On October 16, we’ll visit Tilghman Island, for the annual Tilghman Day races and contests, exhibits, auction, food, and music.
The events relate to life and work on Tilghman. There is, for example, a boat-docking contest, a row boat race, an oyster-shucking contest, and a crab-picking contest. If you like photographing people doing work, this should be a good chance.
There are also exhibits open all day or for most of the day. For example, you can watch oyster boats unloading their catch, look at exhibits at the Tilghman Island Waterman’s Museum, or view a Chesapeake Bay photo exhibit at the elementary school. There will also be arts and crafts, as well as live music at Kronsberg Park.
You can read about the festival at the website: tilghmanmd.com
. From that site you can download a two-page brochure that gives a map of the island and a schedule of events for the day. As I’m writing this early in September, the brochure file to be downloaded is named "2008events.pdf" but one of the volunteer firemen organizing the event told me that from year to year the map and schedule do not change; apparently the file to download keeps its name for a while, too.Exhibits open at 10:00 a.m., the rowboat race begins at 11:00 a.m., and other events follow. The drive from Bowie is estimated to take about an hour and 40 minutes, but the Tilghman Day traffic could make for a longer trip.
The shortest route for cars from Bowie to Tilghman is:
1. Take US-50 across the Bay Bridge (toll) for about 50 miles (from Bowie).
2. Take a slight right at MD-322 South, and go 2 miles.
3. Turn right onto MD-33 West (St. Michaels Rd.) and stay on it for about 22 miles.
4. When you’re almost at the Tilghman drawbridge, you’ll see signs for Tilghman Day parking at the Knapps Narrows Marina on the right, on the northwest side of MD-33. Park there, buy your entrance ticket for five dollars, and board a shuttle bus that will take you across bridge to the festival.
Let’s meet at 10:45 a.m. at Dogwood Harbor, which is near the intersection of Main Street and Gibsontown Road, about 0.35 mile from the drawbridge. Gibsontown Road is on the left, on the east side of Main Street, a little south of Kronsberg Park, which is on the west side of Main. The first event is a rowboat race at 11 a.m. Dogwood Harbor; exhibits open at 10 a.m., if you prefer to arrive earlier.
There may be no block of time when there isn’t a race or contest taking place, but if you can tear yourself away from watching the competition, let’s meet for lunch at Kronsberg Park at 11:45 a.m.
At the end of the festival, approximately 4:30 p.m., after we’re back to the parking lot at the Knapps Narrows Marina, we can compare notes about having dinner together.
If you have questions about the event, or to let me know you’re planning to take part, get in touch with me (
mlaster@smart.netH:301-805-4462 C:240-486-1317) in the days before the event.