Allison Blake - Maryland Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff

Allison Blake is a longtime regional writer who has lived in Maryland for almost half of her life. She is the author of The Chesapeake Bay Book and lives in Mitchellvilleexcept when its cold, when she hides out in New Orleans.

A mazing, how well my brains now trained to smoke out the curious. And I owe it all to many, many good people who helped by offering great ideas. Patiently, I might add. Thinking up curiosities takes time.

Many more folks than I can list contributed to this book with information, directions, and otherwise good-natured assistance.

A huge thanks to writer Beth Rubin and photographer Sara Morell, tour guide Karen Myer, Vanessa Parks, Baltimore in-the-know types John Ziemann of Baltimores Marching Ravens band and Fells Point aficionado Mark Walker, Baltimore folklorist Elaine Eff for inviting me to the screening of The Screen Painters, Joe and Joey Kro-Art/Kroart of Ocean Citys Ocean Gallery, Connie Yingling at the Maryland Tourism Department, Sara Hisamoto of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, Susan Steckman at the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitor Bureau, and public relations experts at tourism bureaus across the state.

Thanks also to Joe Evans at PropTalk and Jeff Holland at the Annapolis Maritime Museum, Susan Meredith of Blackwater Paddle and Pedal Adventures, and Rhonda Aaron. Ann Garside at the Maryland Historical Association, various folks at the University of Maryland, and Kevin Dodge at Garrett College were all a big help. So were numerous curators (what a great job!) and public relations folks who work at museums, gardens, historic houses, parks, quirky sites, and, as we say in the curiosities biz, other offbeat stuff.

My own family was full of good sources, especially my mother, Miriam Blake, and my mother-in-law, Anne Stinson. The former has been in D.C.s Maryland burbs for years, the latter in Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore. They were ready with the memories and deep perspective when a sounding board was required. Thank you.

As always, Joshua, thanks for being patient. Hi Sinta!

You might sayMarylands Eastern Shore is a bit out there. Literally. It dangles off to the east, separated from the rest of the state by Chesapeake Bay. The Maryland shore takes up the lions share of the Delmarva Peninsula, although Delaware and Virginia also get their bits of turf.

Unless you were up for a very long hike, you could only get there (or around there) by boat for the first 300 years after Europeans arrived. So, its fair to say the locals developed a strong independent streak. You can still find ample evidence of that. Take the four-time womens world muskrat-skinning champion. She worked hard for the title.

Trappers and watermen (the Chesapeake name for fishermen) show off their professional prowess in goose-calling championships, or by pitting their favorite hard-shell crabs against one another at an annual race. In Ocean City, the Victorian-era boardwalk defines the beach town. A few imaginative folks and venerable family businesseslike Trimpers Rides, in biz since 1887resist the tide of condominiums and refuse to be swept off the boardwalk with the morning sand.

The Eastern Shore was discovered when the Chesapeake Bay Bridge opened in 1952. City slickers from Washington, D.C., and Baltimore no longer had to take a ferry or drive around the northern end of the Chesapeake. Leaving their suits and subdivisions behind, they began to arrive in droves and discovered what the farmers, trappers, watermen, and local landed gentry always knewits nice over there.

Wild ponies still roam free on Assateague Island, which straddles the Maryland-Virginia line. For upwards of 400 years theyve roamed, descended from shipwreck refugees or forebears left by settlers to graze. Theyve bred with abandon and trampled their habitat because, after all, theyre thoroughly at home. Scientists, of course, dont always like that. Theyre looking at the big picture. Herd sizes need to be managed or ponies die of starvation and islands get damaged.

So back in 1988, scientists executed what appears to be the first-ever successful birth control program for wild horses that used a particular type of vaccine. This took place on the Maryland side of the island. As an expert explained to me, the vaccine is now available for other fertile herds of, say, white-tailed deer, or wild mustangs out west. Even elephants. Dart guns inject the vaccine into the mares. Over time, the Assateague herd is expected to drop from 134 down to somewhere between 80 to 100 ponies. One unintended consequence: Mares that arent foaling annually are living longer and healthier lives.

If you go to Assateague, you may well spot a pony on the beach, or even in the campground. If so, guard your gear. After learning to stomp through Styrofoam coolers, theyve now figured out how to open the hard-sided kind. Youre well advised to leave the ponies alone. Theyre cute and look harmless but, after all, theyre wild.

The office for Assateague Island National Seashore is located at 7206 National Seashore Lane in Berlin, but it might be easier to find out more about this large, two-state park by checking it out at www.nps.gov or calling (410) 641-1441.

Little boys in black cowboy hats gallop past, members of the Shrek generation. They dont know Hoss Cartwright from the Lone Ranger, but who cares? Frontier Town, located at 8428 Stephen Decatur Highway, has been a popular destination since it opened in 1959. You can talk Westerns with their parents and grandparents here, strolling memory lane while Junior learns the joys of cap guns.

At Frontier Town near Berlin and Ocean City, the West has been winning for decades.

And learn them they do. A kid doesnt need to know Maverick to kick up his cowboy boots in front of the Yank Em and Pull Em Dentists in this 1860s-style Western storefront town. Nearby stand the Longhorn Saloon, the Cowboy Store, and the Twin Cheeks Bathhouse. A model of an 1880 steam train whistles as it pulls out of the Old #44 Train Depot. A stagecoach stops for passengers. Theres even a rodeo.

Here comes Wyatt Earp... Is that Doc Holliday? Gun-slinging actors play out an Old West drama in the dusty street, and then some lucky buckaroos get to join a reenactment of the reenactment. Each child is assigned to one of the actors. They face off and stride toward one another. When cap guns are drawn, the men and boys open fire. And the lone girl, pink cowgirl hat bobbing on her head, jumps up and down.

Thats Frontier Townat least, thats the Western theme portion of this large complex that includes a water park and campground. Its open from mid-June through Labor Day. To find your way to the Western theme park, go to www.frontiertown.com or call (410) 641-0057.

Born a slave in south Dorchester County, Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman began her heroic career after a violent incident in a corner store that still stands.

It all began when she was only thirteen, on a day shed spent stripping leaves off vine-like flax. Its said her hair looked like a bushel basket, since shed been running her hands through it to disentangle leaves. When her master asked her to go to the Bucktown Village Store to pick up dinner supplies, she responded as any woman would: She couldnt go when her hair was a mess. So she found her mistresss shawl, covered her head, and then went to the store.