Worcester County

Worcester County, occupies the extreme southeastern corner of the state, bordered on the north by Wicomico County, the Mason-Dixon Line and Delaware, the east by the Atlantic Ocean, the south by Virginia, and the west by Somerset County. The county was created from Somerset County by Chapter 9, acts of 1742. It is named after the Earl of Worcester.

Unlike the southern Maryland counties, this area was never tobacco country. The earliest settlers raised grain and livestock, and since the introduction of the refrigerated railroad car, this has been a vegetable and fruit growing area. Raising and marketing broilers is also big business in the county. Summer visitors to the ocean resorts also boost the county's economy.

Snow Hill, the county seat since 1742, was a commercial center for the lower Eastern Shore even before the creation of the county. Destructive fires in 1834 and 1893 burned most of the old part of the town. It is a town of shingled frame houses, many built in the Victorian era. Houses that remain from earlier days can be identified by large outside chimneys and separate kitchen buildings connected to the main house by curtains, all characteristics of early nineteenth century houses of the lower peninsula.

Every summer tourists flock to Ocean City, Maryland's largest coastal resort. Swimming, fishing, and sunning are but a few of the amusements to be found at the resort. Assateague Island, a primitive wilderness of beach, sand dunes, and marshes, is a favorite among fishermen and campers. Here roam the Chincoteaque ponies, descendants of horses brought to Maryland by seventeenth century settlers.