Assateague Island Marking 50 Years As National Park; Island Almost Developed Several Times In Past

ASSATEAGUE — Assateague Island this year is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its designation as a National Seashore and the preservation of its relatively untouched beauty, but there were several times in history when it was close to being developed commercially.

The Assateague Island National Seashore officially turns 50 this year and National Park officials and their allied private sector support groups including the Assateague Island Alliance and the Assateague Coastal Trust, for example, are in the process of planning a year-long celebration of the anniversary. The anniversary provides an opportunity to recall the island’s rich and colorful history, from plans in the early part of the last century to preserve Assateague as a national park to intense pressure to develop it commercially in the 1950s. The island was nearly developed in the mid- to late-1950s and there were roads constructed and plats sold for a fledgling community called Ocean Beach, which was to become the counterpart to the growing Ocean City just to the north.

The epic storm of 1962 erased any vestiges of that early development and caused federal officials to reconsider plans to pave over the island with residential and commercial development. In 1965, preservation advocates won the see-saw battle over Assateague and the barrier island was set aside as the National Seashore as part of the National Parks system, but still pressure to develop it continued.

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