Dorchester County
Maryland

Many residents of Dorchester County have historically made their living as farmers or working on the water. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries provide harvests of crabs, oysters and many fish species to both commercial and recreational fishermen. Dorchester County was the birthplace of Harriet Tubman, who escaped from slavery and afterward worked to guide other refugee slaves to freedom in the North.

Dorchester County has been hit by two deadly tornadoes. The first occurred on June 23, 1944, in Cambridge, where two people were killed and 33 were injured. The other was on May 8, 1984, in Hurlock, where one death and six injuries were reported. Both storms caused between 500,000 and 5 million dollars of damage.

Dorchester County is the largest county by total area on the Eastern Shore. It is bordered by the Choptank River to the north, Talbot County to the northwest, Caroline County to the northeast, Wicomico County to the southeast, Sussex County, Delaware, to the east, and the Chesapeake Bay to the west. Dorchester County uses the slogan, “The Heart of Chesapeake Country”, due to its geographical location and the heart-like shape of the county on a map.

Dorchester County operates under the Charter Home Rule form of government, and the affairs of the County are managed by five County Council Members. Each is elected from a single-member district defined within the county. Meetings of the County Council are held weekly. The agenda and the minutes of each week’s proceedings are public record.

At the 2010 United States Census, there were 32,618 people, 13,522 households and 8,894 families residing in the county. The median household income was $45,151 and the median family income was $56,662.