Wilmington (the best laid plans ...)

My first stop this morning was the New Castle Farmer’s Market . My idea was to make a quick stop before proceeding to the New Castle Court House Museum. I’ve learned that, on the East Coast, the “farmer’s market” is a catch-all term for a general market. It is more the equivalent of a “shuk” or market for cheap stuff such as you might find in the Middle East or Africa or Latin America. The Farmer’s Market itself is located in a big warehouse. While there was a small corner that had some produce, the vast majority of the space was devoted to a plethora of stuff that was more or less new, but definitely of minimal quality. The flea market, located in the adjacentlarge outdoor parking lot, could only be characterized as used junk. I suppose one could perhaps find a hidden treasure, but it would take a lot of excavation. None of this was even a good source of images.

I proceeded a few minutes down the road to the historic town of New Castle, intending to catch the 10 AM tour of the Court House Museum , which is a main historic site of Delaware. I arrived to a handwritten sign on the door that they would be closed until 1 PM for a school group tour. So much for planning. I walked down to the pier and had a nice conversation with Gerry (pronounced Gary). Gerry is a retired trucker who grew up in the New Castle area. He had some tidbits of local information for me and was just a lovely man in general.

Looking for something to do with myself for the three hours until I could access the Court House Museum, I drove back to the Wilmington area to visit Fort Christina . Now, Google maps said the Fort was closed, but upon arrival it was open for business. It is a good thing I decided not to trust Google and to check for myself. While this is formally a National Park Service site, it is administered by the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, which also has a museum down the street. I was warmly greeted by Herb Conner who offered me a free tour of the site. This was more than well worthwhile. Like many of the docents I have met, Herb had a varied background and this was his second or third retirement career. He was incredibly knowledgeable and imparted the information via stories, which made it very digestible. He is going to send me a PowerPoint with all of the information he gave me, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I will pass it on.

Delaware has a complex and circuitous history, involving the Dutch, the Swedes and the British . At this site, the first Swedish and Finnish American settlers aboard the Kalmar Nyckel and the Fogel Grip tall ships landed in 1638 and settled the first American Swedish colony called New Sweden. The site on the Christina River near the Delaware was selected as being optimal for trade in beaver pelts with the local Lenape tribe. The Fort (and the river) was named after Queen Christina of Sweden. In 1651, the Dutch, under Peter Stuyvesant, established Fort Casimir at present-day New Castle, only 7 miles South of Fort Christina, specifically to challenge the Swedish settlement. In 1654, the Swedes captured Fort Casimir under the orders of Governor Johan Risingh. In 1655, the Dutch, under Stuyvesant, returned in force and laid siege to Fort Christina. The fort's surrender after ten days ended the official Swedish colonial presence in North America, though most of the colonists remained and were allowed to continue their linguistic and religious practices by the Dutch. Interestingly, the conflict was not considered in any way a war between the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Sweden, but rather a struggle for power between the Dutch West India Company and the Swedish West India Company. The land remained as part of New Netherland until an English fleet invaded the area in 1664 and captured the site.

I had hoped to visit the museum as well but - again - I was denied access due to the presence of a school group. I still had some time to kill, so I found a local coffee shop, Legal Grounds Cafe , to sit for a while until it was time to head back to New Castle. It was a cute neighborhood coffee shop and worth the stop.

Back to the New Castle Court House Museum which is, by the way, also part of the scattered complex called the First State National Historical Park . I was finally allowed to enter, and was given a private tour by Antoinette, a guide from the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs. She had a lot of information to impart, which I was trying to absorb as fast as she was giving it to me. This building houses the historic courtroom downstairs and the room where the General Assembly of Delaware met upstairs. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were ratified in this room. Because Delaware was the first to ratify the Constitution, it is considered the first State of the Union . Interestingly, the three lower counties that would become Delaware voted to secede from Pennsylvania at the same time they ratified the Declaration of Independence. During the Civil War, Delaware was a slave state that remained in the Union. One of the reasons it did no secede was a sense that the first State of the Union should be the last to secede. The DuPont family, which is synonymous with Delaware, was influential in this decision.

Antoinette also had a lot of interesting stories regarding how the court operated and historically important trials that were conducted there. It is still used for ceremonial occasions and apparently once a year a current trial is conducted in the historic courtroom. As a closing piece of closing trivia, Delaware derives from Sir Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, first governor of Jamestown, VA.

The First State National Historical Park site does offer a 15 minute film that does a very good job of summarizing the history of Delaware, including information that was too much to write in this blog. It is worth taking the quarter hour to watch. 

 I returned to my nice air-conditioned hotel room mid-afternoon to escape the 94 degree heat. I did venture out in the early evening to visit DE.CO , a food hall and bar a few blocks from my hotel. I sat next to Jonathon, with whom I had a wonderful conversation. He was very interested in my journey and it was fun relating the pleasant surprises I have encountered in various states so far. From our short interaction, I could easily discern that Jonathan is just a quality human being.

Tomorrow, I plan to visit Brandywine Creek State Park and, depending on time, the greater Brandywine Valley (also part of the First State National Historical Park).