Matapeake, Maryland

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Matapeake is an unincorporated community located south of Stevensville on Kent Island, Maryland.

Unincorporated area Region of land not governed by own local government

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not governed by a local municipal corporation; similarly an unincorporated community is a settlement that is not governed by its own local municipal corporation, but rather is administered as part of larger administrative divisions, such as a township, parish, borough, county, city, canton, state, province or country. Occasionally, municipalities dissolve or disincorporate, which may happen if they become fiscally insolvent, and services become the responsibility of a higher administration. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. In most other countries of the world, there are either no unincorporated areas at all, or these are very rare; typically remote, outlying, sparsely populated or uninhabited areas.

Stevensville, Maryland CDP in Maryland, United States

Stevensville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, and is the county's most populous place among both CDPs and municipalities. The community is the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Stevensville Historic District is one of only two registered historic districts in the county, the other being the Centreville Historic District.

It is named for the historic Matapeake tribe, who lived there at the time of English colonization in 1631. Their chief village was on the southeast side of the island. [1] They were an Algonquian-speaking tribe, related to the paramount chiefdom of the Nanticoke.

Algonquian languages subfamily of Native American languages

The Algonquian languages are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the indigenous Ojibwe language (Chippewa), which is a senior member of the Algonquian language family. The term "Algonquin" has been suggested to derive from the Maliseet word elakómkwik, "they are our relatives/allies". A number of Algonquian languages, like many other Native American languages, are now extinct.

A chiefdom is a form of hierarchical political organization in non-industrial societies usually based on kinship, and in which formal leadership is monopolized by the legitimate senior members of select families or 'houses'. These elites form a political-ideological aristocracy relative to the general group.

Nanticoke people

The Nanticoke people are an indigenous American Algonquian people, whose traditional homelands are in Chesapeake Bay and Delaware. Today they live in the northeast United States and Canada, especially Delaware; in Ontario; and in Oklahoma.

Before construction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Matapeake was the eastern terminus of a cross-bay ferry. [2] The ferry building is part of the Matapeake Maritime Center. [3]

Chesapeake Bay Bridge major dual-span bridge in the U.S. state of Maryland, spanning the Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a major dual-span bridge in the U.S. state of Maryland. Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state's rural Eastern Shore region with the urban Western Shore. The original span, opened in 1952 and with a length of 4.3 miles (6.9 km), was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure. The parallel span was added in 1973. The bridge is officially named the "Gov. William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge" after William Preston Lane Jr. who, as the 52nd Governor of Maryland, initiated its construction in the late 1940s finally after decades of political indecision and public controversy.

Today, Matapeake is home to Matapeake State Park, Christ Episcopal Church of Kent Island, Matapeake Elementary School, and Matapeake Middle School.

Matapeake State Park

Matapeake State Park is a public recreation area on Chesapeake Bay occupying the site of a former ferry landing in Matapeake, Kent Island, Maryland. The landing served the state-owned Chesapeake Bay Ferry System before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge opened. The park is leased and managed by Queen Anne's County.

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Queen Annes County, Maryland County in the United States

Queen Anne's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 47,798. Its county seat and most populous municipality is Centreville. The census-designated place of Stevensville is the county's most populous place. The county is named for Queen Anne of Great Britain who reigned when the county was established in 1706.

Claiborne, Maryland Unincorporated community in Maryland, United States

Claiborne is an unincorporated community in Talbot County, Maryland. The village is located on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Eastern Bay at 38°50′15″N76°16′40″W, and uses ZIP code 21624. The 2000 U.S. Census lists the population as 147 and the number of homes as 84, slightly down from its 1941 population of 156. Between 1890 and 1952, the village was a busy port for passenger and then automobile ferry service across the Chesapeake Bay, with numerous stores and motels/resorts, including Maple Hall. A post office was added in 1893 and the Protestant Episcopal Church of Claiborne was built in 1898. In 1912 an elementary school and Methodist Church were added. Before 1912, students attended school in nearby McDaniel. The town's first school consisted of the kitchen of the local railroad pavilion, used as a classroom, where Miss Dolly Thompson taught. Teachers in later years included Grace Oldham, Alice Dawson, Edna Harrison, and Lida Smith. In 1913, the town became home to the Claiborne Fresh Air Association, Inc., which was formed for the purpose of providing 10 weeks of fresh air and summer vacation for children who had been exposed to tuberculosis.

Eastern Shore of Maryland region of the state of Maryland, United States of America

The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies predominantly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay and consists of nine counties. As of the 2010 census, its population was 449,226, with just under 8 percent of Marylanders living in the region. The term "Eastern Shore" distinguishes a territorial part of the State of Maryland from the Western Shore of Maryland, land west of the Chesapeake Bay.

Battle of St. Michaels

The Battle of St. Michaels was a battle during the War of 1812. Similar to the Battle of Craney Island a month earlier, American militia units were able to repulse a British landing attempt in the Chesapeake Bay.

