Old Newspaper Mentions of Chincoteague Island and the Ponies
About two months ago, I decided to buy a six-month subscription to old newspapers on-line. Now, these are definitely not every newspaper ever printed, but they cover a broad range of time and places. The island of Chincoteague and the Chincoteague Shoals are often mentioned in newspapers and broadsides from the year 1770 up to today. The majority of mentions are of ships of different types having weather difficulties or running aground on the shifting shoals off the east coast of Maryland and Virginia. Losses of cargo, ships, and lives are almost continuous from the 1770 papers up until the 1940s. Chincoteague Island was mentioned frequently in newspapers during the Civil War, especially since the island declared for the Union, and was accorded the presence of a Federal gunboat, which kept shipping open, and from which several raids against the Rebels took place. The newspaper reports during the Civil War were released from ...