Smith Island: Maryland’s Only Remaining Inhabited Offshore Island Group
(By Elizabeth Tuico) Smith Island is Maryland’s only inhabited island with no bridge connection to the mainland. It’s an archipelago, with a population of about 180 spread across three tight-knit communities: Ewell, Rhodes Point and Tylerton.
A recent visit began with 3.5 hour drive from Washington, DC to Crisfield, a small town on Maryland’s lower eastern shore. From there, we boarded a mailboat ferry for the hour ride to Ewell, Smith Island’s largest village. The island group is located 12 miles offshore in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. The Maryland-Virginia state line runs through the three-by-five mile island chain.
History
Named for early land owner Henry Smith, the island was chartered by Captain John Smith in 1608 as the Russell Isles. John Evans and John Tyler, English farmers born in Virginia’s Accomack County, became the first permanent settlers in 1686. Seasonal occupation by indigenous peoples goes back more than 12,000 years.
During the Revolutionary War, the British used the island as a base. During our visit, we stayed at a delightful bed and breakfast operated by Susan Evans Tyler, a 13th generation islander known for her regional cooking including the famous 10-layer Smith Island cake.
An Island Out of Time
Products and people arrive on Smith Island by boat. In 2000, over 500 people called this picturesque place home. Despite the natural beauty, many left for better employment opportunities, healthcare and commerce. Daily life requires patience since many modern conveniences aren’t available.
The population clings to a vanishing way of life. Residents primarily survive from fishing, crabbing and tourism. (Although some travel by boat to the mainland for work.) Renowned for the best soft shell crabs in the world, the water around the island is dotted with crab shanties. Tourists find a handful of stores, museum and two restaurants with limited hours. A busy (albeit tiny) post office is the hub of each village.
Famed Methodist evangelist Joshua Thomas (1776-1853) held the first camp meeting on the island. Today, a Methodist church is the focal point of each village. On Sundays, the island’s only minister presides over three services – starting at 9am in Ewell and concluding in Tylerton at noon.
Educating the children of Smith Island requires logistics. A school building that once housed a hundred students is now deserted. A dozen high school students take a boat to Crisfield during the week to attend public school. The volunteer teacher who educated three younger island children retired in June 2022. When we visited a month later, the community wasn’t sure what to do with these kids.
Since WiFi is too unreliable for credit card payments, cash is king. A few vehicles drive between Ewell and Rhodes Point via a bridge. (There is an eerie auto graveyard on the road that connects the two hamlets.) I didn’t see any cars in Tylerton during my brief stroll around the village. Tylerton can only be reached by boat. However, many residents use gas-powered golf carts to get around. Tourists can rent golf carts for more efficient sightseeing.
Residential homes dot the landscape with the median value of $85,000. Living on the water is beautiful, but it wreaks havoc on buildings. Constant maintenance is required, and limited resources exist on the island for construction. Many abandoned structures are slowly crumbling. Susan Evans explained that islanders patiently wait until labor and materials are available for their renovation projects.
Erosion
Thirteen of the lower Chesapeake Bay’s charted islands, many of them once inhabited, are gone. Smith Islanders don’t think their island is sinking into the Bay from climate change. They assert the problem is erosion. It’s estimated that Smith Island lost over 3,300 acres of land because of erosion.
In 2012 after Superstorm Sandy destroyed much of Crisfield, Maryland state officials set aside $2 million in federal relief money to buy out voluntary sellers on Smith Island. Plans called for homes or businesses acquired by the state to be torn down and future development banned on these properties. It was the state’s not so subtle way of transitioning folks off Smith Island.
Residents rejected the offer. Instead, Smith Island United was launched. In 2016, a comprehensive report was published which represents a vision of how Smith Island will look, feel and thrive in the future. Five interdependent themes are explored:
Sustenance and growth of the watermen culture
Viability of the local economy
Development and maintenance of infrastructure
Development of reliable and sustainable transportation
Growing the year-round population of the Island
Government Help
Maryland named Smith Island a sustainable community, which allows residents access to revitalization funds from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. For example, the island received a $25,000 grant to repair store facades.
