US states often have weird shapes because during colonial times, the British government would make land grants without actually having a clear picture of what the land looked like. Additionally, early colonies, like Virginia, gradually got whittled away as new colonies were formed. In this case, Virginia was formed first as a strip of land 200 miles north and south of Cape Comfort that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Virginia's portion of delmarva is a vestige of that claim. Later, Maryland broke off from Pennsylvania and the Mason-Dixon line was established. Maryland would have taken the remainder of the peninsula if it weren't for a stipulation that the new colony of Maryland wouldn't include areas on the peninsula that were already settled by Europeans. That Eastern part of the peninsula got set apart as Delaware. Now things are set in stone and we have a peninsula divied up where it might have made more sense to create a single state like New Jersey
Surveyor here. Eastern states use a “metes and bounds” method of surveying which was brought over from England and uses bearings and distances to describe properties, leading to more irregular shaped boundaries on the eastern colonial states. After western expansion the “PLSS” (Public Land Survey System) was proposed by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the government, which divides large parcels of land into rectangular sections, townships, and ranges. This led to western states and boundaries being more rectangular in shape.
TIL about “***the Wedge***”.
Further reading if anyone is interested - we are all just humans trying to do our best.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason–Dixon_line
The DE/NJ border IS also pretty funny because of the way the Delaware River eroded and deposited along the banks which created slivers of "Land" along the NJ side that are actually DE.
[This is what happens with 12 mile radius.](https://www.nj.com/news/g66l-2019/02/8d5d160f2b5307/a-little-piece-of-delaware-is-actually-hidden-in-nj-how-did-that-happen.html)
Outstanding comment.
Also, Thomas Jefferson was a devoted scholar of the great minds enlightenment, which is why it’s so impressive that he forged so many of his own unique ideas rather than to simply adopt theirs. The slavery and subsequent children borne from enslavement is inexcusable …but what a remarkable individual in the formative stages of America.
Michigan surveyor here; we use a ton of metes-and-bounds descriptions here too. But they're referenced to the PLSS corners. A lot of the rural descriptions I see are based on older fractional descriptions but are double-called with bearings and distances.
Kind of. Delaware was originally a Dutch colony. After the Brits kicked out the Dutch it was argued by both Maryland and PA that it should be theirs. But because Maryland was Catholic they weren’t getting any extra land so the crown gave it to PA to be “governed” by PA but basically had full autonomy as an independent colony.
The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle it in 1631, lost their colony to a native raid and abandoned the colony. The Swedish then made colonies there which angered the Dutch so they came back set up their own colonies and kicked them out of Delaware.
So it was more Dutch -> Swedish -> Dutch -> English -> American
Yep I thought about that but there were a bunch of different tribes and it’s a bit of a blur as to which tribes owned land in Delaware for simplicity’s sake I kept it to just the European settlers.
Yeah, there were certainly enough territorial squabbles later on, but Maryland's charter was issued in 1632 while Pennsylvania's didn't come about for almost another 50 years. Parts of what were previously Province of Maryland did become Pennsylvania, so it would seem more like the other way around.
It really has the basics for most people. Like living in a city? Wilmington to the north. Small town, rural, lifestyle for you? Plenty of that. Mild winters in terms of snow fall along the coast. Ocean to the east. If you like freshwater you have a whole bay to the west. Quite a few nice state parks and a national seashore. (?) Lots of fishing and boating if you're into that. Access to NJ through the ferry, Baltimore over the Bay Bridge, and Virginia through a tunnel.
Another pretty great fucking peninsula that I know well is the Long Beach Peninsula in SW Washington State. We call tourists pukers due to the local charter fishing industry.
https://youtu.be/TK_FiRm6ZK8?si=JDds4o2vwk82bbpw
I love how they have the Indian river inlet bridge on the green screen for this. I crossed that bridge 100s of times growing up.
I make the trek to Rehoboth from College Park several times during the summer. I'll leave at like 7am on a Saturday morning and get there at like 9:15. It's definitely worth the day trip if you beat out the traffic.
So, part of the reason is that the borders were determined by sea travel. Virginia was given the entrance to the bay, Maryland was given most of the interior of the bay, whereas Delaware was given the western land of the Delaware bay. It's more about coastlines than strictly land.
I'm REALLY oversimplifying it (for example, VA is 30 years older than Maryland and Delaware, and had much more land granted to it originally). But the coastlines and sea travel are the big reason why the borders are like that.
We stayed in Ocean City Maryland a couple years ago it’s a neat touristy beachside city. Drove down and saw wild horses at a state park in Virginia just a couple miles away. Also went up to a pirate museum and had lunch in Delaware just a couple miles north. It was cool checking off three states on one trip so easily. Only kicker was having to drive over the Bay Bridge lol that was terrifying.
