1977 Map of Townsend

About this map

Townsend and the surrounding agricultural landscape of Northampton County are captured in this 1977 orthophotograph, showing the peninsula's narrow profile between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The aerial imagery reveals a mosaic of cultivated fields and wooded windbreaks characteristic of the Eastern Shore, clustered around small hubs like Cape Center, Cheapside, and Kiptopeke. The eastern half of the map is dominated by the intricate salt marshes and tidal channels of Mockhorn Bay, Magothy Bay, and South Bay, protected from the open ocean by a complex network of barrier islands and inlets. This aerial perspective, prepared in cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service, provides a clear record of coastal land use and the tidal geography of Old Plantation Creek during the late 1970s.