Crisfield, MD Summary

If ever a town owed its prosperity to the humble oyster, it is Crisfield in southern Maryland, on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. In the 1800s, John Woodland Crisfield, attorney, congressman, and friend of Abraham Lincoln, saw the thentiny seaside hamlet of Somers Cove’s potential for growth because of its seafood industry, particularly oysters, and was responsible for bringing the railroad to town in 1867. Grateful property owners dutifully renamed the town Crisfield in 1872, and the town’s 200 years of relative isolation came to an abrupt end.

Oysters literally provided the town’s foundation, with billions of shells used as road base, in buildings, and even on railroad tracks. Its harbor filled with sailing vessels, and in 1910 the Crisfield Customs House boasted the largest registry of sailing vessels anywhere in the nation.

In the 1920s the oyster supply became exhausted, but along came the Chesapeake Bay blue crab to restore the town’s fortunes. Still found in huge quantities, they are a mainstay of Crisfield’s economy today, along with oysters, which are once again readily available.

Crisfield is the southernmost town in Maryland, located on the tip of a long, low-lying peninsula jutting southwards into Chesapeake Bay. The hundreds of coves and inlets along the 600-mile shoreline of Somerset County make a perfect home for the finest clams, fish, oysters, and their native crab, said to be the most delicious in the world. Crisfield’s harbor also has the Somers Cove Marina, the largest state-owned marina in Maryland and one of the largest on the East Coast, with more than 450 boat slips designed for all types of boats.

A few miles north of Crisfield is Janes Island State Park, 3,100 acres all but surrounded by Chesapeake Bay and ranking third among the state’s parks in its variety of activities and amenities. There are 8 miles of sandy beaches, hiking trails such as the White Tail and Blue Heron, nine waterfront log cabins, and also numerous camping options.

Crisfield also provides easy access to Maryland’s only inhabited offshore island, Smith Island. Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway once docked the Pilar at the island’s only shop, the Driftwood General Store. Evidence of this is hard to come by.

The island has a special charm, with the streets of the island’s three villages, Ewell, Rhodes Point, and Tylerton, having no official names, nor the houses any numbers until recently. The people of Ewell refer to everything below the church as “down the field,” and everything above the church as “over the hill.” The island has no police. A distinctive Cornwall dialect is still retained, a remnant of the island’s first inhabitants who arrived from Cornwall in the early 1700s.

Passenger ferries to Smith Island leave from Crisfield.