Matapeake State Park is a state park

State park

State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the federated state level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational...

 located in Matapeake

Matapeake, Maryland

Matapeake is an unincorporated community located south of Stevensville on Kent Island, Maryland.It is named for the historic Matapeake Indian tribe, who lived there at the time of English colonization in 1631. Their chief village was on the southeast side of the island...

, Kent Island

Kent Island, Maryland

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 separated from Sandy Point, an area near Annapolis, by...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

. Its location is the site of a former ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 landing that served the state-owned Chesapeake Bay Ferry System before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a major dual-span bridge in the U.S. state of Maryland. Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state's rural Eastern Shore region with the more urban Western Shore. The original span opened in 1952 and, at the time, with a length of , it was the world's longest...

 opened. Today, the pier that once served the ferry is now used as a fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 pier. Also located on the park's grounds is the restored ferry house. As of 2011, the northern terminus of the Kent Island South Trail is also located in the park.

History

The park land was first acquired by the state in 1941 with the purchase of the Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry Company, which became the Chesapeake Bay Ferry System. The Sandy Point-Matapeake Ferry, which had used the land as a landing, was discontinued in 1952. Afterwards, uses for the land by the state included a shooting range and a building housing a scale model of the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

. The bay model was made obsolete by computer simulations, and the building was left vacant. In 2003 the building collapsed during that year's Presidents' Day snowstorm

North American blizzard of 2003

The Blizzard of 2003, also known as the Presidents' Day Storm II or simply PDII, was a historical and record-breaking snowstorm on the East Coast of the United States and Canada, which lasted from February 14 to February 19, 2003. It spread heavy snow across the major cities of the Northeastern US,...

. The park is leased by Queen Anne's County. The county has renovated the ferry terminal building and renamed it Matapeake Clubhouse. Both Matapeake Clubhouse and the adjoining public beach on the Chesapeake Bay opened to the public April 25, 2009.