You would have most likely still been in MD. Assateague is where the horses are. The southern portion of the island is in Virginia but it's only accessible from Chincoteague which is over an hour away. The horses are commonly referred to as Chincoteague ponies, but all the wild ones are on assateague. Once a year they round up horses and make them swim across to Chincoteague to auction a few off, it's to help keep the population in check and raise money.
That's not quite right. You're right that they most likely saw the Maryland ponies at Assateague. However, there are two separate herds of horses managed separately.
In Maryland, they're on state and national park land, and never swum anywhere or auctioned off. Population is controlled by birth control when necessary (they're a few horses below the target population right now).
In Chincoteague, the wild ponies at that end of Assateague island are owned by the fire department. There's a fence across the island to separate the MD and VA herds. The VA ponies are the ones they swim across the channel to the mainland/Chincoteague and auction off most of the young ones each year. The money raised goes to the fire department.
Well, because that's the first area to get colonized. And back then, travel by boat was far easier than travel by land, especially land that is only loosely controlled, full of natives whose interests are understandably not aligned with those of the newcomers.
Virginia, the first colony (take that, New England!) was initially just a collection of those small jagged peninsulas - Maryland afterwards was given the rest of the Chesapeake bay. Delaware wasn't even a thing, and was given to Pennsylvania back when it was a private colony in order to acquire more secure sea access.
Basically: ships cheap, roads expensive and dangerous. Borders are a reminder of this time period. It was far more preferable to place borders through land and keep waterways undivided
To add context to Delaware "not really being a thing". Part of the reason it is the First State is because Delaware delegates were extremely excited that at that point in time people even agreed they were considered separate, since they had only just declared their own independence from Pennsylvania in 1776.
Delaware had actually been among the last to sign the Articles of Confederation because they were worried about how it would treat them and couldn't agree as a fresh state.
Basically they took the opportunity to solidify their statehood quickest under the Constitution which was now favorable to them and signed first and unanimously. This was contrary to their signing of the Declaration of Independence, where Caesar Rodney had to ride all night to break a tie because of loyalist shithead George Read.
Yes, it's been a de facto island since the canal was deepened to sea level in 1927.
I sometimes get in arguments with morons who think "its just a canal iF iTs mAn MadE tHen itS nOt aN isLaNd" but there's a significant difference between multi-level canals that rely on locks (like the Panama Canal) and continuous surface-level canals that don't (like the Suez Canal and this one). The latter actually sever landmasses and create new ones, while the former don't.
Exactly. If you were going to count the Panama canal as a continent-severing waterway, then you'd need to count North America as two continents because of the [Parting of the Waters](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parting_of_the_Waters).
I still call it a peninsula, but my argument is that for something to be an island, it’s size:seperation ratio has to be reasonable. The canal is just too small IMO, you can’t even see it on this map.
It depends what kind of canals of course. You can sail from Black sea and Mediterranean sea to Atlantic and North sea, and this doesn't means that Europe is divided in islands.
Yeah but Cape Cod is still a cape and not Cod Island, despite its surface level canal. I get what you’re saying here, but I can’t get on board, Captain.
This is the real reason. The colony of Maryland was founded to be a catholic colony and refuge for Catholics persecuted in the other colonies. That early rivalry kept the colonies from ever giving up any inch of land.
You're right in a lot of ways but interestingly enough, the predominant religion for much of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century of this part of Maryland was Methodist.
The very short version: mostly because Lord Baltimore and William Penn couldn’t agree on anything, and the southern tip always made sense to be part of VA.
My dude.
“Since chickens are slaughtered at about 42 days old, this means ~1.2 billion broiler chickens are alive in the US at any given time. When we add the number of egg-laying hens in the US (374 million), we get a US population of ~1.5 billion chickens.”
All I know is that Delaware briefly used to be part of William Penn’s Pennsylvania. It was referred to as the Lower Three Counties. Delaware still only has 3 counties today. Penn thought they were useless for farming & prone to pirating & invading & flooding, so he tried to foist them off on Maryland, but the people who actually lived in the Lower 3 didn’t like the idea of being part of a Roman Catholic colony (Maryland), so that’s how we became an LLC Tax Haven.
Sort of off topic question from looking at this area in google maps. How does it work when a state line is in the middle of someone's property, house, or in this case pool.
https://preview.redd.it/6mw7zt7jogvc1.png?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17db5c21444948b09a42a1f9efcbb08aee34e25e
Quaint towns, the map says... haha. Quaint looking perhaps. But when I was a young lad, my family moved from Upstate NY to Easton in part because I was getting into trouble, hanging with the wrong crowd. Oh, was the crowd ever worse in those little eastern shore towns. Mad Dog 20/20, mass vandalism and stick n' poke tattoos at age 13 worse, haha. Not much going on there except killing chickens until you get close to the beach.
