Kent

Kent County covers the middle of Delaware between Wilmington’s metro to the north and the Atlantic beaches to the south. The terrain is flat coastal plain — agricultural land, pine flatwoods, and tidal marsh along Delaware Bay — broken by the St. Jones and Murderkill rivers as they work east to the Bay. Dover, the state capital, is the dominant anchor. Other towns include Smyrna, Harrington, Milford (which straddles the Sussex line), Camden-Wyoming, and Felton. The Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force Base, the John Dickinson Plantation, the Biggs Museum of American Art, and the Delaware State Museums in Dover handle most cultural visitor weight; Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge along the Bay is one of the most important migratory bird stops on the Atlantic Flyway. Most trips center on Dover and the wildlife refuge. Dover handles the state-capital itinerary — the legislative hall, the Old State House, NASCAR at Dover Motor Speedway. Bombay Hook draws birders fall through spring; the Delaware Bay shoreline at Bowers Beach handles small-town fishing and crabbing. Most of Kent works as a stop along a longer Delaware itinerary rather than a destination on its own.