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The rise and fall of Bay’s level determines islands’ empires
Most of what now exists of eroding James Island is memories
Life on Smith Island ebbs and flows to a rhythm all its own
If you want to see Smith Island within the confines of one day, it can certainly be done. But you might be missing something.
Thousands of people take a day trip to the island, in roughly the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, every summer. They board a ferry from Crisfield, MD, or Reedville, VA, leaving their cars behind. They clamber off the boat, usually at the village of Ewell, and roam the island until the return trip to the mainland a few hours later.
If that’s all the time you have to spend on Smith Island, you won’t be disappointed.
You’ll have a warm, local welcome at the visitors center, and maybe a cold iced tea at Ruke’s, a colorful general store across the street. You’ll see watermen—their boats and their shanties—as well as neighborhoods hugging narrow streets and herons swooping through the marsh.
You’ll hear the famous Smith Island accent, with inflections that evolved from 17th century English dialects. You might also opt for a seafood lunch at the Bayside Inn, or tour the outlying area of Rhodes Point on a rented bicycle or golf cart.
With a bit more time, though, the experience of Smith Island will mean more than its sights.
As with any getaway, it takes a while to shrug off the need to get somewhere or do something soon. But given some unhurried time on Smith Island, the mental sigh eventually hits profound totality. Your daily world is certainly far away. So is the onslaught of cars, stores, restaurants and recreation options that send even vacationers into a flurry of motion.
Smith Island is delightfully un-slick, a small universe of simple pleasures and rugged realities of life in rhythm with the Bay. It is also a window into the slower, earthbound communities that once dominated U.S. lifestyles.
It’s a place where people slow down and talk to one another.
Janet Tyler, who traces her family roots on the island back more than three centuries, manages the Smith Island Center.
“People come in to the center and say, ‘Someone was waving at me.’ I tell them, yeah, they do that around here,” she said.
The Smith Island Center, a member of the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, portrays the many ties between people and place, and how history has affected them both. Exhibits explore the human heritage of the island, from Native Americans to the English settlers and their contemporary descendants.
“It’s a small island with a lot of history and friendly people,” Tyler said.
Smith Island is actually a cluster of marshy islands of approximately 8,000 acres. Only 900 acres are inhabitable, and the three small villages of Ewell, Rhodes Point and Tylerton are huddled on the gentle elevations that pass for high ground. Tylerton is fully detached from Ewell and Rhodes Point and can be reached only by boat.
About 250 people call the island home, down from 380 in 1996 and a peak population of 805 in 1910.
Crabbing is central to life on the island, shaping both daily life and seasonal rhythms. Most of the men are crabbers, and many of the women pick crab meat for market. Others run bed and breakfasts, work in the two tiny post offices, or manage one of the island’s three general stores.
There are also a growing number of newcomers: urban exiles and summer folks who have purchased some of the island’s vacant homes. And since 1978, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has offered overnight education programs in Tylerton.
“Don’t say that this is a dwindling town that’s going to vanish, because it isn’t. It’s not vanishing. It’s changing,” said Duke Marshall, who runs Tylerton’s Drum Point Market.
Smith Island first showed up on European maps in 1608, when English explorer Capt. John Smith charted its shores nearly 400 years ago.
But the island is not named for Smith. He called it “Russel Isles,” to honor the doctor who saved him from a near fatal infection. It spent the next century or so known variously as the Russel Islands, Tager or Tanger Islands, and even “Broken Woodlands.”
In 1679, a Virginian named Henry Smith acquired 1,000 acres of the island where he built a substantial plantation known as Pitchcroft. The island gleaned its permanent name from this man about 100 years later.
While Smith Island today is almost synonymous with commercial crabbing, its first settlers didn’t come to work the water. They came to farm. But the island suffers serious erosion problems and, as cropland washed away, farming came to an end. More than 1,200 acres have been lost to erosion in the last 100 years alone.
The descendants of 17th century settlers like John Evans and John Tyler now depend on the Bay to make a living. Because most visitors come during the busiest crabbing season—when watermen spend long days on the Bay—the visitors center offers a short film with an intimate look at their work cycle, both on the water and at home.
“The Bay is our provider, protector, jailer and tormentor,” explained one waterman, who is featured in the film.
