Mardela Springs, Delmar, & Marydel Examined In New Title About Border Towns

1902-02 Maryand State Gazetter entry for Mardela Springs; Publish by Polk Directories

A new title, Edge Effects: The Border-Name Place, by Dr. Robert D. Temple focuses on border towns. The author provides a fascinating and entertaining look at more than eighty north American border towns in Edge Effects. With an adventurer’s heart and a historian’s keen eye, Temple explores life on the edge and how these places have made their place in history.

On the Delmarva Peninsula the author examines Marydel, Delmar and Mardela Springs, while on the Pennsylvania/Maryland border he looks at Pen Mar and Sylmar.  The author talks about finding these 80-s0me places, the adventure in exploring them, by highway, four-wheel-drive, boots, and kayak, and in encountering memorable locals: historians, farmers, waitresses, cops, forest rangers, railroaders, and ne’er-do-wells. But even more, he says, these places lead us to investigate concepts of borders, boundaries, frontiers, margins, and marginality, as well as survey lines, battle lines, picket lines, and color lines. Edge Effects reveals how edges shape local history-and our lives. With an outstanding chapter on Sylmar, it’s a title I’ve ordered for my personal library.

Here’s a link to more information on the title