“Without Chincoteague Bay, there would have been no oysters. Without oysters there would have been no watermen. Without watermen and their families there would have been no train, no houses, no commerce, or anything else.
“The real heyday for Chincoteague oysters was during the late 1800s and very early 1900s. During this time, the boomtowns of Greenbackville and Franklin [on the mainland, across the bay from Chincoteague] thrived thanks to bivalve gold. Even though native Chincoteague oysters were gone by the 1940s due to overfishing and disease, there was a second period of economic viability that resulted from planting seed oysters.
“[Oysters transplanted from the Chesapeake Bay into Chincoteague Bay] allowed them to be marketed as Chincoteague Bay and also gave them a saltier taste than oysters from other areas. Good (fat, salty and large) seaside, or salt oysters, as they were called, would rest and fatten in the Chincoteague Bay for two to three years before being harvested. Of course, this business like any other had those who would cut corners and harvest them as soon as they had been in the water a few hours or days. Nevertheless, when a menu or sign in Baltimore, Philadelphia or New York read “Chincoteague Oysters,” these transplants brought top dollar.
“[T]hey brought their catch back to sell to one of thee shucking houses or to a broker who would in turn sort, put them in barrels, ice them down, and send them to the cities by the Delaware, Maryland & Virginia Railroad that came to Franklin City...and sent on its way to Baltimore and Philadelphia as well as to such places as New York’s Fulton Fish Market.”
From Burns, M.A. and L.S. Hartsock. 2007. Voices of the Chincoteague: Memories of Greenbackville and Franklin City. Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, SC. 224 p.
