9 Offbeat Towns to Visit in Delaware
Although you may think that Delaware is already off the beaten path, there is an underrated side of the state where you can see things like a 30-ton Hindu statue, a tavern supposedly cursed by Edgar Allan Poe, a pig parts pastry called scrapple, the skull of America's first documented female serial killer, and even a lost black bear. These curiosities live in towns that can comfort you with normal attractions after you have had your freakish fill. Discover nine such gems in The Diamond State.
Milton
Renaissance writer John Milton inspired the name and quirkiness of Milton, Delaware. His life-sized statue sits on a bench in Mill Park and his clothing and accessories change from season to season. This legitimate vandalism has become town tradition, with few residents caring to bring the Santa-hat-harboring criminal(s) to justice.
After seeing Milton's newest fashion, visitors can check out other oddly dressed attractions like the Steampunk Treehouse, which guards the lawn of Dogfish Head Brewery, and the Futuro House, a flying saucer-shaped home just outside of town. The latter was conceived by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the 1960s.
Hockessin
If planning a trip through Delaware, take the route the Delabear took in 2016. Black bears are not established in the state, so when one wanders in from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Maryland, it causes a stir. This bruin was first reported on scrumptiously named Dewberry Drive in Hockessin, past the Hindu Temple of Delaware (now with a 30-ton Hanuman sculpture). Then, the bear headed for Blueberry Court, which is near the Mt. Cuba Center botanical garden. After that, it allegedly changed course, passing Delcastle Golf Club to be spotted in Woodcreek Park. It next appeared in Newark at Orville Clark Park and the University of Delaware's Laird Campus before crossing into Maryland. Delabear got quite a taste of New Castle County without getting a taste of any of its residents, thankfully.
Newark
Delabear was not the only Delascare in Newark. This 30,000-person community had only a few hundred residents when legendary horror writer Edgar Allan Poe lectured at Newark Academy in 1843. The lecture is documented, but what happened before or after the lecture is a matter of Newark legend. Apparently, the future author of "The Raven" stayed at St. Patrick's Inn and fell in the mud outside. He was so upset that he cursed the hotel. It allegedly burned down several years later.
Today, Newark Academy is the University of Delaware, one of the oldest colleges in America, while St. Patrick's Inn is Deer Park Tavern, having been built on the sites ashes in 1851. A raven is part of the logo. Ravens are also featured in a Poe mural on the wall of Newark Cemetery.
Arden
Founded by followers of single tax, communalist, and arts and crafts movements, Arden is a village of 430 people that looks downright utopian, unless you are into owning your own land and not into Shakespeare. Arden residents live in vintage houses on 99-year land leases and attend "Gilds" (clubs) dedicated to dancing, gardening, and, the Bard.
Even if Arden is not your ideological or artistic bag, it has inclusive attractions such as the Oddporium, where you can buy offbeat antiques, and Arden Fair, which runs in September and features vendors, games, and music.
Rehoboth Beach
Modern Rehoboth Beach draws visitors with Atlantic views, a boardwalk cruise, and plentiful alcohol. The temperance movement, which was active in Delaware in the early 20th century, tried to prevent the latter form of entertainment, and the proof is in a near-100-year-old monument at the head of town. Flanked by Funland, Zelky's Beach Arcade, and Zogg's Raw Bar & Grill is the Temperance Fountain, which was erected by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1929 to offer tourists H2O instead of Wild Turkey 101. Poetically, it stopped working.
Dover
Calling Dover a town when it is the capital and second most populous city of Delaware may seem a little insulting. But, with just over 39,000 residents, it is considered a small community in many other states. It also has an offbeat past of holding Patty Cannon's head in a box. From 1961 to 2010, Dover Public Library kept the supposed skull of this notorious Delaware serial killer in a hat box, sometimes displaying it for Halloween. Having procured Cannon's head after a number of transactions dating back to a 1902 exhumation, the library was notified of the illegality of displaying human remains. Thus, the skull went to the Smithsonian and now rests in Delaware's Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.
A Delaware tourist can go from seeing a real monster to a fake one at Dover International Speedway. Fourty-six feet tall and holding a car, Miles the Monster is a fiberglass sculpture built outside the racetrack in 2008. From there, race over to Johnson Victrola Museum for a tour of the namesake obsolete record players that sound cool and look even cooler.
Smyrna
On the border of Kent and New Castle counties, Smyrna is on the border of scenic and sinister. This 13,000-person town is nestled in greenery comprising historic Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, mysterious Blackbird State Forest, and solemn James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, which was the site of America's last judicial hanging in 1996. Moreover, Smyrna was one of the last places in the state where you could dine on muskrat, a traditional Mid-Atlantic meat, until the Wagon Wheel Family Restaurant closed in 2014. Now that title belongs to nearby Ellendale, whose Southern Grille serves 'skrat Wednesday nights from late November through March.
Lewes
Lewes was the first European settlement in Delaware, founded by the Dutch in 1631 under the name Zwaanendael ("swan valley"). That unique name and history is preserved by Zwaanendael Museum, which also preserves oddities like the half fish, half monkey (and totally fake) Fiji Merman. The area's other oddity preserves include Cannonball House, which is a museum in a house hit by a cannonball during the 1813 Bombardment of Lewes (the real cannonball is on display while a replica cannonball is welded into the foundation), and Cape Henlopen State Park, whose beach contains towers and bunkers built in WWII to protect America from Nazi warships.
Bridgeville
When Punkin Chunkin left Bridgeville in 2016 after a pumpkin cannon critically injured a spectator, fans thought that was the last of the town's rhyming produce-themed festivals. But the town also hosts Apple Scrapple. Held on October 11 and 12 in its 32nd year, the Bridgeville Apple Scrapple Festival celebrates apples, such as those grown by TS Smith Orchard Point Market, and scrapple, a Delaware delicacy of cornmeal and discarded pig parts manufactured at the RAPA Scrapple plant. After munching apples, and possibly scrapping scrapple, tourists can bridge the gap of weirdness by visiting the Antique Alley of Bridgeville and the Old Bridgeville Fire House Museum.
There you have it: already offbeat Delaware off the beaten path. Milton, Hockessin, Newark, Arden, Rehoboth Beach, Dover, Smyrna, Lewes, and Bridgeville have sites that mediums, historians, foodies, and forest rangers have mapped. Now you can join them, and do not worry much about getting lost. In Delaware, you are never too far from civilization.
