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Feeling crabby Crisfield, Md., embraces its crustacean side

May 20, 2006 12:50 am

For THE FREE LANCE-STAR

The inhabitants of Crisfield, Md., have made their living from the water since the earliest days of commerce in crabs, oysters, waterfowl and Chesapeake Bay fish.

Located on Maryland's Eastern Shore opposite Virginia's Northern Neck, the town is known by most outsiders as one of the Delmarva Peninsula's main jumping-off points to the Smith Island and Tangier Island ferries.

Tourists by the busload pass through Crisfield en route to these popular day-tripper island destinations, but independent travelers may find it worthwhile to invest an extra day or two and check out this unique coastal town of nearly 2,700 people.

A bed-and-breakfast operation is often the optimal way to learn the inside scoop on all an area offers. Valerie and Frank Guetens of Bea's B&B were positively brimming with suggestions for activities to do and things to see, as well as observations on how Crisfield is changing.

To glimpse Crisfield's soul, you really should rise before daybreak--certainly before most of the traveling world receives its wake-up calls.

With light barely edging over the eastern horizon, I slipped as silently as possible from my comfortable room in the Guetens' spacious Victorian home (built in 1909 and once home to one of the area's most prominent seafood magnates) and headed downtown toward the marina.

I was almost too late to see Tommy Thompson and Tim Ruth at the public boat landing as they finished transferring 4,000 pounds of live eels to a truck with aerated containers, each of which announced "live eels" in several languages. After receiving payment, they loaded boxed, frozen razor clams (bait for their eel traps) aboard their boat. It was time to get back to work in Pocomoke and Tangier sounds.

At Metompkin Bay Oyster Co., the oyster shucking line had been running since 5 a.m. in the more-than-100-year-old, warehouse-style building.

Workers chip shell edges using a spinning carbide wheel, then hand twist a stout blade to pop open the oysters. Empty shells drop to a conveyor belt where they are deposited onto a massive, somewhat aromatic pile outside.

Upstairs, company founder I.T. (Ira Todd), now in his late 80s, pores over handwritten ledger books while his son Casey supervises action on the production floors.

In another building, live soft-shell crabs are packed tightly into waxed boxes lined with grass and a little ice. Timely shipment is critical, as customers around the world will be awaiting these tasty crustaceans the next morning.

Gordon's Confectionary opens at 4 a.m. and sees a nearly five-hour parade of watermen, commercial fishermen, charter captains and many of their customers. They stop in to grab coffee, maybe something to eat, and yak momentarily about who's catching what, how the market is faring for crabs or fish, and how the price of gas and bait is making an already challenging existence a whole lot tougher.

You can order a fountain coke (50 cents more with spirits of ammonia, supposedly to help cure headaches and other ills) and, if you're back in time for lunch, any of a number of sandwiches, mostly fried or grilled.

Doug "Cheeseburger" Nelson runs Gordon's with his partner Kenny Evans, age 82. Kenny's father was Gordon C. Evans, the store's founder and namesake. The family used to live above the restaurant. Kenny began working there at age 16.

He got a tiny "spy" camera in the 1960s, and his hobby of snapping candids of unsuspecting patrons led to one of the most unique features of any restaurant in any town: the "Alive" and "Dead" boxes.

"After a while, some of the people in the photos would die, so I starting sorting between those who were still alive and those who'd passed away," Evans said.

Today, two El Producto cigar boxes are filled with photographs of customers. Owners and clients sometimes pull out the boxes and reminisce over friends "passed" and present.

Anne Bradford of the Somerset County Tourism office explained, "Those boxes started as a bit of an in-house joke, but it soon became in-house history--the history of this town."

The type of work going on at the various seafood-packing houses and out on the fertile waters has supported the town for centuries.

Government scientists verified the presence of bountiful oyster beds in Tangier Sound nearly a decade before the first shots of the Civil War. This wealth of oysters had John W. Crisfield working to extend the Eastern Shore Railroad from Salisbury down to Somers Cove, then the town's name.

The resulting prosperity was so profound the town was renamed for him. Somers Cove Marina, though, remains a foundation of commerce. With nearly 500 boat slips and three launching ramps, it's home to most of the area's recreational fishing fleet.

Before the marketing term "branding" ever became fashionable, Crisfield cultivated a reputation as "The Crab Capital of the World." The town's water towers proudly display the blue crab in all of its cooked, red glory, symbolically reinforcing a "who we are and what we stand for" point of view.

You don't have to delve into the waterman's early world to experience Crisfield; there are other things to do. Still, getting up early certainly helps if you're a birdwatcher.

Crisfield participates in an annual birding week in late April. Some of the back roads, such as those leading to the marshy Jenkins Creek area known as "Down Neck," are full of opportunities to glimpse a wide variety of wading and shore birds.

The creek is also home to one of the Eastern Shore's most famous crab shanties, the one depicted on the cover of the book "The Last Waterman."

This interesting book by Glenn Lawson is required reading in many Chesapeake-oriented academic courses of study. It explores the waterman lifestyle of the author's brother, Wayne "Hon" Lawson, tracking historic Crisfield's rough and often dangerous world before segueing into concerns for the future of these independent, often change-resistant folks.

