Tangier Island is one of those special places in America that has let time pass it by. Located out in the middle of Chesapeake Bay, it is only accessible by plane or ferryboat. There are no cars, no booze and a plethora of crab cages that supply the economy of the island, along with tourism. The island is famous for its accent, which is supposedly Elizabethan in origin. Everyone just sort of sounded like they were from the South, to be honest. Sometime in your life you must visit Tangier Island, period.
William Labov wrote his master's thesis on the isolated language community on Martha's Vineyard—many of his students and admirers have written their dissertations on similar isolated island communities up and down the coast, so it stands to reason that Tangiers Island has been studied. Sounds like they're quite a bit less isolated than most of the ones that I know of that do really interesting things. Just skimmed through a book partially scanned by Google on the subject.
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