The Oxford–Bellevue Ferry has carried passengers across the Tred Avon River without interruption since 1683. This long ferry history is a striking introduction to Talbot: waterways, historic sites, and local ways of life offer different perspectives on the region. Sometimes its development takes center stage, sometimes the daily lives of its residents, and sometimes the landscapes of creeks, shores, and wetlands. If you’re exploring Talbot for its history, you can complement these perspectives with local museums, art, and experiences on the water.
Places Tell Their Stories
The Oxford Historic District is historically significant because of its connection to the development of Maryland’s Eastern Shore region. The Oxford Museum focuses on the people of the town: its exhibits explore Oxford residents, their way of life, and their contributions to the United States since the 17th century. This brings together two different scales—the region’s development and the history of a local community.
The St. Michaels Museum’s exhibits cover local business, transportation, and crafts, as well as the history of St. Michaels and the Bay Hundred region. The Water’s Edge Museum takes a different approach: its collection documents the daily lives of people of color in Maryland in the early 20th century through paintings, lithographs, drawings, literature, and music. These different forms of expression give this historical subject particular breadth.
A walking tour of The Hill in Easton takes you through one of the oldest formerly free African American communities in the country. In the park on the Tuckahoe, the “The Beloved Tuckahoe Home of Frederick Douglass” interpretive panel provides information about Frederick Douglass’s early life. The Academy Art Museum, meanwhile, offers hands-on classes and workshops in painting, ceramics, printmaking, drawing, photography, and writing. Specific offerings vary.
Landscapes Between Creek and Shore
The Pickering Creek Audubon Center is a working 450-acre farm on tidal Pickering Creek in Talbot County. The property includes mature hardwood forest, freshwater and brackish marshes, meadows, tidal and inland wetlands, and farmland. It also has more than a mile of shoreline along a tidal waterway. The landscape ranges from forest and farmland to a variety of wetlands and shorelines.
Frederick Douglass Park on the Tuckahoe covers more than 107 acres on a ridge overlooking a broad bend in Tuckahoe Creek. The ridge-top setting and the creek’s sweeping curve shape the landscape that defines this park.
Getting Around Easton
From Easton, you can take bike rides along the quiet back roads of Talbot County and visit Oxford, St. Michaels, and Tilghman Island. There are also different ways to get out on the water: the rivers and creeks around Easton offer Chesapeake Bay charter trips, sightseeing cruises, and bareboat or crewed charters on motorboats and sailboats. Operators and schedules vary, so check the specific offerings and dates in advance.
St. Michaels’ culinary traditions include freshly caught fish as well as Chesapeake Bay crabs and oysters. Along with its museums, historic sites, and varied landscapes, these offer different ways to plan your trip—whether you’re especially interested in local history, art, nature, or life on the water.
Discover More Destinations
Discover more destinations: St Michaels, Tilghman Island, Easton, Frederick, Somerset, Garrett County, Prince George's, Charles County.
For the main travel overview: Maryland.
