Though DELAWARE has its beautiful
spots - including some of the mid-Atlantic's best beaches - its
tourist boards have their work cut out. Most of the images potential
visitors have of the state are negative: Delaware is known for
the massive chemical plants of the DuPont Corporation
and Dover Air Force Base , as well as for tolerating
shady business practices - half of America's largest companies
have their official bases in this tiny state, thanks to its permissive
tax, banking and incorporation laws. The upside of this is that
there's no sales tax, which certainly makes shoppers happy.
To downplay the state's dubious contemporary image,
Delaware's promoters emphasize its past - for example, as the
first ex-colony to ratify the Constitution, it claims the title
of America's First State . Dutch whalers established
a settlement at the mouth of the Delaware Bay in 1631, and soon
afterwards the Swedes built a larger colony at present-day Wilmington
. The two groups fought amongst themselves until the British took
over in 1664. Delaware was part of neighboring Pennsylvania -
Philadelphia is only ten miles north of the present, arching state
border - until hiving itself off in 1776.
Much of Delaware's fortunes (and misfortunes) since
then can be traced directly to the du Pont family
, who, fleeing the wrath of revolutionary France, set up a gunpowder
mill that became the main supplier of conventional explosives
to the US Government. After World War I, the du Ponts went public
and made millions in the stock market frenzies of the Roaring
Twenties, since which time the company has diversified, its labs
inventing such modern essentials as nylon and cellophane.
The du Ponts built huge mansions for themselves
in the Brandywine Valley north of Wilmington,
near the perfectly preserved old colonial capital, New
Castle , on the Delaware Bay just five miles south of
I-95. Further south, Dover , the capital, may
not detain you long, but beyond it the small and amiable resorts
of Lewes and Rehoboth Beach
mark the northern extent of over twenty miles of unspoiled Atlantic
beaches.
