BUY THIS 99¢ TOUR NOW
A Walking Tour of Lewes, Delaware
Dutch traders established the first European settlement in Delaware just inside Cape Henlopen on the banks of the Lewes Creek in 1631 as a whaling station to provide oil for the main Dutch trading post in New Amsterdam (New York). A wooden fort was built north of the present Town and named Zwaanendael, meaning “Valley of the Swans” after the many swans spotted in the area. All went well until a dispute over a metal coat of arms nailed to a pole triggered a dispute with the local Lenni Lenape Indians. One thing led to another and the thirty-two settlers were massacred. Subsequent Dutch explorations led to the conclusion not to re-establish the colony.
Lewes received its present name by William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania, sometime immediately after his acquisition of the land from the Duke of York in 1682. According to research, records do not exist to explain why the name Lewes was chosen, although it is believed that members of Penn’s family were from the prominent town in the southeast of England of that name.
Pronounced “Loo-iss” (not “Lose”), the Town is believed to be one of only three places in the world that bear the name; the original English town and the Lewes River in the Yukon Territory, Canada are the others.
Lewes was government seat of Sussex County until 1791 when a more central location was required. As Delaware’s only seaport, Lewes has the dubious distinction of being the State’s target of choice in times of conflict. Captain Kidd and other pirates were frequent visitors during the 1600s; the French attempted to sack the town in 1709 and during the War of 1812 the British bombed Lewes for twenty-two hours. During World War II, with Fort Miles operating at Cape Henlopen, a German U-boat marauding offshore surrendered at Lewes.
Blessed with an excellent harbor, Lewes is home to a large fleet of charter fishing boats and is base of the Delaware Bay and River Pilots Association, whose members guide cargo vessels into the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia. Our walking of this seafaring town will begin at the distinctive building where the story of “the First Town in the First State” is told...
BUY THIS 99¢ TOUR NOW
Own a Kindle? Get this tour for your reader for only $1.99 - BUY THIS KINDLE BOOK NOW
Follow The Tour Back Home