White Marlin sculpture (Ocean City)

Ocean City, Maryland, United States

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Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A 14-foot stainless steel white marlin sculpture by Eastern Shore artist Paul Lockhart stands in Entry Park at the foot of the Route 50 bridge in Ocean City, Maryland. OceanCity.com reports it was installed in June 2002, with a water feature added in 2003, and funded by private donations.

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White Marlin sculpture (Ocean City)

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Site-level location · 38.3314° N, 75.0869° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Ocean City's welcome is a 14-foot stainless steel white marlin, leaping at the foot of the Route 50 bridge where visitors first reach downtown. It suits a town that calls itself the White Marlin Capital of the World.

The account here comes from OceanCity.com, a tourism site, and reflects the Ocean City Development Corporation's own telling. The Ocean City Development Corporation (OCDC), a nonprofit formed in 2000 to revitalise downtown, wanted public art and decided its first piece should be a statement about the town. Its Public Art Committee recommended a white marlin. The chosen site, Entry Park, had once held Dale's Esso gas station, which closed and was demolished in the 1980s; the town bought the land and used it as a small park.

OCDC chose Paul Lockhart, an Eastern Shore sculptor from Dorchester County, who proposed a 14-foot stainless steel piece for its durability. The town approved the project in 2002 and OCDC raised the money entirely from private donations, with donors of $1,000 or more recognised on a plaque east of the sculpture. The marlin was installed at a ceremony in June 2002. Raising the cost of the water feature that surrounds it took almost another year; a raffle of Lockhart's working model, or maquette, brought in more than $13,000, and the fountain was finished in 2003. OCDC contracted the local firm Hardscapes, Inc. for it.

OceanCity.com reported in May 2025 that the water feature was turned on that week. In April 2024 it described the sculpture as an iconic landmark and a popular photo spot, and said it had been the OCDC's first public art project. It also reported that people have had wedding photographs taken in front of it.

The park sits where S. Philadelphia Avenue meets the bridge; OceanCity.com's downtown walking tour places the sculpture where Caroline Street meets Philadelphia Avenue, so it is an easy first stop on a walk through downtown.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Sculpture and water feature in Entry Park, the first thing many visitors see on arriving from the Route 50 bridge. In May 2025 OceanCity.com reported the water feature turned on at the foot of the Route 50 bridge. It listed it as a photo location in April 2024 and noted a donor plaque just east of the sculpture.

ACCESS

Entry Park, a public park at the foot of the Route 50 bridge where it meets S. Philadelphia Avenue in downtown Ocean City; OceanCity.com's walking tour places the sculpture at the Caroline Street junction.

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Assateague Whispering Giant (Ocean City)

Ocean City, Maryland

A 20-foot oak carving by Peter Wolf Toth stands at the Ocean City Inlet in Maryland, part of his Trail of the Whispering Giants. Created in 1976 from 100-year-old oak, it depicts a member of the Assateague tribe and turned 50 in 2026.

Public art

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0.7 km away

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