Sussex County: Waterfront is Everywhere

The entirety of the state of Delaware is positioned within the Eastern Shore of DelMarVa.  The Eastern Shore itself is separated from the mainland of Maryland and Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay.  Sussex County, located on the Eastern Shore of Delaware, is the state's southern most and only seaside county, just 2-3 hours from the cities of Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.  A water enthusiast's paradise, Sussex County boasts gorgeous stretches of bay and ocean coastlines, as well as many inland bays, rivers and lakes.

The county's northeastern, eastern and southeastern borders all touch water. The Delaware Bay coastline in Sussex starts at the northern shores of Slaughter Beach to the southern shores of Cape Henlopen.  The opposite shore of the Delaware Bay is southern New Jersey. One hundred and fifty years ago, clipper ships launched down rivers in Delaware relied on the beacon at the Henlopen Lighthouse to navigate safe passage through the shoals and north up the Delaware River to Philadelphia and Trenton.

The eastern side of Sussex County, south of Cape Henlopen, is “the gold coast,” a narrow barrier peninsula with thirty five miles of pristine white sand from Lewes to Fenwick Island. Because this peninsula was once a series of barrier islands with natural breaks, storm tides often change the shapes of the Delaware state beaches with openings to the Inland Bays. The Rehoboth Bay, the Indian River Bay and the Little Assawoman Bay surround the southeast part of Sussex County. Because of the region's pristine beauty, temperate climate, and bountiful harvest from the seas, Delaware's first settlers chose this area for their new home.

The western portion of Sussex County...