Day 202 - May 12, 2013: Tangier, MD

We moved up the Chesapeake Bay and crossed over to Tangier Island, which was one of the most unexpected and unusual places on this trip. The wind was up, and we were challenged with 2 to 4 foot waves most of the way. Coming in we were greeted by Milton Parks who runs the only marina on the island. He is 82, was in the Coast Guard, and then came back to be a waterman fishing for crabs and oysters until he retired. He was on his scooter in a black suit, just having returned from Sunday church services. The Parks Marina is basic, but Milton is full of stories that are unforgettable.

Entering Tangier among the crabbing boats

Milton Parks

Tangier Island is small (1 by 3 miles) and so isolated that inhabitants lived here for centuries with little or no contact with the surrounding world. Captain John Smith visited here in 1608 finding Indians who had been here for thousands of years. The island was first settled in 1686 by James Crockett and his sons.

People here have always lived off the sea, and there are generations of descendants with common names in the area (Pruitt, Parks and Crockett are dominant still today). Many of the people still retain an unusual accent which is kind of a cross between British and South African. They use it unless outsiders are around who find it hard to understand.

Basic services like electricity and phones came far behind those on the mainland, and today we had no cell service. The few streets are more like sidewalks, and almost everyone gets around either on foot or on a golf cart. There are about 500 people, two churches, a school, three restaurants, a museum, and a couple of gift stores. The homes are very small on very tiny lots, and the front yards frequently contain the burial sites and tombstones of the previous generations that lived there.

Main Street

A typical house and small lot

We went first to the Tangier History Museum, which although small, covered the historical events and lifestyles of the people here very well. Then we got on our bikes, even though you could walk every street on the island in a couple of hours, and enjoyed this place frozen in time.

Tangier History Museum ($3.00)

These relatives will not be forgotten!

There are tourist boats that come over daily, and the passengers scurry around the streets for an hour or two and then disappear back onto the boats. While talking to Milton Parks, he said that he could not understand why tourists were coming to Tangier and that some day he would get on one of those tours to find out! Despite the hilariousness of the remark, it reflects how much these inhabitants may be out of touch with the rest of America.

To our surprise, there was another American Tug named "Slo - Gin" here when we arrived, and we spent some time later in the day getting to know Joe and Ginny who live in St. Petersburg. They invited us over for a glass of wine, and we had a great time together.

Great Laker and Slo - Gin

Anne with Joe and Ginny