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Chincoteague is the name of a town, and the barrier island on which it is located, on Virginia's Eastern Shore, in the United States. The island is about ...
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Chincoteague is the name of a town, and the barrier island on which it is located, on Virginia's Eastern Shore, in the United States. The island is about 8 miles long and 2 miles wide. Sand forms its soil, with a thin layer of loam above it away from the water, enough to support pine trees and grass. Chincoteague Inlet, a break in the barrier island system, occurs near Chincoteague Island, at the southern end of Assateague Island. Assateague shelters Chincoteague from the Atlantic and stretches north almost 30 miles to Ocean City, Maryland.

The local Native Americans, called by Europeans the Chincoteague Indians, did not in fact reside on Chincoteague Island itself, but lived on the mainland, where there was suitable land for hunting and agriculture. They lived near what was at first called Chincoteague Creek, on the mainland, and is today Little Mosquito Creek. The tribe moved to a new village site every few years, and visited Chincoteague Island to obtain shellfish. Although many references state that the name "Chincoteague" is the Native American word for "Beautiful land across the water", according to local historian Kirk Mariner, this legend is of 20th-century origin, invented to promote a song by that name by an islander. The name, he states, instead derives from the tribe's word for "large stream" or "inlet."
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