Footnotes
37°55′35″N75°20′30″W / 37.92639°N 75.34167°W
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Assateague Channel is a channel on the Eastern Shore of Virginia between Chincoteague Island and Assateague Island. The Assateague Channel connects to Assateague Bay to the northeast and Chincoteague Inlet to the southwest. [1]
On the last Wednesday in July, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department conducts the annual Wild Pony Swim as part of Pony Penning. Salt Water Cowboys round up wild Chincoteague Ponies from Assateague Island and drive them across the Assateague Channel to Veteran's Memorial Park on Chincoteague Island. [2] Once on Chincoteague Island, the Salt Water Cowboys herd the ponies to pens on the Chincoteague Carnival Grounds where some of the foals are auctioned off the next day. [3] This traditional event in its current form has taken place since 1925 to raise money for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department, but its roots date back to the 17th century. [2] [3]
37°55′35″N75°20′30″W / 37.92639°N 75.34167°W
| | This Accomack County, Virginia state location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Chincoteague is a town in Accomack County, Virginia, U.S. The town includes the whole of Chincoteague Island and an area of adjacent water. The population was 2,941 at the 2010 census. The town is a tourist gateway to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on adjacent Assateague Island, the location of a popular recreational beach and home of the Virginia herd of Chincoteague Ponies. These ponies and the annual Pony Swim are the subject of Marguerite Henry's 1947 children's book Misty of Chincoteague, which was made into the 1961 family film Misty, filmed on location.
The Eastern Shore of Virginia consists of two counties on the Atlantic coast detached from the mainland of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The 70-mile-long (110 km) region is part of the Delmarva Peninsula and is separated from the rest of Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. Its population was 45,695 as of 2020.
Chincoteague may refer to:
Assateague Island is a 37-mile (60 km) long barrier island located off the eastern coast of the Delmarva Peninsula facing the Atlantic Ocean. The northern two-thirds of the island is in Maryland, and the southern third is in Virginia.
Marguerite Henry was an American writer of children's books, writing fifty-nine books based on true stories of horses and other animals. She won the Newbery Medal for King of the Wind, a 1948 book about horses, and she was a runner-up for two others. One of the latter, Misty of Chincoteague (1947), was the basis for several related titles and the 1961 movie Misty.
Assateague Island National Seashore is a unit of the National Park Service system of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Located on the East Coast along the Atlantic Ocean in Maryland and Virginia, Assateague Island is the largest natural barrier island ecosystem in the Middle Atlantic states region that remains predominantly unaffected by human development. Located within a three-hour drive to the east and south of Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia major metropolitan areas plus north of the several clustered smaller cities around Hampton Roads harbor of Virginia with Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. The National Seashore offers a setting in which to experience a dynamic barrier island and to pursue a multitude of recreational opportunities. The stated mission of the park is to preserve and protect “unique coastal resources and the natural ecosystem conditions and processes upon which they depend, provide high-quality resource-based recreational opportunities compatible with resource protection and educate the public as to the values and significance of the area”.
Assateague Light is the 142-foot-tall (43 m) lighthouse located on the southern end of Assateague Island off the coast of the Virginia Eastern Shore, United States. The lighthouse is located within the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and can be accessed by road from Chincoteague Island over the Assateague Channel. It is owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and operated by the U.S. Coast Guard and is still used as an active aid in navigation. The keeper's quarters are used as seasonal housing for refuge temporary employees, volunteers, and interns. Constructed in 1867 to replace a shorter lighthouse 45-foot-tall (14 m) built in 1833, the lighthouse is conical in shape and is painted in alternating bands of red and white.
Misty is a 1961 American CinemaScope children's film based on Marguerite Henry's 1947 award-winning children's book Misty of Chincoteague.
Misty of Chincoteague is a children's novel written by pony book author Marguerite Henry, illustrated by Wesley Dennis, and published by Rand McNally in 1947. Set in the island town of Chincoteague, Virginia, the book was inspired by the real-life story of the Beebe family and their efforts to raise a Chincoteague Pony filly born to a wild horse, who would later become known as Misty of Chincoteague. It was one of the runners-up for the annual Newbery Medal, now called Newbery Honor Books. The 1961 film Misty was based on the book.
The Chincoteague pony, also known as the Assateague horse, is a breed of horse that developed, and now lives, within a semi-feral or feral population on Assateague Island in the US states of Virginia and Maryland. The Chincoteague pony is one of the many breeds of feral horses in the United States. The breed was made famous by the Misty of Chincoteague novels, written by pony book author Marguerite Henry, and first published in 1947, and the pony Misty of Chincoteague.
Chincoteague High School is a public high school in Accomack County, Virginia. It is one of the four high schools in Accomack County Public Schools. It serves grades six through twelve and, due to its low number of students, has only approximately 40 students per grade. An approximate total of 280 students attend the school. Its mascot, the pony, is named after the feral Chincoteague Ponies on the nearby Assateague Island.
The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is a 14,000-acre (57 km2) wildlife preserve operated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It is primarily located on the Virginia half of Assateague Island with portions located on the Maryland side of the island, as well as Morris Island and Wildcat Marsh. Mostly composed of beach, dunes, marsh, and maritime forest, the refuge contains a large variety of wildlife animals and birds, including the Chincoteague Pony. The purpose of the refuge is to maintain, regulate and preserve animal and plant species as well as their habitats for present and future generations.
Chincoteague Channel is a channel on the Eastern Shore of Virginia between marshlands to the northwest and Chincoteague Island to the southeast. The Chincoteague Channel connects to Chincoteague Bay to the northeast and Chincoteague Inlet to the southwest.
The John B. Whealton Memorial Causeway, more commonly known to the locals as the Chincoteague Causeway, connects the mainland of the Eastern Shore to Chincoteague, where it continues into town as Maddox Boulevard. The causeway is part of State Route 175. The causeway contains five bridges and crosses the following :
Pony Penning, sometimes known as Pony Penning Days or Pony Swim, is an annual event held in Chincoteague, Virginia on the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday in July. The Chincoteague Fire Department conducts the event, which consists of a pony swim on Wednesday and a pony auction on Thursday. For the pony swim, the Saltwater Cowboys round up feral Chincoteague ponies from Assateague Island and drive them across the Assateague Channel to Veteran's Memorial Park on Chincoteague Island. The ponies swim across the channel during slack tide, when the water has minimal tidal movement. Once on Chincoteague Island, the Saltwater Cowboys herd the ponies to pens on the Chincoteague Carnival Grounds where some of the foals are auctioned off on Thursday.
The Chincoteague Fire Department is a historic U.S. building located at 4026/4028 Main Street, Chincoteague Island, Virginia. This building was initially constructed in 1930 and expanded in 2019
Chincoteague Inlet is found lying between Assateague Island and Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It is 30 miles south-southwestward from the Ocean City, MD Inlet.
Toms Cove is an embayment on the southern end of Assateague Island in Virginia with the mouth near Chincoteague Inlet. A U.S. Coast Guard station was located there. Toms Cove also contains the Toms Cove Visitor Center run by the U.S. National Park Service.
The history of human activity in Chincoteague, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, begins with the Native Americans. Until European explorers possessed the island in the late 17th century, the Chincoteague Indians used it as a place to gather shellfish, but are not known to have lived there; Chincoteague Island lacked suitable soil for their agriculture. The island's name derives from those early visitors: by one popular tale, chincoteague meant "Beautiful land across the water" in their language.