3 minute read
St. Michaels Map and History
© John Norton
On the broad Miles River, with its picturesque tree-lined streets and beautiful harbor, St. Michaels has been a haven for boats plying the Chesapeake and its inlets since the earliest days. Here, some of the handsomest models of the Bay craft, such as canoes, bugeyes, pungys and some famous Baltimore Clippers, were designed and built. The Church, named “St. Michael’s,” was the first building erected (about 1677) and around it clustered the town that took its name.
For a walking tour and more history of the St. Michaels area visit https://tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/st-michaels-maryland/.
tide, tidal floods, nuisance floods, sunny-day floods. The Union of Concerned Scientists likes using the term “chronic inundation” to gauge severity of flooding in various locations. They estimate 170 communities nationally will likely suffer chronic inundation by 2035; that is, at least 10 percent of usable land flooded 26 times per year, or every other week. Of those 170 communities, most are in Louisiana and Maryland: 58 on the Gulf Coast and 33 on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Saltwater encroachment is most apparent around the edges, as witnessed in the precarious and wellpublicized situations of Tangier and Smith islands. Before tourists and multimedia coverage reached saturation points there, hundreds of other Chesapeake Bay islands disappeared beneath the waves
15% Off A Two Night Stay
Special Rates for Waterfowl Festival Weekend
St. Michaels Inn offers our guests outstanding amenities to enhance your Maryland coastal retreat or business trip. Start your day off with complimentary continental breakfast, then enjoy time on the patio. Reserve one of our flexible meeting rooms for your St. Michaels event. St. Michaels Inn
1228 S. Talbot Street, Saint Michaels, Maryland 21663 410-745-3333 • reservations@stmichaels-inn.com www.stmichaels-inn.com
without drawing attention from officialdom. Now, inconvenient tidal water is getting harder and harder to ignore in Annapolis. Even on balmy days, “nuisance flooding” from Spa Creek is creeping up below State Circle, often unexpectedly, right at the feet of the legislature.
Directly downhill from the State
The CRAB CLAW RESTAURANT
Specializing in choice, fresh Chesapeake Bay seafoods served in the informal Eastern Shore style by people who know seafood best! 410-745-2900 · www.thecrabclaw.com
House, “Ego Alley” leads pleasure boaters into the heart of Annapolis. Inside this bulkheaded offshoot of Spa Creek, Ego Alley’s speed limit is strictly observed. Proud captains of high-performance powerboats may fill their need for speed elsewhere, but they cruise slowly into town to
Historic WADES POINT INN ON THE BAY
Come and enjoy all the ‘Shore has to offer!
tie up for lunch. Despite their care and the Alley’s seawall, fifty or sixty days a year their wake sloshes beyond the confines of the creek. Alighting for a favorite restaurant requires a choice of footwear: Sperry boaters, a change into waders or bare feet. A proposed infrastructure project promises relief.
An estimated $56 million would buy an elevated walkway along a higher bulkhead, plus a new barrier to prevent saltwater breaking its boundaries during extra-high tidal events. To retain the harbor’s ersatz aura of colonialism, the new barrier will likely be either transparent or retractable. Parking along the bulkhead will move to a garage. The current impervious and frequently flooded parking spaces will be transformed into an absorbent, elevated grassy area that conceals a pump.
The proposal commits to including a prominent location for the bronze statue of Alex Haley, which commemorates historic AfricanAmerican experience at the har-
