Is Misty of Chincoteague Real? Book Thursday.

Picnics. Fire Departments. Is Misty of Chincoteague Real?

Wild Ponies of Assateague Island Swimming Across the Channel to ChincoTeague

Do you remember when you found out that a book you had read represented an actual place you could visit?

Boston has its Make Way for Ducklings statue, commemorating the children’s book by that name.

The hymn about The Little Brown Church in the Vale describes an actual church, though when it was composed it was just a thought in a music teacher’s head.

Where Is Chincoteague?

Chincoteague Island is one of the barrier islands that protects the coast of Virginia from storms.

It is inside another barrier island, Assateague, which is managed by the National Park Service and the state of Maryland.

In the 1700s, it is thought, a Spanish ship bringing horses to the New World, broke up in a storm and the horses that survived swam to Assateague Island.

Their descendants still live there.

Fact and Fiction

The real Misty was born in 1946, the year before the 1947 publication of the book, Misty of Chincoteague, and owned by the author. Marguerite Henry.

However, unlike in the book, the real-life Misty was born on the Beebe Ranch in Chincoteague, not in the wild on Assateague. As of 2011, there were 80 known descendants of Misty.

Misty was preserved by taxidermy and can be seen at the Beebe Ranch.

Assateague Island

No one can live on Assateague Island, a national park with a fragile ecosystem that, nevertheless, supports the herd of wild ponies.

To keep the herd in check and raise money for its operations, the Chincoteague fire department has the right to swim the ponies over to Chincoteague Island the third week of July every summer and sell off a few of the ponies.

Just as in the book, this is a popular tourist attraction.

Horse Flies and Picnic

Another way to see the horses is to drive to the park and have a picnic or go camping

We picnicked there when our son was young. Look out for the biting horse flies!

The horses roam freely and will help themselves to your picnic if you leave food unattended.

The beaches are lovely white sand.

Click here to order the book, Misty of Chincoteague, through amazon for your grandchildren this Christmas and plan a picnic on Assateague next Spring or go see the pony swim in July.

Have you ever read a fictional book and then visited the place on which the story was based?

Do you try to figure out which parts of the story are true and which come from the author’s imagination?

Have you ever lived in a place that others read about?

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To you and enjoying the stories around us with your grandchildren.

Carol Covin, “Granny-Guru”

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

http://newgrandmas.com

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