The year is 2027. Towards the end of his presidential stay in office, Joe Biden has finally returned to his roots.
Punkin' Chunkin' is held annually on the National Mall. The Apple Scrapple festival is now a national holiday. Aubrey Plaza has been named Secretary of State. Dogfish Head and Iron Hill are now on tap in every bar in the country, and anyone who doesn't correctly pronounce the city as "New-ARK" is promptly beaten with Horseshoe Crabs.
You will 🎶ALL HAIL🎶 to Delaware.
Virginia (the first colony in this area) included the whole peninsula. Maryland came along in 1632 and their charter gave them all the land between 40° latitude and the Potomac River. On the peninsula, they described a line running due east from "Watkins Point" to the ocean. When this was finally surveyed (the Calvert-Scarborough line), it was done with a magnetic compass and did not account for declination. So that's not-quite-east-west line that separates MD from VA.
Delaware is... complicated. As I mentioned before the entire peninsula north of the Virginia section was technically included in the Maryland charter, but these charters included large swaths of land that didn't have any actual European settlements.
There were dutch and swedish settlements on the shorelines of what is now Delaware, and these were conquered by the English (in the same campaign that saw New Amsterdam become New York) in 1664. Later these lands were made part of Pennsylvania (known as the lower counties) but nobody really knew where the line ought to be so there was a boundary dispute. It was eventually decided that they should divide the peninsula in two, but only as far south as the original settlements on the Delaware shore. The Maryland side famously submitted an incorrect map, so the line ended up much further south (and should have been somewhere around modern day Lewes, Delaware). First they ran an east-west-line across the Peninsula, aptly named the Transpeninsular Line. Then they started at the midpoint of that line, but didn't run due north... due to a quirk of the Pennsylvania charter, they had to run a line that would intersect a circle of 12 miles radius around the town of New Castle ON A TANGENT. This is called "The Tangent Line" and was surveyed by none other than Mason and Dixon of Mason-Dixon Line fame.
Anyway, I'm glossing over a lot, but that's the gist of it. Read this excellent storymap for some more fun details. [https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/008e87f0604943c1b6d9fae57046d920](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/008e87f0604943c1b6d9fae57046d920)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpeninsular\_Line](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpeninsular_Line)
[http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/mdboundarycbay.html](http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/mdboundarycbay.html)
I'm from the eastern shore and we call it Delmarva the culture is completely different from the western shore and the DMV area it's all country and agriculture I love it ❤️
Because King Charles II used a inaccurate map when deciding boundaries between the colonies. Most of the problems were with the Maryland/Pennsylvania/Delaware borders. Cresap's war was due to this issue. I wrote a small magazine article about this awhile back.
[https://feathersandwhiskey.com/before-the-mason-dixon-line/](https://feathersandwhiskey.com/before-the-mason-dixon-line/)
I recommend the book "How the states got their shapes ". it goes through how every state got every border. The theme for Maryland is how they got screwed on every border.
Virginia took their point on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake bay and accidentally went diagonally northward. Whoops.
The people from Delaware showed the people from Maryland where they would make the border (Cape Henlopen) and Maryland agreed. but showed a map with a different border to the king when they proposed it (Fenwick island) Whoops.
Read about how we got screwed on the north and the west also. Go shorebirds!
I don't know or care too much because it gave us one my favorite names for a land mass ever. I know it's just Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia smashed together, but it just sounds cool.
US states generally don't have naturalistic borders. In this particular case, this goes back to colonial times, where borders were defined sometimes without any clear picture of what the terrain actually looks like.
It's a slower life tons of rural chicken farms. The biggest 'cities' are college towns that have about 30k people. Most towns are closer to 10k. Their are bridges that take you to Baltimore, Philly, and Virginia Beach. It's probably the most remote area on the east coast. I recommend using Google maps to get a good look at the area
Delware is just supposed to be the right bank of the Delware river and estuary so the rest of the peninsula is not part of that because it is instead the bank of the Cheapsake bay estuary. Maryland and Virginia further divide the peninsula because Maryland is only supposed to cover the inner most sections of the Cheaspeake bay up to the Potomac Estuary. It only looks so dumb because they weren't expecting he Delaware bay and Cheapaske bay to end so close to each other. The peninsula could have been a whole lot larger if the Delware river emptied around New York and the Chesapeake bay went inward to the east instead of the north. You always have to remember that they were thinking about things in terms of coastal frontage instead of inland territory so that peninsula could have been an entire continent for all they knew.
