Kent Island, Maryland in the context of "Chester River"

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⭐ Core Definition: Kent Island, Maryland

Kent Island is the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay and a historic place in Maryland, United States. To the east, a narrow channel known as the Kent Narrows barely separates the island from the Delmarva Peninsula, and on the other side, the island is separated from Sandy Point, an area near Annapolis, by roughly four miles (6.4 km) of water. At only four miles wide, the main waterway of the bay is at its narrowest at this point and is spanned here by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Chester River runs to the north of the island and empties into the Chesapeake Bay at Kent Island's Love Point. To the south of the island lies Eastern Bay. The United States Census Bureau reports that the island has 31.62 square miles (81.90 km) of land area.

Kent Island is part of Queen Anne's County, Maryland, and Maryland's Eastern Shore region. The first English establishment on the island, Kent Fort, was founded in 1631, making Kent Island the oldest English settlement within the present day state of Maryland and the third oldest permanent English settlement in what became the United States—after Jamestown, Virginia (1607), and Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620). The census-designated places of Stevensville and Chester are located on the island, along with several other communities, including the fishing community of Kent Narrows, which is located partially on the island. Although all of Kent Island's communities are unincorporated, the census designated places of Stevensville and Chester on the island are both more populous than any of Queen Anne's County's incorporated towns.

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👉 Kent Island, Maryland in the context of Chester River

The Chester River is a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on the Delmarva Peninsula. It is about 43 miles (69 km) long, and its watershed encompasses 368 sq mi (950 km), which includes 295 sq mi (760 km) of land. Thus the total watershed area is 20% water. It forms the border between Kent County and Queen Anne's County, Maryland, with its headwaters extending into New Castle County and Kent County, Delaware. Chestertown, the seat of Maryland's Kent County, is located on its north shore. It is located south of the Sassafras River and north of Eastern Bay, and is connected with Eastern Bay through Kent Narrows.

The Chester River begins at Millington, Maryland, where Cypress Branch and Andover Branch join together. It ends at the Chesapeake Bay in a very wide mouth between Love Point on Kent Island, and Swan Point, near Gratitude, Maryland. Cypress Branch rises in southwestern New Castle County, Delaware, and Andover Branch, with its tributary, Sewell Branch, rises in northwestern Kent County, Delaware. Millington is the head of navigation. Sewell Branch and Andover Branch join in a private impoundage of approximately 30 acres (120,000 m) about two miles (3 km) above joining with Cypress Branch and then becoming the Chester River.

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Kent Island, Maryland in the context of Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay (/ˈɛsəpk/ CHESS-ə-peek) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and the state of Delaware. The mouth of the bay at its southern point is located between Cape Henry and Cape Charles. With its northern portion in Maryland and the southern part in Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay is a very important feature for the ecology and economy of those two states, as well as others surrounding within its watershed. More than 150 major rivers and streams flow into the bay's 64,299-square-mile (166,534 km) drainage basin, which covers parts of six states (New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia) and all of Washington, D.C.

The bay is approximately 200 miles (320 km) long from its northern headwaters in the Susquehanna River to its outlet in the Atlantic Ocean. It is 2.8 miles (4.5 km) wide at its narrowest (between Kent County's Plum Point near Newtown in the east and the Harford County western shore near Romney Creek) and 30 miles (48 km) at its widest (just south of the mouth of the Potomac River, which divides Maryland from Virginia). Total shoreline including tributaries is 11,684 miles (18,804 km), circumnavigating a surface area of 4,479 square miles (11,601 km). Average depth is 21 feet (6.4 m), reaching a maximum of 174 feet (53 m). The bay is spanned twice, in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point (near Annapolis) to Kent Island and in Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel connecting Virginia Beach to Cape Charles.

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Kent Island, Maryland in the context of Kent Narrows

The Kent Narrows, also known as Kent Island Narrows and to local residents simply as the Narrows, is a waterway that connects the Chester River with the Eastern Bay and also separates Kent Island from the Delmarva Peninsula. It runs through the community of Kent Narrows, Maryland. The Kent Narrows was originally shallow and surrounded by marsh. A causeway was built across it in 1826, but was removed in 1876 when the channel was dredged. Today the Kent Narrows continues to be dredged regularly. The area has traditionally been a location for seafood packing and restaurants.

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Kent Island, Maryland in the context of Love Point, Maryland

Love Point is the name for the northernmost tip of Kent Island, Maryland, United States. As such, it marks the southern point of the mouth of the Chester River. It has served as a major ferry terminal, the western terminus of the Queen Anne's Railroad, and the nominal western terminus of Maryland Route 18 (which is aligned in a north–south direction near Love Point). Two notable landmarks once stood at the Love Point area; the Love Point Light and Hotel Love Point, both of which are destroyed. Today, Love Point is primarily a residential area.

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Kent Island, Maryland in the context of Kent Fort, Maryland

Kent Fort was a fort and settlement located near 38°50′N 76°22′W / 38.84°N 76.37°W / 38.84; -76.37 on southern Kent Island in colonial Virginia and later Maryland, and was the first English settlement within the boundaries of present-day Maryland and the fourth oldest permanent English settlement in the United States, after Jamestown, Virginia (1607), Hampton, Virginia (1609–10), and Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620). The fort was established by William Claiborne in 1631, and was a central part of early Kent Island. Claiborne made Kent Fort into a trading post with the Matapeake people, the Indigenous tribe of the island. Beads imported from Italy were given to the Matapeake people in exchange for furs. By the end of the century, however, activity had shifted northward to the port town of Broad Creek.

Today, the land on which the fort once stood has been eroded into the Eastern Bay, and the only known traces of the settlement are well bases in the bay. A stone marker marks where the settlement was located, and Kent Fort Manor is also located at the site of the Kent Fort settlement.

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Kent Island, Maryland in the context of Chester, Maryland

Chester is a census-designated place on Kent Island in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 3,723 at the 2000 census.

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Kent Island, Maryland in the context of Narrows

A narrows or narrow (used interchangeably but usually in the plural form), is a restricted land or water passage. Most commonly a narrows is a strait, though it can also be a water gap.

A narrows may form where a stream passes through a tilted bed of hard rock lying between two softer beds: "[i]f the hard beds are vertical, so that their outcrop does not shift as erosion proceeds, a narrows is developed". Like a dam, this "raises the water level for a short distance upriver". A narrows is also typically a good location for trapping migrating fish. Furthermore, a narrows is "an important topographical feature for wind mixing", an effect where a wind chill may form ice while the surrounding temperature remains above freezing.

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