= Kent Island =
On the East Side
 
 
 
  If water sports are your thing, you'll find lots to do on Kent Island. Driving through on route 50, you get the feeling that you've arrived in a land with more boats than cars. From high up on the Kent Narrows bridge, it almost looks like one big marina. If you don't have a slip of your own, no worries, you can use the Matapeake State Boat Ramp.8 This facility also has a fishing pier for those who are inclined to catch their own.   If you happen to be hungry on your way eastward, The Angler's Restaurant (and Marina) is a great little diner style roadhouse, often filled to overflowing. It's a perfect place to have breakfast and a bloody mary. For those heading westward with a designated driver, Red Eye's Dock Bar is also a jumping little joint, with boats coming and going all the time. But things haven't always been like this on the island.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Back it the early 17th Century, William Claiborne, originally from Kent, England, discovered the area inhabited by the Matapeakes and the Monoponsons.9 Claiborne purchased Kent Island in 1631 and established a trading post there.10 At the time, the colonists considered the island to be in Virginia, then in 1632, when the area was conveyed to Maryland, it became the first settlement of the new state. Somehow, the Native Americans managed to remain on the island until 1750, when the last of them departed their rich homeland.
 

 
  This photo of the rarely frozen Bay with the Bridge in the background was taken from Kent Island.  
A photo of the frozen Bay with Bridge in background
Copyright Gary Posner - Used by Permission

 
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Sources
 
8- http://www.kentisland.com/html/recreation.html
9- http://www.geocities.com/heartland/9448/island.html
10- "Claiborne, William," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000