Qualla: Virginia Barrier Islands

Virginia Barrier Islands: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

President Grover Cleveland came down by private rail car in the early 1890s to hunt waterfowl on Hog Island, then a barrier island with pine forests, a town called Broadwater, and a hunting lodge that catered to wealthy northerners. Today there is no Broadwater. The pine forest is gone. The last residents left in 1936 after another hurricane, and what's there now is sand and marsh and migratory birds. The Virginia Barrier Islands have always been moving. The hurricanes of 1896 and 1933 just made the movement visible.

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Virginia Barrier Islands: A Chain on the Move

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Virginia Barrier Islands run in a continuous, narrow chain along the entire Atlantic coast of the Delmarva Peninsula's Virginia end. Shallow tidal bays separate them from the mainland; narrow inlets separate them from each other. Several were once much larger, with maritime f...

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Virginia Barrier Islands: The Resort Era

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

After the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad was completed down the Delmarva Peninsula in the late nineteenth century, wealthy sportsmen from northern cities began arriving by train and crossing by boat to the barrier islands. At least five lavish hunting and fishing clu...

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Virginia Barrier Islands: 1896 and 1933

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two hurricanes broke the resort era. The 1896 East Coast hurricane flooded the barrier islands, killed many of the pine forests, and destroyed much of the Cobb Island resort. Residents began leaving for the mainland; in towns like Willis Wharf and Oyster, some of them brought the...

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Virginia Barrier Islands: The Chain Today

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

From north to south the chain runs: Assateague Island, the longest, divided between Maryland and Virginia and home to the wild Chincoteague Ponies; Chincoteague Island, now a backbarrier island; Wallops Island, where NASA's Wallops Flight Facility launches rockets; Assawoman, Met...

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