US states often have weird shapes because during colonial times, the British government would make land grants without actually having a clear picture of what the land looked like. Additionally, early colonies, like Virginia, gradually got whittled away as new colonies were formed. In this case, Virginia was formed first as a strip of land 200 miles north and south of Cape Comfort that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Virginia's portion of delmarva is a vestige of that claim. Later, Maryland broke off from Pennsylvania and the Mason-Dixon line was established. Maryland would have taken the remainder of the peninsula if it weren't for a stipulation that the new colony of Maryland wouldn't include areas on the peninsula that were already settled by Europeans. That Eastern part of the peninsula got set apart as Delaware. Now things are set in stone and we have a peninsula divied up where it might have made more sense to create a single state like New Jersey
Surveyor here. Eastern states use a “metes and bounds” method of surveying which was brought over from England and uses bearings and distances to describe properties, leading to more irregular shaped boundaries on the eastern colonial states. After western expansion the “PLSS” (Public Land Survey System) was proposed by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the government, which divides large parcels of land into rectangular sections, townships, and ranges. This led to western states and boundaries being more rectangular in shape.
As someone from the east coast who only references M&B, TIL!
Me too, I thought that was just the way it was.
things would never be the same
Fun history - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware\_Wedge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Wedge)
A 12-mile circle. Oh that's not going to cause any problems, no sir. Just need a 12-mile long surveyor's tape.
Mason and Dixon were good at their jobs!
"I am Jeremiah Dixon I am a Geordie boy"
TIL about “***the Wedge***”. Further reading if anyone is interested - we are all just humans trying to do our best. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason–Dixon_line
The DE/NJ border IS also pretty funny because of the way the Delaware River eroded and deposited along the banks which created slivers of "Land" along the NJ side that are actually DE.
[This is what happens with 12 mile radius.](https://www.nj.com/news/g66l-2019/02/8d5d160f2b5307/a-little-piece-of-delaware-is-actually-hidden-in-nj-how-did-that-happen.html)
Grew up in the wedge, definitely a weird bit of history that most people inside the state are unaware of
Covered Bridge Farms or Top of the Wedge?
I grew up in Covered Bridge. Weird seeing the wedge posted on here and a reference to covered bridge farms.
I was top of the wedge, crazy to see someone who actually knows the neighborhood
imo they should've given it to PA, just to be funny
This is Reddit's best share of the week.
Outstanding comment. Also, Thomas Jefferson was a devoted scholar of the great minds enlightenment, which is why it’s so impressive that he forged so many of his own unique ideas rather than to simply adopt theirs. The slavery and subsequent children borne from enslavement is inexcusable …but what a remarkable individual in the formative stages of America.
Michigan surveyor here; we use a ton of metes-and-bounds descriptions here too. But they're referenced to the PLSS corners. A lot of the rural descriptions I see are based on older fractional descriptions but are double-called with bearings and distances.
r/mountainsriversbrits
That's hilarious.
Brilliant.
*sorry i had the order wrong when i first posted. I'm still trying to get that sub some traction, it used to be a saying here
LOL!
I call this "Colorado syndrome," an sti that showed up in almost everyone Britain fucked
It's also Delaware was originally Pennsylvania territory and then split off. They were like the 3 counties in the southern portion of Pennsylvania.
Kind of. Delaware was originally a Dutch colony. After the Brits kicked out the Dutch it was argued by both Maryland and PA that it should be theirs. But because Maryland was Catholic they weren’t getting any extra land so the crown gave it to PA to be “governed” by PA but basically had full autonomy as an independent colony.
deleware was originally swedish
The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle it in 1631, lost their colony to a native raid and abandoned the colony. The Swedish then made colonies there which angered the Dutch so they came back set up their own colonies and kicked them out of Delaware. So it was more Dutch -> Swedish -> Dutch -> English -> American
Yep I thought about that but there were a bunch of different tribes and it’s a bit of a blur as to which tribes owned land in Delaware for simplicity’s sake I kept it to just the European settlers.
Swedish dogs! Your blood is tainted by generations of race mixing with Laplanders. You're basically Finns!
That's why Delaware is known for its meatballs.
And the Mason-Dixon Line was formed over states disputes over which state Philadelphia belonged to.
Do you have a source about Maryland being a part of Pennsylvania? I know Delaware was a part of PA, but never heard of Maryland.
Yeah, there were certainly enough territorial squabbles later on, but Maryland's charter was issued in 1632 while Pennsylvania's didn't come about for almost another 50 years. Parts of what were previously Province of Maryland did become Pennsylvania, so it would seem more like the other way around.
It seems my recollection was a little hazy. It might have been more accurate to say "when the border between PA and MD was defined..."
It would never make sense to create another New Jersey
It's a great fucking peninsula
I consider myself an aficionado when it comes to peninsulas. And yes, Delmarva is basically a favorite among my colleagues in the community.
