The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula and proposed state on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore regions of Maryland and Virginia. The peninsula is 170 miles (274 km) long. In width, it ranges from 70 miles (113 km) near its center, to 12 miles (19 km) at the isthmus on its northern edge, to less near its southern tip of Cape Charles. It is bordered by the Chesapeake Bay on the west, Pocomoke Sound on the southwest, and the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east.
A swamp is a forested wetland. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in creating this environment. Swamps vary in size and are located all around the world. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water, or seawater. Freshwater swamps form along large rivers or lakes where they are critically dependent upon rainwater and seasonal flooding to maintain natural water level fluctuations. Saltwater swamps are found along tropical and subtropical coastlines. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation or soil saturation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more formally termed a bog, fen, or muskeg. Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo.
The Pocomoke River stretches approximately 66 miles (106 km) from southern Delaware through southeastern Maryland in the United States. At its mouth, the river is essentially an arm of Chesapeake Bay, whereas the upper river flows through a series of relatively inaccessible wetlands called the Great Cypress Swamp, largely populated by Loblolly Pine, Red Maple and Bald Cypress. The river is the easternmost river that flows into Chesapeake Bay. "Pocomoke", though traditionally interpreted as "dark water" by local residents, is now agreed by scholars of the Algonquian languages to be derived from the words for "broken ground."
A blackwater river is a type of river with a slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. Most major blackwater rivers are in the Amazon Basin and the Southern United States. The term is used in fluvial studies, geology, geography, ecology, and biology. Not all dark rivers are blackwater in that technical sense. Some rivers in temperate regions, which drain or flow through areas of dark black loam, are simply black due to the color of the soil; these rivers are black mud rivers. There are also black mud estuaries.
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies mostly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. Nine counties are normally included in the region. The Eastern Shore is part of the larger Delmarva Peninsula that Maryland shares with Delaware and Virginia.
Taxodium distichum is a deciduous conifer in the family Cupressaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States. Hardy and tough, this tree adapts to a wide range of soil types, whether wet, salty, dry, or swampy. It is noted for the russet-red fall color of its lacy needles.
The Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge (LSNWR) is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System. It is located in southeastern Dixie and northwestern Levy counties on the western coast of Florida, approximately fifty miles southwest of the city of Gainesville.
The Atlantic Flyway is a major north-south flyway for migratory birds in North America. The route generally starts in Greenland, then follows the Atlantic coast of Canada, then south down the Atlantic Coast of the United States to the tropical areas of South America and the Caribbean. Every year, migratory birds travel up and down this route following food sources, heading to breeding grounds, or traveling to overwintering sites.
Trap Pond State Park is a 3,653 acre (8.5 km²) Delaware state park located near Laurel, Delaware, USA. It is one of the largest surviving fragments of what was once an extensive wetland in what is now southwestern Sussex County. The state park features an extensive patch of bald cypress trees.
The Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1933 as a waterfowl sanctuary for birds migrating along the critical migration highway called the Atlantic Flyway. The refuge is located on Maryland's Eastern Shore, just 12 mi (19 km) south of Cambridge, Maryland in Dorchester County, and consists of over 28,000 acres (110 km2) of freshwater impoundments, brackish tidal wetlands, open fields, and mixed evergreen and deciduous forests. Blackwater NWR is one of over 540 units in the National Wildlife Refuge System, which is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Battle Creek Cypress Swamp (BCCS) is a forested wetland near Prince Frederick in Calvert County, Maryland, United States. It is one of the northernmost sites of naturally occurring bald cypress trees in North America, and the only large stand of the trees on the western shore of Maryland. In 1965, the National Park Service designated the BCCS a National Natural Landmark.
Pocomoke River State Park is a public recreation area lying on both banks of the Pocomoke River between Snow Hill and Pocomoke City in Worcester County, Maryland. The state park comprises two areas within Pocomoke State Forest: Shad Landing on the south bank of the river and Milburn Landing on the north bank.
Pocomoke State Forest is a state forest of Maryland that lies on both banks of the Pocomoke River in Worcester County. The portion north of the Pocomoke lies between Dividing and Nassawango Creeks. The Pocomoke River Wildlife Management Area borders the southern portion of the forest.
The Pocomoke River Wildlife Management Area is a state-run nature reserve found on the southern banks of the Pocomoke River in Worcester County, Maryland.
Nassawango Creek is a stream in the U.S. state of Maryland; it is the largest tributary of the Pocomoke River, located on the Delmarva Peninsula. Older variations on the same name include Nassanongo, Naseongo, Nassiongo, and Nassiungo, meaning "[ground] between [the streams]". Early English records have it as Askimenokonson Creek, after a Native settlement near its headwaters.
Horseshoe Lake is an oxbow lake in Alexander County, Illinois. It is the site of Illinois's Horseshoe Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area, a state park 10,645 acres (43 km2) in size. A remnant of a large meander of the Mississippi River, it is today a shallow, isolated patch of water located near Cairo and the southern tip of Illinois. In 1972, the Horseshoe Lake Nature Preserve was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.
The Assateague were an Algonquian people speaking the Nanticoke language who historically lived on the Atlantic coast side of the Delmarva Peninsula.
The Middle Atlantic coastal forests are a temperate coniferous forest mixed with patches of evergreen broadleaved forests along the coast of the southeastern United States.
The Cape Henlopen Region, or the Cape Region, is a region in Sussex County, in southern Delaware, on the Delmarva Peninsula. The region is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. The region takes its name from Cape Henlopen, as does the Cape Henlopen School District and Cape Henlopen State Park. Much of the region's populated areas are found along the Delaware Bay, Rehoboth Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Northern and western parts of the Cape Region are rural areas dominated by farmland and wetlands. The area is often referred to as the Delaware Beaches.
The Delmarva Central Railroad is an American short-line railroad owned by Carload Express that operates 188 miles (303 km) of track on the Delmarva Peninsula in the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The railroad operates lines from Porter, Delaware to Hallwood, Virginia and from Harrington, Delaware to Frankford, Delaware along with several smaller branches. The DCR interchanges with the Norfolk Southern Railway and the Maryland and Delaware Railroad. The railroad was created in 2016 to take over the Norfolk Southern Railway lines on the Delmarva Peninsula. The DCR expanded by taking over part of the Bay Coast Railroad in 2018 and the Delaware Coast Line Railroad in 2019.
