1968 Map of Great Machipongo Inlet

About this map

Cobb Island and Hog Island anchor the northern reaches of this coastal survey, where the shifting sands of the Virginia barrier islands meet the Atlantic Ocean. The map documents a complex maritime environment dominated by the Great Machipongo Inlet, a critical passage for local navigation between the open sea and the protected waters of Hog Island Bay. The intricate network of tidal waterways, including North Channel and Rowes Hole Channel, reveals the dynamic nature of this shoreline before late-20th-century shifts. A notable landmark, Aycock, is positioned near a Light on the northern tip of Cobb Island, providing a fixed point of reference in an otherwise fluid landscape of shifting inlets and expansive tidal flats. This 1968 data, updated with 1982 aerial photography, captures the coastal topography and hydrography as it existed in the mid-to-late 20th century.