Seashore Chronicles

ASSATEAGUE, Chincoteague, Parramore, Smith's, Hog, Wallop's: The names of Virginia's isolated barrier islands evoke their beauty and wildness, their dynamic ecology. Drawing chapters from the writings of novelists, naturalists, journalists, and outdoorsmen, Seashore Chronicles presents the history of these slender, constantly shifting landforms from the 1650s to the present. Robert E. Lee surveys the agricultural potential of Smith's Island, and a young Howard Pyle describes the Chincoteague pony penning. William Warner provides an impressionistic foreword and noted writer Tom Horton adds a contemporary chapter on the islands' survival. Eastern Shore residents Brooks Miles Barnes and Barry R. Truitt have compiled a cyclical story of economic settlement, of destruction and conservation, for those who have visited the islands many times as well as for those who have not yet experienced their alluring vitality.

Amid the tourist bustle in the biggest beach city in Orange County, hometown personalities and their stories are Chris Epting's business. As a widely published author and columnist for the "Huntington Beach Independent," Epting has covered the famous and not-so-famous, the local people, places and events of Surf City's beachscapes and street scenes with a reporter's curiosity, a historian's exactitude and an ambassador's pride. "Huntington Beach Chronicles" offers a diverse collection of stories about the everyday people and extraordinary events that have woven together a community with a charm and character unlike any other.

Featuring the accounts of twenty-five ill-starred vessels -- some notorious and some forgotten until now -- this anthology provides a fascinating history of a local maritime culture and charts how the catastrophic events along the Delmarva coast significantly affected U.S. merchant shipping as a whole.

Incorporated in 1888, Long Beach was the nation's fastest-growing city for much of the early twentieth century. Tim Grobaty, columnist for two decades for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, looks back at the major events and compelling personalities that shaped the city's formative years. Early settlers such as William Willmore, Charles Rivers Drake and the Bixby family are brought into sharp focus as Grobaty recounts the city's defining moments. From the naming of city streets to early local newspaper wars, and culminating with the devastating earthquake of 1933, Long Beach Chronicles presents a fascinating collection of tales from the city's provocative past.

The thriving barrier islands of Chincoteague and Assateague entice over a million tourists to their shores every year. Adjacent to one another, these parcels of land jutting into the Atlantic have a symbiotic relationship--Chincoteague, a modern, developed community that thrives on tourism, helps attract visitors to neighboring Assateague, which in turn acts as a natural buffer against the surging tides and is home to Assateague Island National Seashore, a state park that provides protection for native flora and fauna and leisure activities for the nature lover. Overlapping the border between Maryland and Virginia, Assateague Island remains an undisturbed natural habitat boasting extensive wetlands and wildlife. Images of the native inhabitants of this area abound--the ponies, birds, and sea life take center stage, while the sandy dunes and rolling ocean provide a beautiful backdrop. The families who made the island of Chincoteague their home, from as early as 1650, were a tough breed and, over the years, made many contributions to the improvement of their community. Schools, churches, and businesses were established, bridges were built, roads were paved, and waterways made navigable--all of this visually documented and now available in this remarkable volume.

From her victory garden, Hogan watches troops - city boys unnerved by the tall timber and farmers' sons in awe of the ocean - come and go.

Thousands of ravenous tiny shorebirds race along the water's edge of Delaware Bay, feasting on pin-sized horseshoe-crab eggs. Fueled by millions of eggs, the migrating red knots fly on. When they arrive at last in their arctic breeding grounds, they will have completed a near-miraculous 9,000-mile journey that began in Tierra del Fuego. Deborah Cramer followed these knots, whose numbers have declined by 75 percent, on their extraordinary odyssey from one end of the earth to the other—from an isolated beach at the tip of South America all the way to the icy tundra. In her firsthand account, she explores how diminishing a single stopover can compromise the birds' entire journey, and how the loss of horseshoe crabs—ancient animals that come ashore but once a year—threatens not only the survival of red knots but also human well-being: the unparalleled ability of horseshoe-crab blood to detect harmful bacteria in vaccines, medical devices, and intravenous drugs safeguards human health. Cramer offers unique insight into how, on an increasingly fragile and congested shore, the lives of red knots, horseshoe crabs, and humans are intertwined. She eloquently portrays the tenacity of small birds and the courage of many people who, bird by bird and beach by beach, keep red knots flying.