Skip to main content
Tag

Chincoteague

The Timothy Hill House, before and after
How This Amazing Old House in Chincoteague Beat the Odds and Came Back to Life DestinationsWay Back Machine

How This Amazing Old House in Chincoteague Beat the Odds and Came Back to Life

  Why is it that one building manages to survive for centuries while all the others built at about the same time fall victim to the ravages of time? One of the experts who has spent some time with what is believed to be the oldest house in Chincoteague—it’s still standing after 200-plus years—chalked its survival up to a magical mix of being “well built, unusual,…
August 18, 2015
Chincoteague Pony Swim
Tracing the History of the Famous Pony-Penning Party in Chincoteague DestinationsWay Back Machine

Tracing the History of the Famous Pony-Penning Party in Chincoteague

Before I did a little research, I assumed that the Chincoteague’s big annual pony-penning festival became a big deal only after 1947, the year Marguerite Henry published “Misty of Chincoteague.” That story, of course, became a children’s classic and then a Hollywood movie. But it turns out that the story of pony-penning day actually dates back centuries, not decades. Local historians say that the earliest…
July 23, 2015
Misty Stormy Ash Wednesday Featured Photo
The True Tale of Misty, Stormy, and maybe the worst nor’easter of them all Way Back Machine

The True Tale of Misty, Stormy, and maybe the worst nor’easter of them all

A version of this story appears in my book Eastern Shore Road Trips #1: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. Info about the book is here. The deluge lasted three long days and stretched across five high tides right at the time of the full moon. More than 90 percent of Chincoteague Island flooded. The water ran six feet deep at times on Main Street in…
February 19, 2015
MIles Hancock of Chincoteague, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia
CHINCOTEAGUE CHARACTER OF THE DAY: Decoy-Carving Legend Miles Hancock CharactersWay Back Machine

CHINCOTEAGUE CHARACTER OF THE DAY: Decoy-Carving Legend Miles Hancock

The amazing life that Miles Hancock led could never have unfolded the way it did if he had lived anyplace else in the world. Born in Williamsville, Delaware in 1887, he was one of four children in a farming family. When he was seven, his parents moved to Chincoteague.   Miniature Black Duck by Miles Hancock That’s when things got tough. First, his mother died.…
February 5, 2015