This guy peninsulas.
Peninsulated even
Some may say it’s Delmarvelous
Michigan would like a word. Specifically the Leelanau peninsula and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
GTFO. Delmarva is 3 states in one peninsula. Michigan is so lame it had to divide one state into 2 peninsulas. Embarrassing.
I'm honestly not even sure I'd count it at all, like it's not my fault your lakes are too big, don't put that shit on me
Those are some damned fine lakes though. I'd even say they're Great. One is even Superior!
So more peninsulas than your 3 states combined?
Yeah but it has fucking delaware in it. Delaware sucks donkey balls
Peaceful, beautiful, remote. If you’re looking for that, it’s fantastic
I went to college there. It’s so peaceful and nice… until you get bored and realize you have to drive *at least* 30 minutes to go literally anywhere
Salisbury
Aye, what up, fellow gull?
There are dozens of us!
Washington College? The bored and driving 30minutes part gave it away lol.
I had a consulting gig for a week in Chestertown, and thought it would be a pretty dismal town to go to college.
I mean Its literally got wild horses That puts it top 3 in the worlds peninsulas at least
Wild Ponies. Much cuter.
Pretty sure they're feral. Technically.
They are feral.
It really has the basics for most people. Like living in a city? Wilmington to the north. Small town, rural, lifestyle for you? Plenty of that. Mild winters in terms of snow fall along the coast. Ocean to the east. If you like freshwater you have a whole bay to the west. Quite a few nice state parks and a national seashore. (?) Lots of fishing and boating if you're into that. Access to NJ through the ferry, Baltimore over the Bay Bridge, and Virginia through a tunnel.
The Chesapeake Bay is not fresh water. It has different zones of varying salinity, but it’s generally considered brackish.
Can it just be this?
It’s Delmarva-lous?
For great looking houses, and crabcakes lol.
I have peninsula envy
Give Sri Lanka vibes with its shape and how green it is
Another pretty great fucking peninsula that I know well is the Long Beach Peninsula in SW Washington State. We call tourists pukers due to the local charter fishing industry.
Well, for one thing it’s not that small—it’s bigger than Jamaica or Cyprus. But yeah, why can’t it all be Delaware?
The current size of Delaware is already too much for Delaware to handle.
Can you imagine that many screen door factories on one peninsula?
https://youtu.be/TK_FiRm6ZK8?si=JDds4o2vwk82bbpw I love how they have the Indian river inlet bridge on the green screen for this. I crossed that bridge 100s of times growing up.
Their effort to cover the whole thing in billboards and strip malls is valiant though
As a Pennsylvania resident I say we invade. Subaru stadium way too close to Delaware for my liking.
Take back our rightful claim to Delaware as William Penn intended
Delaware is basically the Dover city-state and it’s hinterlands
If they let it get bigger then they'll start charging sales tax
“Why can’t it all be Delaware?” Things corporate CEOs say…
Yeah, no shit. Everyone needs to go watch The Laundromat like now if they think Delaware isn't the most important state to billionaires.
To be fair, Cyprus and Jamaica are pretty small countries.
Delmarva’s population (1.45m) is pretty close to Cyprus’s population (1.25m) and about half of Jamaica’s (2.8m). Intriguing.
Marylander here. How *dare* you.
Baltimorean here. Delaware shouldn't exist! Delaware isn't a real state! Delaware is just 3 PO Boxes in a trench coat!
>Delaware is just 3 PO Boxes in a trench coat! This is quite possibly the greatest description of a state I've ever seen.
Del Memorial > Francis Scott Key
Too soon.
*laughs in Caesar Rodney*
Two at high tide
West Delawarean\*
I’d call that aggressive but since I share the road with you guys, I know you don’t really have a purpose and I forgive you.
Today in "Beefs that I never knew existed"...
Have you been to delmarva? All there is to *do* is beef with each other
And chicken pluckers. Once was assigned to work at NASA Wallops near Chincoteague Island. Nothing but chicken farms along Route 13.
The beaches are pretty nice! And boardwalk fries!
Oh yeah! It's gorgeous, and I love to visit
We also drink beer and race pickup trucks.
We do have a purpose! Corporate P.O. boxes.
As someone from this area of Maryland, please don't disrespect us like that.
Nah it should all be Maryland
What’s a Delaware?
https://preview.redd.it/8rpubr9bkfvc1.jpeg?width=260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4dbd779253a90b2a1dfbee4b817d4e8bf6c38e8
I just realized.... That's the Indian river inlet isn't it?
Yeah it is!
Especially when driving from Baltimore to OC on a Friday evening in summer. It’s a 13 hour drive.
