Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
Boatbuilding, oyster harvesting, decoys, and a relocated screwpile lighthouse make the Bay’s working culture tangible along the Miles River.
Artwork inspired by Ruth Starr Rose
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum occupies a waterfront where the sound of work matters as much as the objects in galleries. Its shipyard keeps wooden-boat skills visible, while historic vessels and exhibitions explain how shallow water, seasonal harvests, and changing markets shaped life around the Bay. St. Michaels supplies the setting, but the subject reaches well beyond one town.
The Hooper Strait Lighthouse brings an offshore workplace onto land, and the floating fleet preserves boats built for particular jobs. Together they make the watermen’s world more concrete than a picturesque harbor view. Leave time for the people and communities behind those vessels, including the labor and knowledge that kept oyster, crab, and fishing economies operating.
- Waterway
- Miles River
- Lighthouse
- Hooper Strait, 1879
- Living craft
- Wooden boatbuilding
Quick guide
- Start outside
- Check the shipyard’s work and demonstrations before gallery browsing.
- Use both days
- Ordinary admission allows a slower return visit.
Know before you go
- Read the hull
- Compare a workboat’s shallow draft with the job it performed.
- Ask at the shipyard
- Find out which repair or construction stage is visible that day.
- Allow for stairs
- See lighthouse access details before joining its interior route.
- Separate the cruise
- A boat trip needs its own departure and ticket planning.
Good to know
The lighthouse was moved here from Hooper Strait. Its museum waterfront setting is not its original offshore location, and general admission does not automatically include a cruise.
Notice these
- Screwpile lighthouse legs
- Working shipyard tools
- Watermen’s boats at the docks