Qualla: Chincoteague, Virginia

Chincoteague, Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wowjinny, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the last Wednesday of July, at slack tide, the ponies swim. Saltwater Cowboys on horseback herd a wild herd off Assateague Island into the channel; the foals struggling, the older mares leading; a flotilla of small boats keeping clear; and then the whole herd emerges streaming onto the Chincoteague shore. They are walked through town down Main Street to pens at the carnival grounds. The next day the volunteer fire company auctions that year's foals - the proceeds fund the company and control the herd size. On Friday the remaining ponies swim back to Assateague. This has happened almost every year since 1925, and in 1947 a children's book made the rest of the world fall in love with it.

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Image: Wowjinny | CC BY-SA 3.0

Chincoteague, Virginia: The Town in the Water

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Howard Pyle, Public domain. Chincoteague is a town that is mostly water. Its 96.7 square kilometers include 23.6 of land and 73.1 of marsh, bay, and channel - about three-quarters water by area. The whole town sits at an elevation of three feet above sea level, which is something the residents think about m...

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Image: Howard Pyle | Public domain

Chincoteague, Virginia: Misty and the Ponies

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wehwalt, CC BY 3.0. The legend says the feral ponies on Assateague descend from survivors of a Spanish galleon that sank off the coast in 1750. The historians think they descend from domestic stock that Eastern Shore farmers turned loose on the island in the 1600s to avoid mainland fencing requireme...

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Image: Wehwalt | CC BY 3.0

Chincoteague, Virginia: Ash Wednesday

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0. On Ash Wednesday in 1962 a nor'easter parked off the Mid-Atlantic coast for three days and refused to leave. Five high tides hammered the barrier islands. Chincoteague went completely underwater. Power was out for days. On Assateague, where development was just starting to push i...

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Image: Acroterion | CC BY-SA 4.0

Chincoteague, Virginia: Refuge and Beach

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sarah Stierch, CC BY 4.0. The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge spreads across the southern end of Assateague: pine forest, salt marsh, freshwater impoundments engineered for waterfowl, and the long sandy beach that draws summer crowds. The 3.2-mile Wildlife Loop and shorter trails - Swan Cove, Black ...

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Image: Sarah Stierch | CC BY 4.0

Chincoteague, Virginia: The Rockets Next Door

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wehwalt, CC BY 3.0. Just south, on Wallops Island, NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport launch rockets - Antares vehicles carrying Cygnus cargo modules to the International Space Station, Northrop Grumman Minotaurs, and Rocket Lab Electrons from Launch Complex 2. Wh...

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Image: Wehwalt | CC BY 3.0