We asked... (1800's erosion?)

    

 In the 1800's were any concerns expressed about possible erosion along Delmarva's oceanside and bayside areas?

Yes, in the 1800s, concerns were expressed about erosion along the oceanside and bayside areas of the Delmarva Peninsula. Records show that residents, particularly those on the Chesapeake Bay's islands, witnessed firsthand the powerful forces of erosion and rising sea levels as their communities and property were lost to the water. 

Examples of 19th-century erosion concerns and observations:

• Vanishing islands: Residents of the Chesapeake Bay's smaller islands were among the first to raise the alarm. Holland Island, for instance, had a sizable community in the late 19th century but was already experiencing significant land loss to erosion. Islands that were populated in the 18th and 19th centuries, like Sharps Island, had vanished entirely by the early 20th century.
• Lost property: Landowners in shoreline communities on both the Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay sides of Delmarva documented the continuous loss of their property to the relentless forces of storms and wave action.
• Threat to infrastructure: As erosion encroached on inhabited areas, it became a clear threat to developing infrastructure. The Miller R. Creighton hotel, built in the late 1800s on Sharps Island, was torn down by the early 1900s because erosion had claimed enough of the island to render the hotel unviable.
• Scientific and military reports: Records from the time, including those from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, noted the coastal changes. For example, reports from the late 19th and early 20th centuries documented shoreline changes and were influenced by factors like relative sea-level rise. In the Chesapeake Bay region, the uncertain future of earthen forts built around the War of 1812 was discussed in terms of erosion processes.
• Filling of waterways: The issue was not limited to the coastline. Extensive soil erosion from agricultural lands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, exacerbated by widespread tillage, caused downstream problems. This led to bayside shipping ports filling with sediment, which made them too shallow for navigation, a problem documented from the 1820s onward. 

By the end of the century, these local observations and reports began to lay the groundwork for more systematic analysis of Delmarva's eroding coastlines.

Without erosion there would be no Delmarva Peninsula. We are the creation of sediment from the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. What The Lord giveth, The Lord taketh away.

Your friend,
Slim