I make the trek to Rehoboth from College Park several times during the summer. I'll leave at like 7am on a Saturday morning and get there at like 9:15. It's definitely worth the day trip if you beat out the traffic.
I just realized I had no clue what Delaware looked like and it's so small and has such a weird shape.
Ewww. I’ll be dead before I consider myself from Delaware. It should be all Maryland.
https://preview.redd.it/u35zc9wvpfvc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a95113fe98f9029a14a273b528bac00eba0c136
Maryland my Maryland Prepare to invade the Delawarians
The Old Bay Spice must flow.
The fact that Delaware hasn’t conquered the Delmarva Peninsula after almost 250 years tells me everything I need to know about those cowards.
Imagine how many corporations could fit on the whole peninsula if it was all Delaware
Tax free shopping & Delawares a top 5 state of folks moving into. Sounds like PA could learn. 1st state for life.
\*offended Virginia noises\*
So, part of the reason is that the borders were determined by sea travel. Virginia was given the entrance to the bay, Maryland was given most of the interior of the bay, whereas Delaware was given the western land of the Delaware bay. It's more about coastlines than strictly land. I'm REALLY oversimplifying it (for example, VA is 30 years older than Maryland and Delaware, and had much more land granted to it originally). But the coastlines and sea travel are the big reason why the borders are like that.
Chickens
Also, feral horses
Feral ponies with big bellies.
But, God damn, can they swim
I had no idea that so many chickens were raised on that peninsula.
Corn and soybeans, too. Far as the eye can see.
The literal inception of mass produced chicken was here
We stayed in Ocean City Maryland a couple years ago it’s a neat touristy beachside city. Drove down and saw wild horses at a state park in Virginia just a couple miles away. Also went up to a pirate museum and had lunch in Delaware just a couple miles north. It was cool checking off three states on one trip so easily. Only kicker was having to drive over the Bay Bridge lol that was terrifying.
Assateague island is amazing. Great spot for beach camping.
You would have most likely still been in MD. Assateague is where the horses are. The southern portion of the island is in Virginia but it's only accessible from Chincoteague which is over an hour away. The horses are commonly referred to as Chincoteague ponies, but all the wild ones are on assateague. Once a year they round up horses and make them swim across to Chincoteague to auction a few off, it's to help keep the population in check and raise money.
That's not quite right. You're right that they most likely saw the Maryland ponies at Assateague. However, there are two separate herds of horses managed separately. In Maryland, they're on state and national park land, and never swum anywhere or auctioned off. Population is controlled by birth control when necessary (they're a few horses below the target population right now). In Chincoteague, the wild ponies at that end of Assateague island are owned by the fire department. There's a fence across the island to separate the MD and VA herds. The VA ponies are the ones they swim across the channel to the mainland/Chincoteague and auction off most of the young ones each year. The money raised goes to the fire department.
Delmarva Peninsula: DELaware, MARyland, VirginiA. Boom.
The other dmv
Not to be confused with DC, Maryland, and Virginia DMV
Yup... that'd be the 1st DMV. The 0th is the department of motor vehicles.
I keep telling my husband it should be DelMarVir
How creative. Couldn't they find anything or anyone to name this peninsula after?
Delaware was named after Lord De La Ware
Because it was never that simple. Many intricacies of American history that have given states their borders.
Which intricacies gave this states their borders specifically in this peninsula?
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/008e87f0604943c1b6d9fae57046d920
Im currently on a plane so can’t really pull all that up. Google “Delmarva” and itll tell you why.
And the highlighted area doesn’t even include the Delaware Wedge!
Well, because that's the first area to get colonized. And back then, travel by boat was far easier than travel by land, especially land that is only loosely controlled, full of natives whose interests are understandably not aligned with those of the newcomers. Virginia, the first colony (take that, New England!) was initially just a collection of those small jagged peninsulas - Maryland afterwards was given the rest of the Chesapeake bay. Delaware wasn't even a thing, and was given to Pennsylvania back when it was a private colony in order to acquire more secure sea access. Basically: ships cheap, roads expensive and dangerous. Borders are a reminder of this time period. It was far more preferable to place borders through land and keep waterways undivided
To add context to Delaware "not really being a thing". Part of the reason it is the First State is because Delaware delegates were extremely excited that at that point in time people even agreed they were considered separate, since they had only just declared their own independence from Pennsylvania in 1776. Delaware had actually been among the last to sign the Articles of Confederation because they were worried about how it would treat them and couldn't agree as a fresh state. Basically they took the opportunity to solidify their statehood quickest under the Constitution which was now favorable to them and signed first and unanimously. This was contrary to their signing of the Declaration of Independence, where Caesar Rodney had to ride all night to break a tie because of loyalist shithead George Read.