Naturalists also may want to check out the new Cedar Island Marsh Sanctuary, a 330-acre marsh close to Somers Cover Marina. Reasonably priced guided marsh trips using kayaks are available, as well as programs designed to teach nature and wildlife photography.

The Crisfield Heritage Foundation sponsors the marsh tour programs. The foundation is based in the J. Millard Tawes Historical Museum. Crisfield native Tawes was Maryland's governor in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The museum, which can be seen in less than an hour, provides an excellent overview of Maryland's Lower Shore and the town's history, commerce and characters.

It's also the jumping-off point for the Port of Crisfield Escorted Walking Tour and the Crisfield Heritage Tour. Museum admission is $2.50 for adults.

Crisfield natives Lem and Steve Ward, famed "wildfowl counterfeiters in wood," carved realistic waterfowl decoys used for hunter's gunning rigs. The museum bearing their name is actually in Salisbury, but the Crisfield museum has a display of their work, plus the Heritage Foundation is restoring their workshop. Workshop visits are by appointment only.

North of Crisfield is beautiful Janes Island State Park, which is part of the Beach to Bay Indian Trail. This park offers four log cabins, 104 campsites, canoeing and kayaking, fishing and crabbing, boat rentals and launch ramps, plus a playground, picnic facilities and a conference center.

Campers can bring their own boats and moor them in a park slip for a nominal fee. Cabins must be reserved in advance. The park covers 2,900 acres, and paddlers can explore marshes connected by small waterways.

Hot crabs and cold beer are certainly mainstays in many eateries and, for the festival devotee, Crisfield is home to the National Hard Crab Derby (September), the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake (July) and the--what else?--J. Millard Tawes Oyster and Bull Roast (October).

In contrast to the no-frills, grass-roots ambience of Gordon's Confectionary is The Watermen's Inn, a small downtown restaurant painted a rusty orange accented with a large blue mural. The co-owners are trained chefs, and the meals they create have resulted in the restaurant becoming an Eastern Shore destination.

Everything chef Kathy Berezoski created, from appetizers and a standard entree of backfin lump crab cakes to a nightly special of pan-seared sesame scallops with a ginger-lime butter served atop crunchy seaweed, was excellent.

Creativity, presentation and service were superb. The wine selection is small, but adequate to pair with any entree. Best of all for diners, prices are exceptionally low compared with other restaurants serving haute cuisine in larger cities from Richmond to Washington.

Berezoski is also an expert pastry chef, and the multitude of perfectly decadent desserts greeting you at the door lets you know you had better save some room. This restaurant is a must visit during any trek to the area.

Crisfield is, in many ways, representative of many small towns trying to preserve their identity and way of life. Rapid change is occurring as waterfront properties near the heart of downtown are transformed from boatyards and seafood-based operations into upscale condominium complexes several stories high. "Valuable property" for-sale signs are numerous.

Visitors used to enjoy viewing sunsets over the water while dining on the upstairs terrace of the Side Street restaurant. You can still see the marina, but prime water views are now blocked. Supposedly, a restaurant is opening in one of the condo complexes.

A "strategic revitalization plan" being developed for Crisfield is contentious at best, with many vocal opponents worrying the town's character will be forever destroyed and development proponents talking up economic opportunity that will allow traditional flavor to remain. Town elections are coming, and some candidates aren't keen on the new direction.

The safest bet is to visit these historic towns sooner as opposed to later, while they still exist in some semblance of their original character--if that's important to you as a visitor.

Also being discussed is the potential for a vehicle ferry running between Reedville, Va., and Crisfield. Multiple studies have been conducted, and the venture presents challenges. Many residents worry there simply isn't enough demand to warrant the cost of operation, and that taxpayers will be left paying the bills.

Casey Todd of Metompkin Bay Oyster Co. works in the shadow of one of the new condo complexes. In talking with him, it's obvious he isn't a fan of the new monoliths dominating Crisfield's shoreline. Neither is he a proponent of the ferry service, primarily due to the patronage concerns, but he says: "Somebody must want it. They keep doing studies. It's like Dracula; you can't kill it."

Others like Crisfield as a "one way in, one way out" destination--a place you get to because you want to be there. They worry a ferry would mostly bring commercial truckers looking for a shortcut.

An article in the April issue of Chesapeake Bay magazine enticed readers by questioning whether there would be any shoreline along the bay where condos wouldn't eventually come to rule the landscape.

Ironically, those creating the demand for shoreline high-rise complexes often play the critical role in destroying the very quality of life and culture that caused them to fall in love with an area in the first place.

Meanwhile, back at Gordon's Confectionary, 81-year-old Carol Conner takes a sip of coffee and a bite of hamburger. He still works every day for a local poultry farmer, and his eyes twinkle as he sees me picking through the old black-and-white photos in the Alive and Dead boxes.

"I'm in there--the alive box, that is," he says with a broad smile.

Next to Conner sits Reggie Wilson and Gary Gerald. "They've been coming in here their whole life," said Cheeseburger. "It's good we can survive as a business; we're not a museum yet."

Still, even Gordon's is for sale--there's just no sign out front. The asking price is a million bucks. The restaurant isn't directly on the water, but given the allure of waterfront communities today, somebody may pay it.

Some have heard rumors that the place will be bought and razed to make way for more upscale high-rise development. Valerie Guetens doesn't know how locals could ever let that happen.

"I think they'd chain themselves to the building first," she said.