Watermen work extremely long days on the water, in all kinds of weather, including one– to two-hour commutes to harvest and set crab pots, and an evening run to Crisfield to deliver their catch. At times, the Bay is generous. At other times, it’s not. Younger generations are less inclined to trust a future on the water. Those who do face difficulties in getting a crabbing license and covering a barrage of startup expenses.
Methodism also stands as a long and important tradition on Smith Island. A visitors center exhibit details how the faith was introduced there in the early 1800s by Joshua Thomas, a fisherman turned preacher. Called the “parson of the islands,” Thomas sailed the Bay in a log canoe to affirm a version of Christianity in which ordinary people who could pray directly to a God who affects both humans and nature. His message was met with a vigorous welcome on Smith Island.
A corner window in the visitors center deliberately frames the neighboring church as a living extension of the exhibit and an eloquent expression of community faith.
Smith Islanders are fiercely independent, resourceful and self-sufficient. They value their unique place on the globe, but also like to debunk the myths.
“A lot of people ask if we have electricity,” Tyler smiled.
Yes, they do. But they don’t have malls or sell alcohol. At last count, there were about 90 cars on the island, but they aren’t used much and are far outnumbered by approximately 310 boats, 180 bikes and more than 30 golf carts. The island has one school, which opened in 1996 to serve students through the sixth grade. Beginning with seventh grade, island youth make daily commutes to secondary schools on the mainland.
It’s also true that Smith Island boasts more than its fair share of kitchen skills. Soft crabs and 10-layer cakes are mainstays.
“There’s good cooking on this island,” Tyler said with a nod.
Smith Island is a rare opportunity to contemplate a unique, water-based world, best explored by moving beyond the sightseeing basics. Take the time to fish and kayak, or attend church if you like. Talk with people. Eat cake. Find out what it means to be a “bean snucker” or why you ought to take cover when a “genuine fuzz code” is coming.
Smith Island is also a good place to experience a sense of community running generations deep while extending itself easily to newcomers—and ponder why we may have to be on an island to find it.
Smith Island Center
The Smith Island Center is open noon to 4 p.m. daily, May thru October. Admission is $2. For information, call 410-425-3351 or 800-521-9189, e-mail: mailto:smithisl@intercom.net or visit www.smithisland.org. This website provides a list of bed-and-breakfast accommodations on the island.
Getting There: Smith Island, 12 miles from the mainland in Crisfield, MD, is accessible only by boat. Ferries are for passengers only (not cars). Phone ahead to confirm prices, schedules and reservations.
- Island Belle II under Capt. Otis Ray Tyler. Daily, year-round. Leaves Crisfield at 12:30 p.m. and departs from Ewell at 4 p.m. Official mail boat for the island. Call 410-968-1118.
- Captain Jason I & II under Captains Terry & Larry Laird. Daily, year-round. Leaves Crisfield at 12:30 p.m. and 5 p.m., docking at both Ewell and Tylerton. Return trips at 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Special tours by arrangement. Call 410-425-5931 or 410-425-4471.
- Captain Tyler II under Capt. Alan Tyler. Daily, Memorial Day through October. Options include short island tour and/or family-style seafood luncheon. Leaves Crisfield at 12:30 p.m. and departs from Ewell at 4 p.m. Departs from Point Lookout at 10 a.m. and leaves Ewell at 2 p.m. Overnight cruises with stops and accommodations in nearby areas are also available. Call 410-425-2771 or visit www.smithislandcruises.com.
- Spirit of the Chesapeake under Capt. Gregory Evans. Seasonal, narrated cruise with optional island tour. Leaves from the KOA Campground near Reedville, VA, at 10 a.m. Call 804-453-3430.
Docking for private boats with a draft of less than 3 feet is available by calling Ruke’s Store at 410-425-2311 or Smith Island Marina at 410-425-4220.
Upcoming Events
- Smith Island Day: July 23 - Scrape boat race, skiff docking, games & barbecue
- Methodist Camp Meeting: July 30 to Aug. 6. Public Welcome
- Taste of the Island Dinner & Moonlight Cruise: Sept. 23 - Benefit for the Smith Island Center. For information, call the center at 410-425-3351 or 800-521-9189.