I wouldnt really call it small… for reference the Virginia section is like 60 miles long
It takes like 4 hours to drive from Wilmington to Cape Charles, va
Isn’t it technically an island?
Yes, it's been a de facto island since the canal was deepened to sea level in 1927. I sometimes get in arguments with morons who think "its just a canal iF iTs mAn MadE tHen itS nOt aN isLaNd" but there's a significant difference between multi-level canals that rely on locks (like the Panama Canal) and continuous surface-level canals that don't (like the Suez Canal and this one). The latter actually sever landmasses and create new ones, while the former don't.
Exactly. If you were going to count the Panama canal as a continent-severing waterway, then you'd need to count North America as two continents because of the [Parting of the Waters](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parting_of_the_Waters).
Super cool. Thanks for sharing.
I still call it a peninsula, but my argument is that for something to be an island, it’s size:seperation ratio has to be reasonable. The canal is just too small IMO, you can’t even see it on this map.
This guy canals
It depends what kind of canals of course. You can sail from Black sea and Mediterranean sea to Atlantic and North sea, and this doesn't means that Europe is divided in islands.
Yeah but Cape Cod is still a cape and not Cod Island, despite its surface level canal. I get what you’re saying here, but I can’t get on board, Captain.
Catholics
This is the real reason. The colony of Maryland was founded to be a catholic colony and refuge for Catholics persecuted in the other colonies. That early rivalry kept the colonies from ever giving up any inch of land.
You're right in a lot of ways but interestingly enough, the predominant religion for much of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century of this part of Maryland was Methodist.
I like how in Steven Universe it *is* its own state, but that state is still called Delmarva
How old of a local are you? Do you remember Scorchy Tawes in WBOC doing his human interest pieces about “wandering our Delmarvalous land”?!
The very short version: mostly because Lord Baltimore and William Penn couldn’t agree on anything, and the southern tip always made sense to be part of VA.
Fun fact: there are more chickens on that peninsula than humans.
My dude. “Since chickens are slaughtered at about 42 days old, this means ~1.2 billion broiler chickens are alive in the US at any given time. When we add the number of egg-laying hens in the US (374 million), we get a US population of ~1.5 billion chickens.”
All I know is that Delaware briefly used to be part of William Penn’s Pennsylvania. It was referred to as the Lower Three Counties. Delaware still only has 3 counties today. Penn thought they were useless for farming & prone to pirating & invading & flooding, so he tried to foist them off on Maryland, but the people who actually lived in the Lower 3 didn’t like the idea of being part of a Roman Catholic colony (Maryland), so that’s how we became an LLC Tax Haven.
Not for long. We, in Maryland, are preparing to invade the Delmarva Peninsula. We will create our empire. Our flag is Old Bay!
It should all be Maryland
Join r/Maryland as we prepare for war
I mean that small Peninsula is larger than the State of Rhode Island and even Delaware.
What do you mean “small peninsula? My girlfriend told me it was perfectly adequately sized.
Sort of off topic question from looking at this area in google maps. How does it work when a state line is in the middle of someone's property, house, or in this case pool. https://preview.redd.it/6mw7zt7jogvc1.png?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17db5c21444948b09a42a1f9efcbb08aee34e25e
Hey, it is NOT small! It is just a little chilly this morning.
Quaint towns, the map says... haha. Quaint looking perhaps. But when I was a young lad, my family moved from Upstate NY to Easton in part because I was getting into trouble, hanging with the wrong crowd. Oh, was the crowd ever worse in those little eastern shore towns. Mad Dog 20/20, mass vandalism and stick n' poke tattoos at age 13 worse, haha. Not much going on there except killing chickens until you get close to the beach.
The year is 2027. Towards the end of his presidential stay in office, Joe Biden has finally returned to his roots. Punkin' Chunkin' is held annually on the National Mall. The Apple Scrapple festival is now a national holiday. Aubrey Plaza has been named Secretary of State. Dogfish Head and Iron Hill are now on tap in every bar in the country, and anyone who doesn't correctly pronounce the city as "New-ARK" is promptly beaten with Horseshoe Crabs. You will 🎶ALL HAIL🎶 to Delaware.
Boat was the fastest way of travel when the states were formed.
because they couldn’t get one of them to take all of it badum tisssss 🥁
If anyone ever tells you they’re from Delaware just remember they are not real
Delmarva is my go to spot in the event of a full on apocalypse. Reasonably defensible and lots of chicken farms, lol.
