Assateague Island Administrative History

Acquisition in Virginia

Because Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge covered most of the Virginia portion of Assateague, there was relatively little land acquisition activity at the south end of the island. The major transaction involved the interests of the Chincoteague—Assateague Bridge and Beach Authority, on which some background is appropriate.

On March 16, 1955, the town of Chincoteague applied to the Army Corps of Engineers for permission to construct a bridge from Chincoteague Island (site of the town) to Assateague. Permission was granted two months later. Because that end of Assateague was occupied by the Federal refuge, additional Federal authority was necessary to permit the access to and across the island to the ocean beach for recreational purposes, the object sought by the promoters of the venture. Public Law 85—57, approved June 17, 1957, took care of this matter by enabling the Secretary of the Interior to grant to an agency of the State of Virginia easements and rights for construction of a bridge, access road, and public conveniences on the southeastern shore of Assateague Island. [31] The requisite state agency, the Chincoteague—Assateague Bridge and Beach Authority, had already been established by the Virginia Assembly on February 27, 1956. An agreement of April 1, 1959, between the Authority and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife assigned to the Authority the south four miles of the island for 40 years, renewable for two 15—year periods. There on Toms Cove Hook the Authority would provide a restaurant, bathhouses, restrooms, service buildings, a small boat marina, parking lots, picnic facilities, roads, trails, and utilities. [32]

The nonprofit Authority floated bonds to finance its development. In 1962 it acquired a four—span steel truss bridge built in 1915 over the Mullica River in New Jersey and reerected it between Chincoteague and Assateague. From the bridge to the head of Toms Cove Hook it built a road, for which the Secretary of the Interior had deeded a 100—foot easement on April 28, 1959. A 100—foot right of way was obtained from private sources for a half—mile road approach to the bridge on the Chincoteague side. By 1964 the Authority had added a concession restaurant, bathhouse, and parking area at the hook. A round—trip toll of $1.25 was charged at the bridge. [33]

New NPS bathhouse at Toms Cove, 1967 (removed 1982).

On October 17, 1966, in accordance with the Assateague authorizing legislation, the National Park Service acquired all the Authority's interests for some $600,000, the estimated amount of its obligations. Included were the bridge, for which the Service assumed full responsibility, and the road right of way on Chincoteague. The Service had no wish to retain this road; it was outside the national seashore boundary, the lands adjacent were unzoned and subject to commercial development, and it constituted an additional maintenance burden. Accordingly, after delay caused by legal questions of comparability, the Service on April 26, 1972, deeded the access road to Accomack County, Virginia, in belated exchange for the former Popes Island Coast Guard Station property on Assateague. The latter property, an enclave in Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge just south of the Maryland line, had been deeded by the county to the Service on April 20, 1967, upon transfer from the state, which had acquired it following its decommissioning in 1953. [34]

The Assateague Beach Coast Guard Station, on the bay side of Toms Cove Hook, was still in Coast Guard possession when the seashore legislation was enacted, but it had outlived its original purpose. The Service acquired it directly from the Coast Guard in January 1967 "after a somewhat involved skirmish with the Army 10th Corps who wanted it for reserve training purposes." [35]

Thirty—three tracts on the bay side of Assateague in Virginia had escaped acquisition for the national wildlife refuge and were in private hands. Following their scheduled purchase during the 1969 fiscal year, the Service proposed to trade them to the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife for refuge lands in Maryland. Such an exchange was still under consideration in early 1980 but has not occurred to date. At that time the Service explicitly excluded from the proposed exchange the Assateague Beach Coast Guard Station, signaling its intention of maintaining a land base—however small—in Virginia. [36]

Completion

By the beginning of 1974 land acquisition at Assateague had advanced to the point where a special staff at the park for the purpose was no longer necessary. At that time some 3,600 tracts measuring more than 8,300 acres had been purchased for $21 million. The remaining purchases were handled by specialists in the Mid—Atlantic (formerly Northeast) Regional Office in Philadelphia. [37]

As of April 1982 the Service had all but 4.5 acres of the land proposed for acquisition when the seashore was authorized in 1965 (excluding submerged tracts claimed by Maryland). The small outstanding acreage was in 30 individually owned tracts in Atlantic Ocean Estates. A land acquisition plan for Assateague routinely prepared in 1980 declared that the remaining properties would not be acquired by condemnation unless they posed a threat of incompatible development. Development of these lots was most unlikely, because they were not staked or otherwise identifiable on the ground and legal land access existed only along the beach between the mean high and low water lines. This was fortunate for the Service, because all but about $48,000 of Assateague's 22.4 million lands authorization had been obligated by mid—1982. [38]

A private presence remained in the seashore in the form of retained rights of use and occupancy. At the end of 1981 such arrangements were still in effect with 11 former owners of improved or hunting lands. Fifty—five acres in the seashore were subject to residential occupancy, 742 acres were subject to private hunting use, and a combination of residential and hunting rights encumbered 283 acres. The last retained rights agreement would expire in the year 2002. [39]