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Hooper's Island is actually a chain of three small populated islands in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. The principal community, of about 400 people, is known as Fishing Creek.

[edit] Understand

The community here has deep roots, running back to the mid-seventeenth century, when Henry Hooper found it a nice place for a tobacco plantation. In the hundred years, Hooper Island converted from a tobacco community to a fishing economy, hauling crabs and especially oysters out of the once rich Bay. Today the community, like nearly all the proud Chesapeake Watermen communities, is under threat from fish stocks depleted by pollution and from rising waters.

[edit] Get in

Hooper's Island is a good long drive from the nearest town, but it's a beautiful ride. Hooper's Island Rd (MD-355) is the one land route in. It's a simple route from Cambridge—just take MD-16 south, then turn right on MD-355. The bridges from island to island are beautiful!

[edit] Get around

[edit][add listing] See

Hooper's Island isn't full of sightseeing attractions—it is the sightseeing attraction. Its setting is beautiful, and a great place to take in a Chesapeake sunset.

• Hooper's Island Lighthouse. The lighthouse dating from 1901 is easy enough to find, since you can see it from just about anywhere on the island if you look to the west. It is one of the U.S.' rare pneumatic caisson lighthouses.  edit
• Phillips Seafood Factory. No longer in operation, the birthplace of the venerable Chesapeake seafood institution, which operates seafood restaurants throughout the Mid-Atlantic, offers tours during the summer.  edit

[edit][add listing] Do

[edit][add listing] Buy

[edit] Eat and Drink

• Old Salty's, 2560 Hoopers Island Rd, Fishing Creek, ☎ +1 410 397-3752. Great views over the water and as-fresh-as-it-gets seafood hauls are the reasons to come here. That and the fact that it's the only full-service restaurant on the island. Nothing about the place is fancy, but who needs a fancy restaurant when you could experience the local hospitality of the Chesapeake Watermen!  edit

[edit][add listing] Sleep

Unless you have family here, you won't find a place to stay on the islands. The closest one is about 35 minutes due north near Taylor Wildlife Preserve just off Smithville Rd on the way to Cambridge:

• Tobacco Stick Inn, 1343 Taylor's Island Rd, Madison, ☎ +1 410 330-1124, [1]. A small, historic B&B in the tiny community of Madison, surrounded by wild lands and wildlife.  edit

[edit] Contact

[edit] Get out

• Beautiful Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is back up the road towards Cambridge.