Matapeake is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located south of Stevensville on

Kent Island Kent Island is the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay and a historic place in Maryland. 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 sep ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, United States. It is named for the historic Matapeake tribe, who lived there at the time of English colonization in 1631. Their chief village was on the southeast side of the island. They were an Algonquian-speaking tribe, related to the paramount

chiefdom A chiefdom is a political organization of people representation (politics), represented or government, governed by a tribal chief, chief. Chiefdoms have been discussed, depending on their scope, as a stateless society, stateless, state (polity) ...

of the Nanticoke. Before construction of the

Chesapeake Bay Bridge The Gov. William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge (informally called the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and, locally, the Bay Bridge) is a major twin bridges, dual-span bridge in the U.S. state of Maryland. Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the ...

, Matapeake was the eastern terminus of a cross-bay ferry. The ferry building is part of the Matapeake Maritime Center. Today, Matapeake is home to Matapeake State Park, Christ Episcopal Church of Kent Island, Matapeake Elementary School, and Matapeake Middle School.

References

External links

Matapeake State Park
Kent Island, Maryland Unincorporated communities in Maryland Unincorporated communities in Queen Anne's County, Maryland {{QueenAnnesCountyMD-geo-stub