POKIN’ AROUND THE POCOMOKE
There are plenty of places I’ve enjoyed so much I’ve gone back again, but never twice in the same week. That’s the kind of place I found at Pocomoke River State Park on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
I had explored this park on one of my long-distance scouting missions last winter, and marked it worthy of a return visit. It had been on my checklist for decades, but I’d always been a little leery of the bugginess. It is, after all, surrounded by bald cypress swamp. But to my surprise, when we set up camp on the riverbank, we encountered far fewer mosquitoes than in our own backyard in Annapolis.
The Pocomoke River flows from the Great Cypress Swamp in Delaware 45 miles to Pocomoke Sound on the Chesapeake Bay near the Virginia border. It’s tidal all the way past Snow Hill, though there’s barely a hint of salt in the tea-toned water, darkened by the tannin from the trees.
Capt. John Smith marked the river’s name as “Pawcocomocac” on his map of the Chesapeake, according to Hammill Kenny in his book, “Placenames of Maryland, Their Origin and Meaning.” Kenny cites several possible interpretations of the Algonquian term but settles on, “It is pierced or broken ground.” Since the river flows tidally in both directions almost all the way across the Delmarva Peninsula, I imagine that the Indians must have used it as a highway between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic coast. Public Landing on Chincoteague Bay is just 6 miles from the river at Snow Hill. So the river “pierces” the land that is the Eastern Shore.
The park itself is surrounded by 18,000 acres of the Pocomoke State Forest. There are actually two sections to the park, separated by the river. The Milburn Landing area lies on one side, north of Pocomoke City. It’s currently closed for road maintenance, but it will reopen in April. The Shad Landing area is on the other side, just south of the charming little town of Snow Hill.
Shad Landing boasts a boat ramp and a marina with transient slips. There’s a swimming pool that will reopen once