Delmarva Peninsula

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The toponym Delmarva is a clipped compound of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia (abbreviated Va.), modeled after the border town of Delmar, founded and named in 1859. The earliest uses of the name Delmarva occurred several years later, for example on February 10, 1877, in The Middletown Transcript newspaper in Middletown, Delaware, and appear to have been commercial and booster-driven. The Delmarva Heat, Light, and Refrigerating Corp. of Chincoteague, Virginia, was in existence by 1913, but general use of the term did not occur until the 1920s. In older sources, the peninsula was variously known as the Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula or simply the Chesapeake Peninsula, a term deriving from the Chesapeake people, Native Americans who called their home K'che-sepi-ack, translating as 'country on a great river.' The Chesapeake were victims of a genocide carried out by the Powhatan sometime before the arrival of the English at Jamestown in 1607. As recorded, the Powhatan leader 'destroyed and put to sword all such who might lye under any doubtful construccion of the said prophesie, as all the inhabitants, the weroance and his subjects of that province, and so remaine all the Chessiopeians at this daye, and for this cause, extinct.'

Reader's Guide

The Delmarva Peninsula's history includes a Spanish expedition in 1566 sent from Spanish Florida by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, consisting of two Dominican friars, thirty soldiers and an indigenous Virginia boy, Don Luis, in an effort to set up a Spanish colony in the Chesapeake. A storm thwarted their attempts. The land that is currently Delaware was first colonized by the Dutch West India Company in 1631 as Zwaanendael, which lasted one year before a dispute with local Indians led to its destruction. In 1638, New Sweden colonized the northern part of the state, together with the Delaware Valley. The Dutch recaptured Delaware and incorporated it into the Colony of New Netherland. Delaware came under British control in 1664. The land was transferred from the Duke of York to William Penn in 1682 and was governed with Pennsylvania. In 1776, the counties of Kent, New Castle, and Sussex declared their independence from Pennsylvania and entered the United States as the state of Delaware. The 1632 Charter of Maryland granted the peninsula to Cecil Calvert, but a clause granted only that part not already colonized by Europeans by 1632. In Penn v Lord Baltimore, it was decided that because the Dutch had colonized Zwaanendael in 1631, the portion of Maryland's charter granting Delaware was void.

Did You Know?

• The toponym Delmarva is a clipped compound of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia (abbreviated Va.), modeled after the border town of Delmar, founded in 1859.
• The Chesapeake people, who gave their name to the peninsula, were victims of a genocide carried out by the Powhatan sometime before 1607, triggered by a prophecy that a nation would arise from the Chesapeake to end the Powhatan empire.
• In 1970, a stone tool resembling Solutrean tools was dredged up by the trawler Cinmar off Virginia's east coast, found with mastodon remains later dated to 22,000 years old.
• The first European attempt to colonize the peninsula was a Spanish expedition in 1566, thwarted by a storm.
• The Dutch colony of Zwaanendael, founded in 1631, lasted only one year before being destroyed in a dispute with local Indians.

Geography & Physical Character

The Delmarva 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 of Cape Charles. It is bordered by the Chesapeake Bay on the west, Pocomoke Sound on the southwest, and the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. The population of the twelve counties entirely on the peninsula totaled 818,014 people as of the 2020 census. Dover, Delaware, is the peninsula's largest city by population. The main commercial areas are Dover in the north and Salisbury, Maryland, near its center. Including all offshore islands, the largest of which is Kent Island in Maryland, the total land area south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is 5,454 sq mi (14,130 km2). Cape Charles forms the southern tip of the peninsula in Virginia. The entire Delmarva Peninsula falls within the Atlantic 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. The peninsula has a humid subtropical climate.

Etymology & the Birth of a Name

In older sources, the peninsula between Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay was variously known as the Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula or simply the Chesapeake Peninsula. This term derives from the Chesapeake people, Native Americans who called their home K'che-sepi-ack, which translates as 'country on a great river.' The Chesapeake were victims of a genocide carried out by the Powhatan sometime before the arrival of the English at Jamestown in 1607. The toponym Delmarva is a clipped compound of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia (abbreviated Va.), which in turn was modeled after Delmar, 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, in The Middletown Transcript newspaper in Middletown, Delaware) and appear to have been commercial and booster-driven; for example, the Delmarva Heat, Light, and Refrigerating Corp. of Chincoteague, Virginia, was in existence by 1913—but general use of the term did not occur until the 1920s.

Deep Prehistory & Indigenous Life

Some studies have shown that Native Americans inhabited the peninsula from about 10,000 BC to 8000 BC – since the last ice age. Recent research indicates that Paleo-Indians inhabited Maryland during the pre-Clovis period (before 13,000 BP). 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, suggesting a human presence during the Last Glacial Maximum. In 1970 a stone tool (a biface) said to resemble Solutrean stone tools was dredged up by the trawler Cinmar off the east coast of Virginia 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 a mastodon's remains. The mastodon tusks were later determined to be 22,000 years old. The primary Indigenous peoples of the ocean side of the lower peninsula prior to the arrival of Europeans were the Assateague, including the Assateague, Transquakin, Choptico, Moteawaughkin, Quequashkecaquick, Hatsawap, Wachetak, Marauqhquaick, and Manaskson. The upper peninsula and the Chesapeake shore was the home of Nanticoke-speaking people such as the Nentigo and Choptank. The Assateague and Nentigo made a number of treaties 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 other Algonquian tribes as far north as Ontario. Currently, the peninsula is within the traditional territory of the Piscataway, Nentego, and Lenape peoples.

European Colonization & the Struggle for the Peninsula

In 1566, an expedition sent from Spanish Florida by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés reached the Delmarva Peninsula. The expedition consisted of two Dominican 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 fabled Northwest Passage. However, a storm thwarted their attempts at establishing a colony. The land that is currently Delaware was first colonized by the Dutch West India Company in 1631 as Zwaanendael. 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 the Delaware 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 of New Netherland. However, Delaware came under British control in 1664. James I of England had granted Virginia 400 miles of Atlantic coast centered on Cape 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 the Duke of York to William Penn in 1682 and was governed with Pennsylvania. The exact border was determined by the Chancery Court in 1735. In 1776, the counties of Kent, New Castle, and Sussex declared their independence from Pennsylvania and entered the United States as the state of Delaware. In the 1632 Charter of Maryland, King Charles I of England granted the peninsula to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, as the colony of Maryland. Over a century later, it was decided in the case of Penn v Lord Baltimore that, because the Dutch had colonized Zwaanendael in 1631, the portion of Maryland's charter granting Delaware to Maryland was void.

Gallery