Betterton is a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore of around 400 on the Chesapeake Bay. Looking at it today one would hardly guess that it was once a major Victorian summer resort at the end of the 1800s through the 1st half of the 20th century. It was a major stopping point for ships going up the Chesapeake Bay and through the Chesapeake-and-Delaware Canal, which connects to the Delaware Bay and on to Philadelphia and New Jersey. There were daily scheduled steamship service by several lines including the Ericsson Steamship Line.

The town sits where the Sassafras River meets the Chesapeake Bay and was first founded as a fishing village in the mid 1700’s and became a port for local agriculture> The town was named after the family of Elizabeth Betterton by her husband, Richard Townsend Turner in 1851. It’s location where Sassafras and Elk Rivers meets the Chesapeake Bay the lower salinity of the upper Chesapeake keeps Betterton’s waters nearly free of sea nettles.

With the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and travel by automobile increased, fewer people traveled by the steamships causing the decline of many of the tourist towns on the Chesapeake of the early 20th Century. Towns that were easy to get to via water were less convenient by road, Betterton included.

While the town relishes its tourist roots, the tourist economy is now nearly non-existent. However the current public beach, owned by Kent County and controlled by the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation, still gives a glimmer of its grand days. It’s a place for swimming and family picnics. It is equipped with a bathhouse with public restrooms and 500 feet of boardwalk, with benches, lighting and handicap access.