissolved for the use of the colonists, and the native peoples of the peninsula assimilated into otherAlgonquian tribes as far north asOntario.[18]
Currently, the peninsula is within the traditional territory of thePiscataway, Nentego, andLenape peoples.[19][20][21]
In 1566, an expedition sent fromSpanish Florida byPedro Menéndez de Avilés reached the Delmarva Peninsula. The expedition consisted of twoDominican friars, thirty soldiers and an indigenous Virginia boy,Don Luis, in an effort to set up a Spanish colony in the Chesapeake. At the time, the Spanish believed the Chesapeake to be an opening to the fabledNorthwest Passage. However, a storm thwarted their attempts at establishing a colony.[22] The land that is currently Delaware was first colonized by theDutch West India Company in 1631 asZwaanendael. That colony lasted one year before a dispute with local Indians led to its destruction. In 1638,New Sweden was established which colonized the northern part of the state, together with theDelaware Valley. Eventually, the Dutch, who had maintained that their claim to Delaware arose from the colony of 1631, recaptured Delaware and incorporated the colony into the Colony ofNew Netherland.
However, shortly thereafter Delaware came under British control in 1664.James I of England had granted Virginia 400 miles of Atlantic coast centered onCape Comfort, extending west to the Pacific Ocean to a company of colonists in a series of charters from 1606 to 1611. This included a piece of the peninsula. The land was transferred from theDuke of York toWilliam Penn in 1682 and was governed withPennsylvania. The exact border was determined by the Chancery Court in 1735. In 1776, the counties ofKent,New Castle, andSussex declared their independence from Pennsylvania and entered the United States as the state ofDelaware.
In the 1632 Charter of Maryland, KingCharles I of England granted "all that Part of the Peninsula, or Chersonese, lying in the Parts of America, between the Ocean on the East and the Bay of Chesapeake on the West, divided from the Residue thereof by a Right Line drawn from the Promontory, or Head-Land, called Watkin's Point, situate upon the Bay aforesaid, near the river Wigloo, on the West, unto the main Ocean on the East; and between that Boundary on the South, unto that Part of the Bay of Delaware on the North, which lieth under the Fortieth Degree of North Latitude from the Equinoctial, where New England is terminated" toCecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, as the colony of Maryland. This would have included all of present-dayDelaware; however, a clause in the charter granted only that part of the peninsula that had not already been colonized by Europeans by 1632. Over a century later, it was decided in the case ofPenn v Lord Baltimore that, because the Dutch had colonized Zwaanendael in 1631, the portion of Maryland's charter granting Delaware to Maryland was void.
The peninsula was the premier location fortruck farming of vegetables during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Though it has been largely eclipsed by California's production, the area still produces significant quantities oftomatoes,green beans,corn,soybeans—Queen Anne's County is the largest producer of soy beans in Maryland—and other popular vegetables.
The Eastern Shore is also known for its poultry farms, the most well-known of which isPerdue Farms, founded in Salisbury. TheDelaware is a rare breed of chicken created on the peninsula.
Tourism is a major contributor to the peninsula's economy with the beaches atRehoboth Beach, Delaware,Ocean City, Maryland,Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland, andChincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Virginia, being popular tourist destinations.
Salisbury University also adds to the economic activity of the Delmarva, with an estimated $480 million in contribution impact. The University is the largest four year comprehensive on theEastern Shore, and serves as the largest employer other thanPerdue supporting an estimated 3,200 jobs.[23]
The area is served by four television markets. Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's, Caroline and Talbot Counties in Maryland are primarily served by theBaltimore, Maryland, designated market area and stationsWBAL-TV,WJZ-TV,WMAR-TV andWBFF-TV. New Castle and Kent Counties in Delaware are served by thePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, designated market area and stationsWPVI-TV,WCAU-TV,KYW-TV andWTXF-TV. Sussex, Dorchester, Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset Counties are served by theSalisbury, Maryland, designated market area, the only based on the peninsula. These stations areWBOC-TV,WMDT-TV, andWRDE-LD. Accomack and Northampton Counties are primarily served by theNorfolk/Virginia Beach designated market area and stationsWAVY-TV,WVEC-TV andWTKR-TV.[24]
The peninsula has minor airports with few commercial carriers, as it is overshadowed by proximate major airports in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Its airports includeWilmington Airport southwest of Wilmington, Delaware,Salisbury Regional Airport to the southeast of Salisbury, Maryland, andDover Air Force Base to the southeast of Dover, Delaware.
Major north–south highways includeU.S. 9,U.S. 13,U.S. 50 andU.S. 301. Highways U.S. 50 and U.S. 301 run over theChesapeake Bay Bridge on the western side of the peninsula. U.S. 13 at the southern limit of the peninsula connects through theChesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel to the main part of Virginia.
Until 1957, thePennsylvania Railroad provided service to the peninsula.[25] It ran theDel-Mar-Va Express day train from New York City, throughWilmington,Dover, Delmar,Salisbury, andPocomoke City to theCape Charles, Virginia, ferry docks and it ran theCavalier counterpart night train. At that point, ferries ran toNorfolk, Virginia. In earlier decades branches ran toCentreville, Maryland;Oxford, Maryland;Cambridge, Maryland; Georgetown andLewes, Delaware; and toFranklin City, Virginia. Today, theDelmarva Central Railroad provides freight and tanker transportation on the peninsula.[26]
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