Assateague Island National Seashore

Assateague Island is a 37-mile barrier island shared by Maryland and Virginia and is home to two distinct herds of wild ponies, believed to be descendants of horses that swam ashore from a shipwreck in the seventeenth century. The Maryland section is managed as Assateague Island National Seashore, while the Virginia portion, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, protects critical migratory shorebird and waterfowl habitat. The island's undeveloped ocean beach and interior pine forest and saltmarsh represent one of the longest stretches of undisturbed barrier habitat remaining on the mid-Atlantic coast.