The Lenape Trace, a main thoroughfare of a trail, passed through Ellendale as a Native American trade route from Pocomoke City, Maryland to Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania.

The insurrectionists were mainly from Cedar Creek and Slaughter Neck Hundred, and their headquarters were in a swamp about six miles (10 km) north of Georgetown.

Their leaders, Bartholomew Banynum (Banum) and William Dutton, had about 400 men formed in "Associations" or militia companies.

Ellendale was first settled near the Morris Tavern Crossroads, near the current Old State Road and Main Street intersection, by a handful of families.

Ellendale's current site was established in 1866 when the families moved east to settle around the Junction and Breakwater Railroad Depot.

[6] In February 1895, the Queen Anne's Railroad was authorized by the Delaware legislature to extend its rail lines across the state to Lewes.

This additional rail line passed through Ellendale and provided passenger, freight, and mail services as far west as Queenstown, Maryland (with links to Baltimore via steamship) and east to Rehoboth Beach (with links to Cape May, New Jersey via steamship) with the first passenger trains passing through in 1897.

By the middle of the 1920s, with profits declining and competition for its other lines increasing, the Pennsylvania Railroad decided to abandon a large portion of the railway.

In the 1950s, numerous school districts in Kent and Sussex Counties, including Ellendale, continued to fight against desegregation after the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education.

The protests which begin at the Milford School District, eventually bringing about a lawsuit that went to the Delaware Supreme Court which ruled that while segregation was unconstitutional, it did not require immediate desegregation.

Bryant Bowles, President of the National Association for the Advancement of White People led several anti-desegregation rallies and boycotts in the area, including Ellendale, that resulted in decreased attendance at the schools.

[12][13] The Ellendale State Forest Picnic Facility and Teddy's Tavern are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[15] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.2 square mile (0.6 km2), all land.

The fire company is the primary provider of these services to the town of Ellendale and the surrounding areas with a local district of approximately 60 square miles (160 km2).

This secondary is designated as the area running from Harrington, Delaware south to the NRG Energy power plant.

The main freight hauled on the track is coal for the NRG power plant located near Millsboro, Delaware.

Other freight includes a mix of fertilizer, grain, paper, food products, chemicals, and stone.

This line, called the Milton Industrial Track, is 6.8 miles (10.9 km) from interchange to endpoint, and is currently used to store covered hoppers for Perdue and for other railcar owners.

Plans are currently underway for this line to reopen with more operations to a propane tank farm being constructed in Milton.

Other businesses include a machine shop, a nonprofit mental health medical facility, Philadelphia Bible College, and Perdue Farms research laboratory.

Delaware Route 16 directly serves Ellendale, running east–west through the town, where it is named Main Street.

U.S. Route 113 runs north-south and crosses western Ellendale, connecting the town with Milford to the north and Georgetown to the south.

An anonymous writer in the now extinct Sunday Star newspaper wrote of the Ellendale area "...formerly one of the worst spots in the State for the traveler, where during the winter months, horses and men and automobiles became so deeply mired that they were continually having to be rescued."

The writer went on to express that the area had become one of the most beautiful spots on the East Coast of the United States that was compared by tourists to part of Yellowstone National Park.

Cedar Bugs Pub, the former Teddy's Tavern, located on DuPont Boulevard 0.6 miles (1.0 km) north of Main Street in Ellendale is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a work relief program for young men established in March 1933 during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first hundred days in office, part of the New Deal.

This state forest includes 44 miles (71 km) of trails frequently used for hiking, horseback riding, bicycling, and bird watching.

The Headquarters Tract on East Redden Road includes a limited number of primitive camping sites, a catch-and-release fishing pond, and a natural resource education facility, formerly a historic carriage house, which opened in 2000, and the historic Redden Lodge, renovated in 1996, which is open to the public for camping at a small charge.

Tales include that of a headless figure that has been seen walking along the highway, US 113, that runs through the park between Ellendale and Georgetown.

When driving along this stretch of US 113, you may notice the traffic fatality signs posted where numerous people have been killed by drunk drivers.