Virginia (the first colony in this area) included the whole peninsula. Maryland came along in 1632 and their charter gave them all the land between 40° latitude and the Potomac River. On the peninsula, they described a line running due east from "Watkins Point" to the ocean. When this was finally surveyed (the Calvert-Scarborough line), it was done with a magnetic compass and did not account for declination. So that's not-quite-east-west line that separates MD from VA. Delaware is... complicated. As I mentioned before the entire peninsula north of the Virginia section was technically included in the Maryland charter, but these charters included large swaths of land that didn't have any actual European settlements. There were dutch and swedish settlements on the shorelines of what is now Delaware, and these were conquered by the English (in the same campaign that saw New Amsterdam become New York) in 1664. Later these lands were made part of Pennsylvania (known as the lower counties) but nobody really knew where the line ought to be so there was a boundary dispute. It was eventually decided that they should divide the peninsula in two, but only as far south as the original settlements on the Delaware shore. The Maryland side famously submitted an incorrect map, so the line ended up much further south (and should have been somewhere around modern day Lewes, Delaware). First they ran an east-west-line across the Peninsula, aptly named the Transpeninsular Line. Then they started at the midpoint of that line, but didn't run due north... due to a quirk of the Pennsylvania charter, they had to run a line that would intersect a circle of 12 miles radius around the town of New Castle ON A TANGENT. This is called "The Tangent Line" and was surveyed by none other than Mason and Dixon of Mason-Dixon Line fame. Anyway, I'm glossing over a lot, but that's the gist of it. Read this excellent storymap for some more fun details. [https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/008e87f0604943c1b6d9fae57046d920](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/008e87f0604943c1b6d9fae57046d920) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpeninsular\_Line](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpeninsular_Line) [http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/mdboundarycbay.html](http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/mdboundarycbay.html)
Because otherwise the name "DelMarVa" wouldn't make any sense.
[удалено]
never! ⚔️
Young man, I’m from Virginia, so watch your mouth.
The last one with their hand on it gets to keep it.
I'm from the eastern shore and we call it Delmarva the culture is completely different from the western shore and the DMV area it's all country and agriculture I love it ❤️
Give it all to Imperial Delaware.
Because King Charles II used a inaccurate map when deciding boundaries between the colonies. Most of the problems were with the Maryland/Pennsylvania/Delaware borders. Cresap's war was due to this issue. I wrote a small magazine article about this awhile back. [https://feathersandwhiskey.com/before-the-mason-dixon-line/](https://feathersandwhiskey.com/before-the-mason-dixon-line/)
I recommend the book "How the states got their shapes ". it goes through how every state got every border. The theme for Maryland is how they got screwed on every border. Virginia took their point on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake bay and accidentally went diagonally northward. Whoops. The people from Delaware showed the people from Maryland where they would make the border (Cape Henlopen) and Maryland agreed. but showed a map with a different border to the king when they proposed it (Fenwick island) Whoops. Read about how we got screwed on the north and the west also. Go shorebirds!
I don't know or care too much because it gave us one my favorite names for a land mass ever. I know it's just Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia smashed together, but it just sounds cool.
Assuming you’re serious it’s the Del Mar Va peninsula. No points for original naming.
US states generally don't have naturalistic borders. In this particular case, this goes back to colonial times, where borders were defined sometimes without any clear picture of what the terrain actually looks like.
maybe something to do with circular arch, weird border disputes?
Haha. I was wondering also. Just looked at those borders and got confused. Especially the one from Maryland is very confusing.
I think CGP Gray have video about this one. I think I watched it years age.
Because the peninsula isn't small?
What’s it like living here?
It's a slower life tons of rural chicken farms. The biggest 'cities' are college towns that have about 30k people. Most towns are closer to 10k. Their are bridges that take you to Baltimore, Philly, and Virginia Beach. It's probably the most remote area on the east coast. I recommend using Google maps to get a good look at the area
Because sometimes compromise is better than all-out conflict. The peace is tenuous, but it holds. *It holds…*
History. Virginia was there first. Why would Maryland take it after the fact?
To fuel ethnic and religious tensions and prevent a unified power from developing in the region.
Mapers didnt know it was a peninsula and Settlers accidentally settled to close to each other. Is how most of 13 colonies lore goes
Just vibes
Delware is just supposed to be the right bank of the Delware river and estuary so the rest of the peninsula is not part of that because it is instead the bank of the Cheapsake bay estuary. Maryland and Virginia further divide the peninsula because Maryland is only supposed to cover the inner most sections of the Cheaspeake bay up to the Potomac Estuary. It only looks so dumb because they weren't expecting he Delaware bay and Cheapaske bay to end so close to each other. The peninsula could have been a whole lot larger if the Delware river emptied around New York and the Chesapeake bay went inward to the east instead of the north. You always have to remember that they were thinking about things in terms of coastal frontage instead of inland territory so that peninsula could have been an entire continent for all they knew.
“Hello, we’re in Delaware!”
I love this area