From the 1850s to the 1950s, Urbanna's fall and winter economy was driven by oysters. The town's strategic location near fertile Rappahannock River oyster beds drew oyster hand-tongers from September to March. Oystermen from Gloucester and Mathews counties and from Tangier Island sailed and later motored their log canoes and deadrise boats to stay for the season. Near this location, J.W. Hurley & Son Seafood operated one of the largest oyster shucking and packing houses in the region, and next door Boys Hurley built and ran one of the area's most popular seafood restaurants. The oyster industry waned in the 1950s when MSX, a deadly bacteria, killed millions of oysters throughout the Chesapeake Bay region. In recent years the oyster business has rebounded some through innovations in farming and growing techniques, but the town's infrastructure that once supported a large oyster industry is no longer in place. In 1957 the community founded the annual Urbanna Oyster Festival as a tribute to the oyster and its importance to the town's economy over the centuries, and in 1988 the Virginia General Assembly named it the state's official oyster festival. More than 60,000 people attend the annual event.