The Pocomoke River stretches approximately 66 miles (106 km)[1] from southern Delaware through southeastern Maryland in the United States.

The dispute was between the Virginia Company and Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of the Maryland Colony, over the rights to Kent Island at the mouth of the Chester River.

During the colonial era, various landings grew up along the river, some of which became towns, while others faded into obscurity with the decline of water-borne transport.

[3] In Wharton v. Wise, 153 U.S. 155 (1894), the Supreme Court of the United States determined that Pocomoke Sound was not covered by this famous interstate compact.

It is currently hypothesized that the microorganism was present before the outbreak but became toxic due to elevated concentrations of organic waste that had built up in this sprawling coastal plain river.