1942 Map of Wallops Island

About this map

Wallops Island stands as a slender barrier against the Atlantic during the early 1940s, a landscape defined by shifting sands and maritime surveillance. The coastal geography is dominated by the Wallops Beach Coast Guard Station, positioned near the northern end of Wallops Beach to monitor the treacherous waters of the Chincoteague Inlet. This survey, compiled from 1942 aerial photography, captures the island before its mid-century transformation into a major aerospace facility, showing instead a world of tidal marshes and narrow waterways like Hog Creek and Cat Creek. To the north, the tip of the Assateague Nat W R reaches down toward Fishing Pt, while the southern end is cut off by the Assawaman Inlet. The interior marshes of Bogues Bay illustrate the complex estuarine environment that once defined this stretch of the Virginia shoreline.