In July, 1,500 people attended Big Band Night on the 18-acre campus of the Chesapeake Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland. The facility tells the stories of the Chesapeake Bay, and features a lighthouse, hundreds of historic boats and artifacts, and educational river cruises. Photo by Sharon Thorpe

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As I drove into the tiny town of Oxford, Maryland (population about 600), I immediately began to relax. My breathing slowed, my body slouched, and when I turned to glance at my wife, Fyllis, seated beside me, she was having the same reaction.

We were looking forward to leisurely exploring the minuscule municipalities scattered about Talbot County to immerse ourselves in bygone days.

Locals pronounce the name of their county in several ways. We heard it called Tahl-but, Tall-but and Taw-but. However you say it, the destination offers a deep dive into intriguing chapters of our country’s past.

Captain John Smith surveyed the region in 1608. Indigenous people who lived in the area maintained good relations with the first English settlers, who arrived in the 1630s, and over time were assimilated into their culture through intermarriage.

The English established tobacco plantations and formally created Talbot County in 1662. The enclave was named for Lady Grace Talbot, sister of the second Lord Baltimore.

He is remembered for instituting freedom of religion and separation of church and state, first in Newfoundland and Labrador in present-day Canada, and then in the Maryland colony.

Many early immigrants were Quakers or Puritans seeking a haven from persecution, or people from Ireland and Scotland transported to the colony as indentured servants. Adding to the mix were both free and enslaved African Americans.

Lots of local museums

Fyllis and I were delighted to learn that each town in Talbot County has a museum that relates its history.

The Tilghman Watermen’s Museum, for instance, celebrates the work and culture of people who earn their livelihood on rivers and bays. Occupying what once was the island’s barbershop, the museum brings their stories to life with videos, boat models, tools of the trade and art.

The centerpiece of the Oxford Museum is a lighthouse lens named for Augustin-Jean Fresnel, a French engineer who, in the 1820s, invented a lens that intensifies light. Other exhibits are devoted to oysters, ducks and watermen.

This region is home to the oldest Black community in the United States, and you’ll find museums, trails and other references to this history. The Water’s Edge Museum in Oxford portrays the lives of Black farmers, watermen, sailmakers and others who played important roles in the area’s commerce and culture.

Our favorite museum was the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, an 18-acre campus that has evolved from a humble beginning into a world-class display. Fyllis and I marveled at the historic structures, more than 100 boats and boat models, decoys and a relocated lighthouse.

St. Michaels was founded in the mid-1600s as a trading post for trappers and tobacco farmers. It later became a shipbuilding center.

One major claim to fame relates to the British Navy’s bombardment during the Battle of 1812. Townspeople turned off their house lights and hung lanterns in nearby trees, at which the Brits aimed their cannons. That trick resulted in St. Michaels becoming known as “the town that fooled the British.”

Serene, charming Oxford

Fyllis and I chose Oxford as our home base for a variety of reasons, including its serene setting. Officially established in 1683, this is a charming town of brick sidewalks, white picket fences and elegant historic homes.

In Colonial days, Oxford became a booming port, and later an active boatbuilding business thrived there. Much later, the author James Michener chose it as the place where he wrote his novel Chesapeake.

Oxford also is notable for two other reasons. One is the Robert Morris Inn, built in 1710 as a home and operating as a venerable hotel since 1800. Yes, George Washington slept here, as did Robert Morris, a British-born merchant and banker who helped finance the American Revolution and signed the Declaration of Independence.

The town also is home base for the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry, the oldest privately owned ferryboat in the country. It began transporting passengers in 1683 and now carries vehicles, trailers, bicycles and motorcycles across the Tred Avon River.

While we didn’t ride the ferry, we drove across a short drawbridge to the tiny waterman’s village of Tilghman Island (pronounced Till-man), retracing the route of spans that have existed at that site since the late 1600s.

Across the bridge, a 40-foot-tall mural titled “Pride” depicts a waterman in his boat with other vessels docked nearby, as well as displays of the seafood for which Talbot County is rightly famous.

A plaque pays tribute to the people “who have been working the Chesapeake Bay waters since the 1800s,” demonstrating and facing “Endurance. Perseverance. Hard Work. Ingenuity. Danger. Drive. Respect for the natural world.”

In this quiet place of beauty, respect for nature comes easily. Talbot County has more than 600 miles of shoreline, so we were never far from water.

We scanned the rivers and the bay, hoping to glimpse eagles, ospreys, cownose rays, bottlenose dolphins or even a bull shark. While we weren’t lucky enough to see rays or sharks, we did spot dolphins and fish and even an osprey gliding through the air.

For more information, visit tourtalbot.org or call (410) 770-8057.