Shipbuilding in Dorchester County: A Guided Driving Tour
May 23 @ 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Shipbuilding in Dorchester County: A Guided Driving Tour
Saturday, May 23 | 9am-1pm
(SPRING MEMBER PRESALE: This workshop is part of CBMM’s Spring Member Presale. CBMM members have exclusive first access to registration for a week, beginning Monday, Feb. 2. Not a member yet? Join today!)
Join CBMM’s Vessel Conservation Manager Sam Hilgartner for a morning spent exploring southern Dorchester County, once the locus of Eastern Shore vessel construction and now a rarely visited relatively remote region of the midshore known as the most sparsely populated area in all of Maryland. We will visit small marshy townships where highly developed schooners were once launched in great numbers, come to understand the complex history of the development of the Chesapeake Bay’s most famous vessel type, and connect a selection of Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum artifacts to their place.
Maybe more than any other part of North America the development of Bay craft occurs in relief of the topography, or lack their of, ubiquitous to the tidal serpentine Eastern Shore waterways which birthed so many now iconic craft. We will come to know the builders and vessel owners Joseph W. Brooks, John Branford, Harvey Conway, Bronza Parks, and Jim Richardson as we relax the eye across the Little Choptank, traverse skinny island causeways, and listen to the cong-a-lee of the red-winged blackbird.
This will be a guided driving tour where we will travel from location to location as a group. Participants will be provided with a guidebook developed specifically for this course. We will meet at designated locations to explore and learn about the history of each site through stories associated with CBMM collection items.
The course map will be provided to participants two weeks prior to the tour. Please be prepared to drive around 100 miles of rural marsh without access to gas stations.
This program is supported by CBMM’s Regional Folklife Center under the Maryland Traditions program of the Maryland State Arts Council.
Shipbuilding in Dorchester County: A Guided Driving Tour
Date/Time: Saturday, May 23, 8:30am-1pm
Location:Driving tour across Dorchester County (Meet at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, 2145 Key Wallace Dr, Church Creek, MD 21622)
Cost: $120 per person, with 20% discount for CBMM Members
