As the composer of Elvis Presley’s first single, ‘That’s All Right’—and a dozen other hits—Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup has been called the ‘Father of Rock ’n’ Roll.’ So why did the blues legend spend the last years of his life living in poverty on Virginia’s Eastern Shore?

There are no historic markers along Virginia’s Route 13 noting that the “Father of Rock ’n’ Roll” lived and died here. No signs point toward his gravesite in Franktown, Va., which, until the late 1990s—25 years after his death in 1974—wasn’t even marked… continued

In the early 20th century, amusement parks on the Chesapeake promised sand, surf, and wild rides aplenty.

For city dwellers in the early half of the last century, urban amusement parks offered cheap escapism. For a small fee and a streetcar ride across town, you could test your luck on the midway, kiss your sweetheart in the Tunnel of Love,… continued

Former students recall days spent in a historic one-room schoolhouse.

For more than 50 years, African-Americans attended Kent County’s one-room Worton Point Colored School No. 2. Now a museum, its former students share memories of attending a segregated school without indoor plumbing or running water. Despite these shortcomings, many say it was the… continued

During the midtwentieth century, Southern Maryland boasted flashy casinos, leggy showgirls, and three times as many slot machines as Nevada. With the popularity of instant bingo and a legislature open to the return of slots, what can we learn from the past?

During the mid-twentieth century, Southern Maryland boasted flashy casinos, leggy showgirls, and three times as many slot machines as Nevada. How did the gaming industry ever get so big in Maryland? And what lessons can we learn from its demise? The October 1958… continued

Every time writer Tom Horton returns to Holland Island, he finds a little more of it gone. Will the once-bustling island’s sad fate foretell the future of other islands in the Bay?

My first visit to the last house on Holland Island was nearly half a century ago. I took time from a fishing trip with my dad to play baseball with some local kids in the yard, a modest swatch of green sandwiched between… continued

Celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary in July, Stevensville's Camp Wright is as much an Eastern Shore tradition as soft crabs and skipjacks. Campers share their memories of everything from bug juice to skinny dipping with sea nettles.

At 7:11 a.m., Camp Wright counselor Suzanne Carley tiptoes out of her bayfront cabin sporting navy gym shorts, T-shirt, flip-flops — and ten silver rings divided among her fingers. Besides the metallic hum of the cicadas and the drone of a waterman’s deadrise… continued