The Virginia Barrier Islands are a continuous chain of long, thin, low-lying, sand and scrub barrier islands separated from one another by narrow inlets and from the mainland by a series of shallow marshy tidal bays along the entire coast of the Virginia end of the Delmarva Peninsula. The sole habitation on these islands, Broadwater, Virginia, was evacuated in 1936 following a hurricane. Because they are uninhabited they form an important ecological region, and several make up the Virginia Coast Reserve.
The Virginia Barrier Islands terminate to the south at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and are preceded to the north by Fenwick Island, a barrier spit, not a true island, spanning the Maryland and Delaware border (Transpeninsular Line). They are, in order from north to south:
- Assateague Island - the first true barrier island from the north and the longest of the barrier islands. It is divided between Maryland and Virginia and is home to a feral horse population, the Chincoteague Pony.
- Wallops Island - the base of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.
- Assawoman Island - part of Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge
- Metompkin Island -split between the Nature Conservancy and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge
- Cedar Island - A former US Coast Guard station still stands on the island and is seasonally inhabited by its private owners. The last private house slipped into the sea in 2014
- Parramore Island - owned by the Nature Conservancy.
- Hog Island - location of the former town of Broadwater, Virginia. Origin of the Hog Island Sheep.
- Cobb Island - once also inhabited with a resort hotel, church, and small town, until the 1896 hurricane
- Wreck Island
- Shipshoal Island
- Myrtle Island
- Smith Island - once held by the Custis family of Virginia. Martha Custis Washington owned the island, as did her great-granddaughter, whose husband Robert E. Lee gave an account of the island after inspecting it in 1832 while stationed at nearby Fort Monroe. It hosts the Cape Charles Lighthouse. Smith Island is now owned by the Nature Conservancy.
- Fisherman Island - the last of Virginia's oceanic Barrier Islands. It lies at the southern tip of the Delmarva peninsula at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and is the terminus for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
- On the Northern Neck of the Potomac River, in the town of Montross, Virginia, there is a long, narrow, 1.51 mile long and 3 square mile island called Hollis Island but nicknamed Shark Tooth Island because of it's abundance of fossilized shark teeth - There are two permanent residences on the island. There is debate on whether or not it is a true Barrier Island considering it's unique riverine position, but many agree it is. The island is privately owned.
See also
- Barrier Islands
- Outer Banks
- Delmarva
Notes
References
- Brooks M. Barnes, Barry R. Truitt, and William W. Warner, eds., Seashore Chronicles: Three Centuries of the Virginia Barrier Islands, University Press of Virginia, 1997. ISBN 0-8139-1879-0
- colespointmarina.com/shark-tooth-island/