Since 2015, federal, state and local entities invested $18.3 million in three separate projects on and around Smith Island, adding about two miles of reconstructed shoreline, several acres of newly planted salt marshes and hundreds of feet of jetties.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service built a $9 million living shoreline on the Glenn Martin National Wildlife Refuge, a marshy island that protects Smith Island’s north side from erosion. A $4.5 million Somerset County project created another living shoreline on the island’s west side near Rhodes Point, its most vulnerable area.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed two jetties, one on either side of Sheep Pen Gut inlet where we saw dozens of baby pelicans during our visit. The channel also was dredged, deepening it from three feet to six feet. This work restores vessel passage through the island, eliminating the long journey that some watermen took to reach the Chesapeake Bay because the inlet shoaled up.
Wildlife
The abundance and diversity of Smith Island’s wildlife make it a compelling tourist attraction. Salt marshes are teaming with waterfowl and over 300 species of birds. During August and September, butterflies migrate to the island. Extensive wetlands, underwater grass beds, oyster reefs and forests are easily explored on foot or by boat.
Pelicans are a relatively new addition. These birds relocated their breeding grounds to the lower Chesapeake Bay because of disruptive storms in North Carolina. First spotted in 1987 near Assateague Island, the once-endangered brown pelicans formed a few colonies around the Smith Island chain. A private pelican tour with local waterman Wes Bradshaw was the highlight of our trip.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an organization dedicated to saving the Bay, operates the Smith Island Environmental Education Center in Tylerton. The popular program integrates island culture with the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay.
Island Life Goes On
Despite the challenges, a strong sense of community is present. During our weekend visit, our innkeeper hosted a baby shower, and every woman on the island was invited. It’s not necessary to lock doors, and children run around without a care. But residents don’t have the conveniences of daily life that most people on the mainland take for granted. (Think fresh produce, speedy Amazon deliveries, urgent care clinics, and reliable access to the Internet. Smith Island doesn’t sell alcohol either.) On a walk from Ewell to Rhodes Point, we encountered a local man struggling with an old bicycle. When we asked if he was okay, his response was “everything’s broke around here.” And I couldn’t disagree.
Tornado Damage
On August 4, 2022, a waterspout tornado that spun out of severe storms devastated a corner of Rhodes Point, where it ripped the roof and third story off a bed and breakfast and destroyed a trailer. It moved across the island to Ewell, damaging 17 homes along the way. Luckily, Tylerton was spared and no serious injuries were reported.
Waterspouts over Chesapeake Bay are fairly common in August. When they make landfall, these intense columnar vortexes are reclassified as tornadoes. National Weather Service rated the August 4th event as an EF-1 with winds of 86 to 110 mph. It was over land for about seven minutes, long enough to damage buildings, snap utility poles, and rip down power lines.
Two days after my return from Smith Island, I made reservations to go back in 2023. The island is on borrowed time, and I want to visit regularly. Despite the efforts, Smith Island’s long term survival is in jeopardy. Residents live by the tides to preserve their freedom – but the water is also swallowing up their land.
Thirteen other Chesapeake Bay islands vanished in the last century. How long can Smith Island hang on?
Holland Island: A Cautionary Tale
In 2012, Holland Island completely vanished into the Chesapeake Bay. Once home to almost 400 watermen and farmers, Holland Island was abandoned by 1930. Waterman and Methodist minster Stephen White tried to save the island in the 1990s. In 2010, he admitted defeat and sold what was left to the Concorde Foundation. It’s now marshland that’s partially submerged and home to thousands of birds. Watch a ten-minute documentary on Holland Island here.
The Washington Post published an article about Smith Island on July 5, 2023: Climate change could swamp this island. Home sales are surging.
Elizabeth Tuico owns Rebel Road Creative, a marketing and content writing firm, based in Washington, DC.