Delaware City’s history is deeply tied to the Civil War, and a visit to Fort Delaware State Park will help you experience that history. Living-history interpreters will unfold this Union military post’s stories, where approximately 32,000 prisoners were held. The Fort was an active military base through World War II, becoming a state park in 1951.

On your trip to Pea Patch Island, where Fort Delaware State Park is located, you’ll notice the island is bound by the scenic Delaware River and Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.  When you arrive, costumed interpreters will take you to the summer of 1864 with tours of the parade ground, officers’ quarters, barracks, kitchen, blacksmith shop and ordnance room. They’ll also share stories of daring escapes and fire a live gunpowder charge from a Columbiad cannon.

The River View Trail alongside the Delaware River provides a glimpse of the site’s historic past. Six gun batteries were built at Fort DuPont (1898-1910), and five of them can be seen along the trail.

If you’re a bird watcher or a nature enthusiast, you will be pleased to know that Pea Patch Island is also a summer home to nine different species of herons, egrets and ibis and is one of the largest wading bird nesting areas on the East Coast. It is recognized by the National Audubon Society as an Important Bird Area. The variety of wading birds offer a spectacle as they fly back and forth to the island during the nesting season – a sight easily enjoyed from the Delaware City Canal Promenade.

The Prison Camp Trail traverses part of this area and features a bird observation tower along the trail, providing opportunities for you to take photographs and study nature. Use the boat launch for fishing and boating recreation opportunities on the Delaware River adjacent to the park.

Whether you’re into engineering marvels or a curious 9 year old, the 14 mile long and 450 feet wide Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) is sure to amaze you! Privately built in the 1800’s, and purchased by the U.S. Government in 1919, it crosses the northern Delaware/Maryland peninsula and is listed as a National Historic Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering landmark. The area is managed by DNREC’s Division of Fish and Wildlife as the C&D Canal Conservation Area under an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

If want to experience the canal up close, the Michael N. Castle C & D Canal Trail is a great way to do it!  You can access it in Delaware City via the Branch Canal Trail, a 0.40-mile trail linking the City and the adjacent Fort DuPont campus to the trail.  There are also four major trailheads for you to begin from, Delaware City, Biddle Point, St. Georges Bridge, and South Lums Pond.  

Running the entire length of the canal, the trail offers hiking, bicycling, and equestrian activities. Traveling it you’ll have excellent views of the canal, marshlands and woods along the trail, as well as the historic areas along Canal Street in Delaware City.

Should you want to extend your trail outing, you can continue on the Ben R. Cardin Trail heading west into Chesapeake City, MD.  That trail is named after a former governor and US Representative whose efforts in Congress helped initiate the project.