Port Mahon, Delaware

Port Mahon, pronounced  MAY hon, is on the Delaware Bay at the mouth of the Mahon River, near Dover.  It used to be a port for the little town of Little Creek near Leipsic which is another little town, all near the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge.  So this is a great natural area for peeps who like nature and can live without little boutique shops or touristy stuff sold to Americans but made in China.  I'm surprised Port Mahon is left as it is though I'm not complaining.  I just figured someone would be wanting to make more Almighty Dollars off of the land on the shoreline.  My guess, but what do I really know, is that the tidal creeks and salt marshes and storm would make it all challenging and maybe just plain stupid for development.  And maybe it's also the way it is so commercial fishermen can do their thing.

In the past, a fish factory was located on site and Port Mahon was the center of oyster harvesting and horseshoe crab harvesting.  There used to be a lighthouse just offshore.  The first one was built in the 1830's (called Mahon's Ditch) and the last one was built in the 1950's.  Both are gone.  The 1950's one was built in the Chesapeake style.  It was on steel supports and that's all that is left now.  A replica of sorts is the club house at the golf course in nearby Magnolia, Delaware. I feel another road trip coming on.  I'm sure we have probably seen it in our exploratory drives and when house hunting but I can't remember it.  

Dave is looking outward to the Delaware Bay from what may have been the remains of the fish factory.  

A green plastic chair that has seen better days is hanging sideways off this steel pole (above).  Someone was bored.  Or perhaps had a sense of humor.  Or perhaps was making a sculpture from found objects.  

Below, in the foreground, is where I think the 1950's era Chesapeake Bay style lighthouse stood.  I think those are the steel supports sticking up out of the water between the jetty-type rocks on shore and the tug.  

Below, is the end of the road at what is left at Port Mahon.  We watched the osprey nest for a while.  Two opsreys were in it and a third circled with a fish in it's talons and at times was chased by one of the pair that was in the nest.  Finally the pair in the nest let the third one land in the nest with the fish.  Was it perhaps a juvenile osprey being taught by the parents?  I don't know.  I'll have to research this some more.  It was an incredibly beautiful sky, no?