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Anyone arriving on the Eastern Shore for the first time senses its idiosyncratic nature: its vast network of rivers, tributaries, and towns linked to the immense waterscape of the Chesapeake Bay, all drenched in American colonial history. For some, it will be a curious excursion. For others, it will become home.

Countless books have been written about the lure of Eastern Shore, including James Michener’s Chesapeake and John Barth’s Sot-Weed Factor and The Floating Opera. Both authors masterfully employed Eastern Shore history as a fundamental backdrop for their storytelling.

One book stands out for its reflective narrative on the history of the “Shore”—Hulbert Footner’s Rivers of the Eastern Shore and in mid-September, two presentations sponsored by ShoreRivers and the Historical Society of Kent County will showcase the newly celebrated book (see schedule below) with an introduction by Karen Footner and reading by longtime Spy contributor and former Cape Gazette publisher Dennis Forney.

First published in 1944 with various reprints through 2011, Rivers of the Eastern Shore was Footner’s last work. In 2022, Karen Footner, Hulbert’s granddaughter, republished the book as a special second printing with a foreword by esteemed Bay region writer Tom Horton, along with her introduction. The book, printed from the original film print, is a pristine copy of the original.

Hulbert Footner was a prolific and respected writer known for adventure books in the Canadian Northwest and dozens of detective stories and novels. He even made a successful foray into Broadway with his play Shirley Kaye, which was eventually turned into a movie. He counted among his friends Aldous Huxley, Max Beerbohm, and Christopher Morley.

An avid adventurist, outdoorsman, and canoer, Footner paddled 3,000 miles alone throughout Canada and paid his expenses by writing about it. After discovering the Chesapeake Bay by canoeing from New York City he made his home in Lusby, Maryland.

His enthusiasm for watersheds and his love for history inspired Rivers of the Eastern Shore, a compendium of descriptive historical insights and anecdotes about each river on the Eastern Shore, from the Pocomoke to the Sassafras and Bohemia.

Rivers is a highly satisfying book. Footner removes himself from the narrative to set a gentle, warmhearted tone to a voice that tells how the intricate web of rivers shaped the lives and history of the Eastern Shore.

About Chestertown, Footner writes:

“For about ten miles above Chestertown the broad Chester follows a placid course between low banks, with moderately high ground behind, and an occasional little hill. It is a pastoral scene of rich bottom lands, patches of intensely green woods, an occasional old house on a point of vantage. At the end one comes to the first village, Crumpton, a very small village. Here the steamboats turned around and went back. Years before there were any steamboats, this is where the gay young Henry Callister settled down to die after age and bankruptcy had soured him. In those days there was no bridge, and Crumpton was known as Callister’s Ferry. Comegys’ Farm, which looks down on the present bridge, is the quaintest of all the old houses hereabouts. The actual head of Chester is at Millington, five miles farther upstream. Here the river splits into several little branches, which have their sources in the swamps of Kent County to the south or across the state line in Delaware.”

For a list of Footner’s book, go here.

For more about.ShoreRivers, go here.

On Tuesday, September 17, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM, all are invited to Emmanuel Episcopal Church101 North Cross Street to learn about the Chester and Sassafras sections of the book. Guest speakers from ShoreRivers wil add historical perspective. Books will be available for sale by the Bookplate bookstore .

Event Registration Page: https://www.shorerivers.org/event/riversbooktalkchestertown

A  second second event is scheduled for 2–4pm on Thursday, October 17, and will be held at the Eastern Shore Conservation Center in Easton. The discussion for this session will focus on the Choptank, Miles, and Wye river chapters and feature Choptank Riverkeeper Matt Pluta and Miles-Wye Riverkeeper Ben Ford.

Copies of Rivers of the Eastern Shore, which were generously donated to the organization by Bill Birkhead, are available for purchase at ShoreRivers’ Easton office (114 S. Washington Street, Suite 301). The Bookplate in Chestertown (112 S. Cross Street, Suite D) also has copies available for purchase.

The Spy recently spoke with Dennis Forney and Karen Footner (off camera) about Rivers of the Eastern Shore.

This video is approximately five minutes in length.

Coming to terms with the loss of a loved one is a traumatic and isolating experience. Dealing with it alone only magnifies its impact and extends the bereavement process and can lead to long-term mental health issues.

For young people especially, processing complex emotions like sadness, anger, fear, and confusion is an overwhelming experience. But it’s one that can often be helped by having their feelings validated in a safe environment with others who are experiencing the same trauma.

Celebrating its 30^th year the weekend of August 10th, Compass Regional Hospice will continue its mission to provide grief support at Camp New Dawn and will again host its grief retreat for children, teens, and families on the grounds of Camp Pecometh in Centreville.

The three-day, two-night camp provides children, teens, and families a safe environment for group discussions, participation in healing activities, and connecting with peers with the guidance of professional grief counselors.

Campers ages 7 to 17 attend therapeutic workshops and age-specific grief support groups and participate in supervised camp activities such as swimming, fishing, drumming, yoga, and arts and crafts.

Camp New Dawn Director Rhonda Knotts says that one of the many empowering traditions that has become the heart of the annual summer retreat is the frequency with which campers return as counselors to pass along the experience that helped them through the grieving process.

Each child and teen is paired with a volunteer counselor or “Buddy,” who, along with former campers known as “PALS,” offers a strong support network throughout the day’s activities. Campers are divided into groups and engage in various activities such as yoga, swimming, or fishing. They also participate in age-specific grief support groups or art classes, where they can visualize and express their emotions.

“We are very deliberate in the way that we assign our children, their adult buddy for the three days. We go by common likes, like, maybe we have a little soccer player. And we know that, Joe, who’s one of our adult buddies, loves to kick around the soccer ball, or maybe they had a similar loss. Maybe Joe lost his dad when he was 10. And the little guy we’re going to assign to him, you know, just lost his father or parent. So, there’s a lot of things that go into assigning people to where they’re going to be,” Knotts says.

Compass Regional Day Camp also reaches into the schools in the tri-county area.

“We do a lot of grief support in the schools. Last year, we provided grief support to about 140 kids in all three counties. So, we always make it very clear that it doesn’t have to end there. And sometimes, it works the other way. We get them to camp. And they want to know, well, what else can I do? And we say, well, we can come to your school,” Knotts says.

With extraordinary support from regional businesses and vendors, the camp schedules are carefully planned months in advance. Compass provides training for new counselors and is always looking for additional support.

The Spy recently talked with Camp New Dawn Director Rhonda Knotts and adult grief counselor Sherrie Young.

To find out more about Compass Regional Hospice’s Camp New Dawn, how to contribute, or volunteer, go here.

This video is approximately eight minutes in length.