Kent Island (Maryland) island in the United States of America

Kent Island is the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay and an historic place in Maryland. To the east, a narrow channel known as the Kent Narrows barely separates the island from the Delmarva Peninsula, and on the other side, the island is separated from Sandy Point, an area near Annapolis, by roughly four miles (6.4 km) of water. At only four miles wide, the main waterway of the bay is at its narrowest at this point and is spanned here by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Chester River runs to the north of the island and empties into the Chesapeake Bay at Kent Island's Love Point. To the south of the island lies Eastern Bay. The United States Census Bureau reports that the island has 31.62 square miles (81.90 km2) of land area.

Maryland Route 8 highway in Maryland

Maryland Route 8 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Romancoke Road, the state highway runs 8.37 miles (13.47 km) from Romancoke Pier in Romancoke north to MD 18 in Stevensville. MD 8 is the main north–south highway of Kent Island in western Queen Anne's County. The state highway is also the first highway encountered on U.S. Route 50 and US 301 east of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. South of Matapeake, MD 8 is paralleled by the Kent Island South Trail.

Kent Island High School

Kent Island High School (KIHS) is a public high school in Stevensville, Maryland that first opened in 1998 to accommodate the growing population of Queen Anne's County. The school takes its name from Kent Island, the location of the school.

Maryland Route 802 highway in Maryland

Maryland Route 802 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Batts Neck Road, the state highway runs 1.02 miles (1.64 km) as a north–south highway between junctions with MD 8 in Normans on Kent Island. MD 802 is the old alignment of MD 8 through Normans. The state highway was assigned after MD 8 was relocated by the early 1970s.

Maryland Route 33 highway in Maryland

Maryland Route 33 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs 23.17 mi (37.29 km) from Tilghman Island east to Washington Street in Easton. MD 33 connects Easton, the county seat of Talbot County, with all communities on the peninsula that juts west into the Chesapeake Bay between the Miles River and Eastern Bay on the north and the Tred Avon River and Choptank River on the south. The state highway passes through the historic town of Saint Michaels, home of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and enters Tilghman Island by passing over Knapps Narrows on the busiest Bascule bridge in the United States.

Romancoke is an unincorporated community on Kent Island in Maryland, located at the southern end of Maryland Route 8. The United States Census Bureau defines an urban cluster for Romancoke, but not a census-designated place. The name "Romancoke" comes from the Algonquian word for "circling of the water." William Claiborne, who founded Kent Island, also had a plantation in Virginia named Romancoke.

The South River is a 10-mile-long (16 km) tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County, Maryland in the United States. It lies south of the Severn River, east of the Patuxent River, and north of the West River and Rhode River, and drains to the Chesapeake Bay.

Broad Creek was a town on western Kent Island, Maryland that existed from the 17th century to the 19th century. The town once served as the eastern terminus of a trans-Chesapeake Bay ferry line that was part of an early route between Annapolis and Philadelphia.

The Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry Company ran both passenger and automobile ferry service across the Chesapeake Bay from 1919 to 1952. The initial service was between Annapolis, Maryland, on the western shore and Claiborne, Maryland, on the eastern shore. In July 1930, a second shorter route was added between Annapolis, Maryland, and Matapeake on Kent Island, Maryland. Business increased so rapidly at that point that another ferryboat was added. In May, 1938 the Claiborne route was changed to run from Claiborne to Romancoke, Maryland, on the lower end of Kent Island, from which passengers could then connect to the Matapeake to Annapolis run. In 1943, the Annapolis United States Naval Academy absorbed the property where the ferry terminal had been, so service was switched from Annapolis to a new terminal at Sandy Point on the western shore. By May 1951, the ferries were handling 1 million vehicles and 2 million passengers annually. Ferry service stopped running in 1952 when the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was completed.

Cross Island Trail

The Cross Island Trail is a rail trail in Queen Anne's County, Maryland occupying a section of the abandoned Queen Anne's Railroad corridor that traverses the width of Kent Island. It was completed in 2001 and is part of the American Discovery Trail.

Sandy Point State Park

Sandy Point State Park is a public recreation area located on Sandy Point at the western end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The state park grounds include the Sandy Point Farmhouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, which is undergoing restoration and is not open to the public. The historic Sandy Point Shoal Light stands in about five feet of water some 1,000 yards (910 m) east of the park's beach.

Christ Church (Stevensville, Maryland)

Christ Church refers to both an Episcopal parish currently located in Matapeake, Maryland and the historic church building located in the Stevensville Historic District in Stevensville, Maryland, which the parish occupied from 1880 to 1995, and that is now a Lutheran church. Christ Church Parish was one of the original 30 Anglican parishes in the Province of Maryland.

Queen Anne's County Public Schools is a school district on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. All schools are accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

The Matapeake were a group of Native Americans living on Kent Island, Maryland at the time of English colonization in 1631. Their chief village was on the southeast side of the island. They were an Algonquian-language tribe and were related to the Nanticoke, another Algonquian-language tribe.

References

Coordinates: 38°57′41″N76°20′36″W / 38.96139°N 76.34333°W / 38.96139; -76.34333

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.