The Island in

Prehistoric

Times

During the time of the last great 

ice sheet ten thousand years ago,

E a s t e rn Neck Island was not an

island at all. Native Americans may

have paused here while hunting to

look out over a wide forested valley 

to the west. There, the Susquehanna

River was carving through 

fine-grained deposits placed by 

meltwaters and wind during earlier

glacial cycles on its long way to the

sea. The Atlantic Ocean’s shore at 

that time was 200 miles east of its

present location.

As the last glacier melted, sea levels

slowly rose. Sea waters swallowed 

up the Atlantic coastal plain and 

drowned the river valley. By 4,000

years ago the ancient hunters would

not have recognized the area where

their descendants, the Wo o d l a n d

Period Indians, now fished and 

gathered shellfish from the brackish

waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Aft e r

the Woodland people began to settle

down and cultivate crops at inland

sites around 1300 A.D., they still 

used the island as a seasonal foraging

area. They left behind huge mounds

of discarded oyster shells, called 

middens, as well as pottery pieces,

stone tools, and arr o w h e a d s

as evidence of their presence.

When Captain John Smith explored

this area in 1608, he made contact

with the Ozinie Indians, who were

related to the Algonquin-speaking

Nanticokes. This tribe was noted for

their exceptional beadwork made

from shells. In the 1600’s, English

settlers assigned local Native

Americans to reservations, or

forced them to disperse with the

Po w h a t a n s . Some Native Americans

abandoned their traditional lifestyle

and remained among the English.

The History of

Eastern Neck

Island

E a s t e rn Neck Island is located at the

mouth of the Chester River on the

e a s t e rn shore of the Chesapeake

Bay in Kent County, Maryland. Its

abundant natural resources have

been the basis of a long and varied

h i s t o ry. To d a y, the 2,285-acre island

is a national wildlife refuge which is

managed to provide habitat for many

species of migratory birds, and

endangered and threatened species

including Delmarva fox squirrels and

bald eagles. Fa rming, fishing and

hunting still occur on the refuge,

although they are now tailored to 

suit the needs of wildlife.

© Meryl Henderson

© Meryl Henderson

This goose, designed by

J.N. “Ding” Darling, has

become a symbol of the

National Wildlife Refuge

System.
Joseph Wickes’ most famous

descendant was his great-grandson,

Captain Lambert Wickes, the first

Navy officer named by Congress in

1776 to carry the American flag in

European waters. During the

R e v o l u t i o n a ry War he terr o r i z e d

British shipping, capturing at least

twenty-eight “prizes.” He also carr i e d

Benjamin Franklin to France aboard

his flagship, the R e p r i s a l, when

Franklin was trying to gain Fr e n c h

support for the American Revolution.

Lambert Wickes was lost at sea when

his ship foundered and sank in a

severe storm off Newfoundland on

a return trip from France in 1777.

A memorial to Captain Wickes is

found on Eastern Neck Island, near

the Wickliffe site.

The American

Revolution

In 1631 William Claiborne began the

first permanent settlement on the

E a s t e rn Shore, a fur trading post

on Kent Island. Colonel Joseph

Wickes, another early settler on Ke n t

Island, could look east across the

Chester River from his plantation on

Love Point to the lands that came to

be called Eastern Neck, where he

decided to acquire land as well.

From 1658 to 1680, Wickes and his

p a r t n e r, Thomas Hynson, were

granted tracts until they owned all

of Eastern Neck Island. Joseph

Wickes built a home, “Wickliffe,” 

one of the finest mansions of the time.

He made his living by raising tobacco

and other crops, and exporting

them on ships built at the family’ s

shipyard. For a time, the island may

have been the County seat, for

Wickes was Chief Justice of Ke n t

C o u n t y. “Hail Point” was named

because it was a place where all ships

coming and going on the Chester

River could be seen and hailed to

enforce shipping regulations. In 1675

the settlement of “New Ya rm o u t h ”

was established just north of Eastern

Neck Island at Gum Point. This town

became the county seat until 1696,

when the county government moved

to the fast-growing port of

C h e s t e r t o w n .

European

Settlement

© Meryl Henderson
© Meryl Henderson
Quieter Times Hynson’s heirs eventually sold all

their Eastern Neck Island lands to

Wickes’ heirs, and the island was

owned by the Wickes family until

1902. The period from 1800 to 1900

witnessed the division of the original

parcels of land among the Wi c k e s

family and the diversification of

f a rming activities. Small family farm s

and sharecroppers engaged in

logging, dairying, raising sheep and

horses, and growing peaches, pears,

asparagus, and various other crops

for subsistence and cash. A small

fishing village, which included an

oyster-shucking plant, was located at

Bogles wharf. The Chester River

Steamboat Company operated a

w h a rf nearby that was regularly

s e rved by steamships from Baltimore

and other ports.

As society became increasingly

mobile in the 1920's, wealthy

individuals from surrounding cities

were attracted by the area’s notable

concentrations of waterfowl and

bought portions of the island for

hunting retreats. One of the hunting

lodges, built in 1930, still stands; it is

now used for refuge programs.

In the 1950s a developer bought a

large tract and subdivided it into 293

small lots for a housing development.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv i c e ,

responding to concerns over the

development expressed by the local

c o m m u n i t y, acquired the entire

island between 1962 and 1967 to

p r e s e rve its valuable wildlife habitat.

The present refuge office is the only

house ever built in the “Cape

C h e s t e r” subdivision.

© Meryl Henderson
Artifact Hunting Artifact hunting has long been a

popular activity for visitors to

E a s t e rn Neck. However, this practice

is no longer allowed because when an

artifact is removed from its original

location, not only does the object

itself disappear, but the story it could

have told an archaeologist is also lost

f o r e v e r. Since all of the sites and

artifacts on the refuge are now

protected by Federal and State law,

if you discover any artifacts on the

refuge, please leave the object in

place and report its location to the

refuge staff.

© Meryl Henderson

© Meryl Henderson