Deadly Storms of the Delmarva Coast by Michael Morgan

Author:Michael Morgan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2019-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Fiesta Park, in north Ocean City, retains some of the woods that once were common on Fenwick Island. Photo by Michael Morgan.

Sinepuxent Inlet continued to be an important waterway throughout colonial times; the area on the north side of the channel became known as “North Beach,” and the corresponding area on the south side was known as “South Beach.” During the American Revolution, Sinepuxent Inlet was so important that the colonists fortified it to prevent its use by the British. In March 1777, the American privateer General Mifflin, commanded by a Captain Hamilton, was sailing along the coast when it was overtaken by a storm. Hamilton decided to run into Sinepuxent Inlet and ride out the storm, but he ran into a sandbar with such force that it knocked a hole in the hull of the General Mifflin. The ship soon filled with water, and according to the Pennsylvania Gazette, “The hands (ninety odd) were on the quarter deck the whole night, and suffered exceedingly and in the morning go on shore on a desolate beach, covered with snow where seventeen perished.” The other crewmen were saved, but the General Mifflin, along with three thousand pounds worth of captured goods, were lost. By the end of the Revolution, however, sand—which, on this part of the Maryland coast, migrates from north to south—had begun to cover the remains of the General Mifflin and accumulate in the inlet. By the early nineteenth century, Sinepuxent Inlet had permanently silted shut.

Most of the other inlets across Assateague Island existed for such a short time that they did not acquire names. In 1920, a storm created an inlet three or four miles south of Ocean City, but in 1928, a nor’easter filled the unnamed inlet with sand. One of the temporary waterways that lasted long enough to be named was Green Run Inlet, which cut across Assateague Island about four miles north of the Virginia line. It appears that this inlet was opened by the natural movement of the sand in the middle of the nineteenth century and lasted for about thirty years. The channel was deep and wide enough for small boats to navigate through it, but a sandbar on the bayside of the inlet made it useless for commercial vessels. A small beach village developed at Green Run, and in the early 1880s, there was a summer hotel, Scott’s Ocean House, and a Life-Saving Service station. However, because it was difficult to access, the settlement at Green Run withered away.

Even when the inlets existed, most were shallow, fordable waterways that wildlife could cross without much difficulty. White-tailed deer, sika deer (introduced during the 1920s), foxes, raccoons, Delmarva fox squirrels and others thrive on Assateague. There was reason to believe that wolves once roamed the island. Early visitors to Assateague were attracted by the numerous species of wildlife. According to A Paradise for Gunners and Anglers,

On the Atlantic shores, the choicest game birds in the world are found, and in such quantity, in their

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