Travel and Adventure by Various Travel Authors

By Victor Block

Talk about hometown pride! I heard that people on Smith Island in Chesapeake Bay love their isolated lifestyle, and that residents of each of the three tiny towns there tout its superiority over the others.

Even so, the reply of a grizzled Maryland waterman whom I invited to accompany me on the five-minute boat ride to another village came as a surprise. "Nope," he said, "I've already been there."

Along with being chauvinistic about their small island and even tinier town, Smith Islanders also are hardy, proud, independent and very welcoming to visitors.

That last trait is no accident. When people share a group of grassy island strands encompassing only about 8,000 acres, of which just 900 are habitable, it helps to develop a friendly attitude.

Despite its name, Smith Island actually consists of three minute islets, each occupied by a village. Ewell and Rhodes Point are connected by a short wooden bridge, while Tylerton stands alone.

Captain John Smith spotted the diminutive archipelago during his exploration of the Chesapeake Bay in 1608. Eventually, it was named not for him, but for a Henry Smith, a prominent early landowner.

The first 17th century settlers had names like Marshall, Bradshaw, Evans and Tyler, and many residents today have the same surnames. A number of them can trace their ancestry back 12 generations to those early colonists.

Their unique way of speaking also derives in part from the initial wave of settlers. Most were English and Welsh, and vestiges of their Elizabethan dialect persist. After a few hours on the island I realized that "air" means "are," "why" translates to "way," and "tie-yum" refers to "time."

Following in the bootsteps of their ancestors, most island residents eke out a living from the gray waters of the Chesapeake Bay. That means dropping traps or trotlines for crabs from spring to fall, and dredging for oysters in winter. In recent decades, the island's economy has come to depend primarily upon crabbing. Along with hard shell crabs, Smith has evolved into the center of the country's soft shell crab industry.

Each of the three communities has a small harbor from which locally built workboats venture forth, often well before daybreak, to return as much as 12 hours later. The waters are thick with multicolored buoys bobbing in the waves, each marking a wire crab "pot." Male crabs are the usual bait, luring females that enter fully expecting a mating ritual, only to end up eventually on someone's lunch or dinner plate.

Brought back to land, "peeler" crabs, those about to lose their hard cover and become highly prized soft shells, are put in large trays called "floats" through which water circulates to keep them alive. They're checked every few hours and as soon as they shed their shell, are scooped out with a net and prepared for shipment to markets near and far.

Hard crabs face a different, if no less ultimate, fate. Most end up, still living, at restaurants not far from where they grew up. There they are sprinkled with a peppery mixture of spices, steamed until the shells turn from blue to red, and often washed down with cold beer.

Others have a shorter trip, no further than the Smith Island Crab Co-op in Tylerton. On many mornings and evenings during the crabbing season, women gather in the nondescript little building to pick succulent meat out of the shells with speed and dexterity that are a wonder to behold. The pickers are equally renowned for their voices as they sing hymns to help ease the monotony of their task.

Observing and listening to the action at the Crab Co-op by no means exhausts opportunities to sample what Smith Island has to offer.

Strolling around the three towns, or traveling by bicycle or rental golf cart, introduces a way of life unlikely to be encountered elsewhere. How many places have you visited where two golf carts passing constitutes rush hour?

Another inviting way to get around is by canoe or kayak. A system of marked water trails leads through creeks (called "guts") and canals that offer panoramic views of the scenery, consisting primarily of tidal marshes and mud flats. They also provide opportunities for close-up encounters with wildlife, including heron, pelicans, bald eagles and many other resident and migratory birds. In addition, angling for striped bass (rockfish), sea trout, flounder and other gamefish is excellent.

Each village is built around a Methodist Church that serves as both a kind of unofficial government and center of community life. Since 1887, a weeklong camp meeting held every summer at the church in Ewell has combined services and children's Bible classes with homecoming and reunion festivities, and is a high point of each year's social activities. This year, it will take place July 26-Aug. 3.

While some residents of Ewell and Rhodes Point own a vehicle, there are only three pickups in Tylerton, plus one car, which doesn't run. No car, no problem! Tylerton, population about 70 at latest count and only two blocks by four blocks in size, hardly requires any mode of transportation other than feet. A five-minute boat ride brings you to Ewell (pop. 223), which is connected to Rhodes Point (pop. 90) by a strip of bumpy asphalt a little over 1 mile long that locals euphemistically call "the highway."

The closest thing to a tourist attraction is a small Visitors Center and Cultural Museum in Ewell, where boat models, newspaper clippings and other exhibits depict the history, economy and traditions of the island. An excellent 20-minute film tellingly portrays the work of watermen and life on Smith Island, much of it recounted by residents in their own words.

Another "must" for visitors is to throw diet to the wind and sample Smith Island Cake, a towering delicacy of usually eight or nine thin layers that in 2008 year was designated as the official dessert of Maryland. Most common is yellow cake with chocolate icing, but flavors like coconut, fig and orange also are popular.

As important as taste to cake bakers, which include virtually every female resident, are the shape and perfection of the layers. I came to understand that the saying, "On Smith Island, a girl isn't considered a full-fledged woman until she can produce a proper cake," is no idle comment.

Where else could that statement be true? In how many other places would a proud inhabitant like Sharon Bruce concede to a visitor that life is hard and many young people are leaving the locale because of that, then add, "But it's home to us, and we love it here."

IF YOU GO

Smith Island is 12 miles from Crisfield, Md., which is about a 3-hour drive from Washington, D.C., or Baltimore. Three small passenger ferries and one larger cruise boat offer service to the island, about a 45-minute ride on calm days.

For accommodations, there's a choice of several inviting B&B's. The Inn of Silent Music in Tylerton, built by a ship's captain circa 1916, has three appealing guest rooms, each with a water view. Rates are in the $110-$130 range. Hostess Linda Kellogg, a former personal chef, offers true gourmet dinners that, at $25 per person, are as reasonable as they are outstanding. For more information call (410) 425-3541 or log onto innofsilentmusic.com.

For information about Smith Island, call (800) 521-9189 or log onto visitsomerset.com.

Victor Block is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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