Tangier Island

After a perfectly delightful trip down the Potomac from the St. Mary's River we arrived in Tangier Island about mid-day on Tuesday. Tangier is a small island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. It was first discovered by Europeans in 1608 when John Smith landed there. The British used it as a mustering point during the Revolutionary War. Permanent residents moved there for the first time in 1814 and it has been continuously inhabited since then.

The primary business of Tangier Islanders is fishing, crabbing to be precise. Although with the fishing restrictions in the Chesapeake these days, the islanders believe the current generation of watermen is the last generation there will be on the island. As recently as 1980 nearly half of of the high school graduating class stayed on the island to fish. Since 2000, none of the graduates have stayed. It is no longer possible to buy a commercial fishing license at a price that makes it economically feasible to operate a crab boat. Parents can hand down their licenses to their children, but one license isn't enough to support two or more families.

Another challenge in Tangier is that fact that the island is eroding. Nearly a third of the island has disappeared in the last 150 years. There used to be three separate communities, totaling more than 1,800 people on the island, but two of them have disappeared. Locals have moved their houses and graveyards to the one remaining town. Today only 600 people live on the island. The picture is of Main Street in downtown Tangier.

We were given a tour by the owner of the marina we stayed in. He has lived there his whole life, except for a stint in the Navy. Three of his four children have moved away and the fourth has a job on a tug boat, spending two weeks away from the island and two weeks at home every month. When Mr. Parks, the marina owner, graduated from high school (62 years ago) there were more than 1,200 people living on the island.

Growing up here really would be the classic small town experience, at least until you got to high school Kids are free to go everywhere. There are only three trucks and no cars on the island. Every family has at least one golf cart and one boat. (The picture is the parking lot at the crab processing plant.) The island is actually small enough to walk anywhere, although most of the kids seem to ride bikes to school. There are 77 students in grades K-12 (single building) with 15 teachers. Wouldn't most school districts love to have that student/teacher ratio?

There are three restaurants, two sandwich shops, and an ice cream shop on the island. All except the ice cream store close at 5:00 PM when the last tour boat leaves for the mainland. Tourism supplements the fishing income, but it isn't enough to replace it.

I never realized until this trip that the Chesapeake Bay sometimes freezes. In 1977, the island was frozen in for over two months. Food and medical supplies had to be airlifted the the residents to keep them going until the ice melted.

It was a fascinating place to visit. Jim was actually here thirty-nine years ago on a sailing trip. He noticed a lot of difference in just that time. The unique island accent has all but disappeared with the availability of television and daily contact with the mainland through the ferries. In the early 70s the older women still wore sunbonnets from the nineteenth century. That is all gone now. But they have built a nice local history museum where they are preserving what they can. I'm glad we had a chance to visit. I suspect by the time our grandchildren are old enough to go there, the lifestyle will be gone. You've got to love a place where two nine volt batteries bungee'd to the front of a golf cart function as headlights.