An island apart

Ninety miles south-east of Washington DC and 12 miles off Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Tangier Island is a remote sliver of marsh grasses, tidal creeks and bird-filled wetlands that’s home to 460 people adrift in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. For the past few hundred years, the only way on and off the island has been by infrequent boat service, and a combination of geographic isolation and traditions harking back to its early British settlers make Tangier feel like it’s in a different era than the country that surrounds it.

Tangier's water tower, with a painted cross on one side and blue crab on the other, proudly displays what drives the island: faith and fishing. Here, people bury loved ones in their back gardens, families attend church on Sundays and you won’t find alcohol for sale in the island’s one grocery store and two restaurants. There are almost no cars on the 1.2-sq-mile island, and residents ride bikes and golf carts on Tangier’s one circular road. There is no mobile phone service, police presence or reason to lock your door.

But while Tangier may feel like stepping back into the 1950s, it sounds like stepping back into the 1750s. That’s because the inhabitants have retained a unique form of speech that’s been passed down from the island’s earliest English settlers. Today, Tangier is one of the last places in the US where people still speak with traces of their colonial past.