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The town of Elkton is the county seat〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 of Cecil County, Maryland, United States. The population was 15,443 at the 2010 census. It was formerly called Head of Elk because it sits at the head of navigation on the Elk River, which flows into the nearby Chesapeake Bay. Elkton was once known as the "Gretna Green of the West" because of its popularity as a place for eloping couples to marry. However, a state law was passed in 1938 requiring a 48-hour waiting period. To this day, there are several wedding chapels in the town. ==History== The town was founded by Swedish mariners and fisherman from Fort Casimir who settled the area in 1694. They called their settlement Head of Elk, as it was the head of navigation of the Elk River.〔Maryland: a new guide to the Old Line State. 1999. p.xiv.〕〔The Middle States: A Handbook for Travellers.4th ed edited by Moses Foster Sweetser.1881.p.387.〕 The town saw several actions during the American Revolutionary War. On Aug. 25, 1777, Sir William Howe's Anglo-German army (13,000 British soldiers and 5,000 Germans) landed on the Elk River and marched 11 miles north to Head of Elk. Howe soon advanced to the short and victorious campaign of the Brandywine, and thence to capture Philadelphia. On March 8, 1781, the Marquis de Lafayette embarked his troops there to attempt a capture of Benedict Arnold. Returning on April 9, he began his overland march to Virginia. George Washington and Rochambeau with their combined forces stopped in Elkton on September 6–7, 1781, on their way to Yorktown.〔(Elkton Marker )〕 In 1787, the town was incorporated as Elkton. By 1880, the population was 1,800. The landmark historic home, Holly Hall was built by James Sewall in the 1810s and quickly became a regional seat for important dignitaries and local politics. When northern states began to pass more restrictive marriage laws in the early 20th century, Maryland did not. As a result, a number of Maryland towns near borders with other states became known as places to get married quickly and without many restrictions, or "Gretna Greens".〔''State v. Clay'', 182 Md. 639, 642, 35 A.2d 821, 822–23 (1944).〕 Elkton, being the northeasternmost county seat in Maryland (and thus closer to Philadelphia, New York, and New England), was particularly popular.〔 〕 It was a notorious Gretna Green for years;〔''Greenwald v. State'', 221 Md. 235, 237–38, 155 A.2d 894, 896 (1959).〕 in its heyday, in the 1920s and 1930s, it was "the elopement capital of the East Coast" and thousands of marriages were performed there each year.〔〔Lorimer, Graeme and Sarah, ''Stag Line'', Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 1934, p. 191 ("Elkton is the place where all the people who want to get married in a hurry run off to, because they'll marry anybody there right away.")〕 While some of the marriages obtained in Elkton were of celebrities or celebrities-to-be (Cornel Wilde, Joan Fontaine, Debbie Reynolds, Martha Raye, John and Martha Mitchell, Willie Mays, and Pat Robertson all got married in Elkton),〔 the overall tawdry flavor grew to be too much for the state. A 48-hour waiting period was imposed in 1938, but Elkton continued to be a place to marry, and especially elope; it simply took longer.〔Historic Marker Database, (Elkton, Wedding Capital of the East ).〕 In time, Las Vegas became the new "American Gretna Green," although hundreds of people are still married in Elkton each year.〔 On December 8, 1963, Pan Am Flight 214 was struck by lightning and crashed near Elkton. The crash was listed in the 2005 Guinness World Records as the "Worst Lightning Strike Death Toll." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elkton, Maryland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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