Counties of Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore

This fourth book in a series about Maryland's counties includes Somerset, Dorchester, Worcester, and Wicomico Counties on the Eastern Shore of the state. Written for children in elementary school, the book not only acquaints readers with the basic facts about the area's history, geography, climate, plants, animals, education, religion, and sites of interest, it also features some fascinating facts about the various counties. Typical of the things children will learn from this book are these: - Smith Island in Somerset County has a most unusual form of government. It has no mayor or town council and residents do not pay local taxes. The leaders of the community have always been the ministers of the church.- Harriet Tubman led more than three hundred slaves from Dorchester County northward to freedom. Apparently she would do anything to help a runaway slave escape. She and a band of slaves once hid in a pile of manure until the coast was clear.- Annie Oakley of Wild West Show fame lived for a time in Cambridge. When her neighbor complained that his walnut tree hadn't produced walnuts that year, Oakley showed up at his house with a basket of purchased walnuts and apologized for having shot the walnuts out of his tree.- When the Boardwalk at Ocean City in Worcester County was first built in 1902, it was about two blocks long. Because it was low and high tides affected it, the Board-walk was picked up and stored each night.- The Whitehaven ferry in Wicomico County, which is guided by a cable and carries three cars at a time across the Wicomico River, has been in operation for more than three hundred years. It is thought to be the oldest continuously operating ferry inthe United States.