Daugherty Creek Canal

The Daugherty Creek Canal runs southwest to northeast and averages from 6 to 9 feet deep, depending on the tide. For years, watermen traveling from the vicinity of Crisfield to the oyster bottoms and prime crabbing areas of the Big Annamessex River had no choice but to sail west and then follow the shoreline around the island, often through very rough seas. They sought a way through the narrow isthmus connecting the rest of the mainland to what is now Janes Island. A number of efforts were made to build a canal between the Little and Big Annamessex rivers, beginning when a man named Daugherty started digging it by hand. He never finished, falling victim to the 1918 flu pandemic. A local dentist, Steven Fuller, later planned to construct a canal and build a community named "Fullerton" beside it, but that also never came to pass. Finally, in the 1930s, the canal was completed, giving watermen a quick and safe route north. The canal was dredged to its present width in the 1960s.

Maryland · United States