CROW BROS. II at Dock, Tilghman Island, Maryland

oil on canvas panel, 9” x 12”

$3,500

Even among all the interesting places along the 11,684 miles of Shoreline and wetlands that comprise the Chesapeake Bay Estuary, Tilghman Island, located at the southernmost point of the eastern shore of Maryland, is a uniquely fascinating one. While Ice Age spear points have been uncovered there, modern history begins in 1659 with a land grant to Seth Foster. In 1741 Matthew Tilghman inherited the 2 ½ acre island, and by the 1860s the island’s “watermen” were actively dredging, and processing the plentiful oysters of the bay. The Tilghman Packing Company became the largest processor of oysters on the East Coast, and the shells of their oysters created such an enormous pile that an entire island, Avalon Island, was created. Today families still dredge the bay while the survival of the community of ‘Tilghman-on-Chesapeake’ is becoming threatened by rising seawater. Artist Don Demers painted this live, on-the-spot, on a visit to this historic island.