This fourth chapter in our series of documentary films about the Eastern Shore, produced in partnership with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker James Spione, explores the evocative ruins and little-known history of the great hunting clubs of Virginia's barrier islands.
Between the Civil War and the Great Depression, hundreds of sportsmen's lodges, built by wealthy industrialists and staffed by Southern locals, dotted the American coastline. In this intimate recounting, regional historians, as well as Eastern Shore residents with deep family connections, bring the clubs' heyday to vivid life.
The shifting sands of these dynamic islands are no place to build a permanent structure, and Spione's film details how powerful storms and economic stress brought the era of the clubs to a close.