Chincoteague Timeline

Chincoteague Timeline. . , 1671 , First land purchase from Gingo-Teague Indians recorded on April 1. Oral tradition says the Gingo-Teague called Chincoteague Island "the beautiful land across the water."

1680 , Tenant farmer Robert Scott moves to Chincoteague into a house 15 feet long and 12 feet wide. There he tends freshly planted apple trees and small fields of tobacco and corn.

1780 - 1790 , Early settlers like Jester and Watson families built small, simple wooden houses.

1800 , Around 30 families, fewer than 200 people, including enslaved African Americans, live on Chincoteague and Assateague islands. Most raise cattle.

1855 , Chincoteague's first oyster shucking house opens. Huge piles of oyster shells become part of the local landscape. By the end of the oyster season, many piles grew larger than the shucking houses.

1861 , Chincoteague residents overwhelmingly vote to remain in the Union. "All our interests were in the North. We sold nearly all the oysters we raised in Philadelphia. It would have meant starvation to us to have seceded." John A.M. Whealton, oyster entrepreneur.

1876 , The Atlantic Hotel opens. Artist Howard Pyle sketches pony penning for Scribner's Monthly. Pyle describes Chincoteague as "an enchanted island, cut loose from modern progress and left drifting some seventy-five years backward in the ocean of time."

1885 , The Pennsylvania Railroad extends service across the water with a steamboat route, linking Chincoteague and Franklin City.

1920 , Chincoteague begins to rebuild after fire destroys several buildings along Main Street.

1922 , A causeway for cars and trucks named to honor John Whealton, connects the island and mainland.

1925 , The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company combines the pony smim and pony penning with an annual carnival, 15,000 attend.

1943 , Congress creates the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

1947 , Marguerite Breithaupt Henry publishes Misty of Chincoteague.

1950s , Chincoteague farms produce four million chickens a year.

1962 , The Ash Wednesday storm devastates Chincoteague. The first bridge opens to Assateague through the efforts of the Chincoteague Assateague Bridge Authority.

1965 , Mayor Robert Reed and Council Members successfully lobby Congress to create Assateague Island National Seashore. Tourism mushrooms.