Worcester County

The county in brief

A traveler's read on Worcester County

Three hundred and fifty years of continuous unmanaged feral horse populations on a US Atlantic barrier island — Assateague Island's wild horse herds (the Chincoteague pony herd on the Virginia side, managed by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company; the Assateague Island National Seashore herd on the Maryland side, managed by NPS as a 'state of nature' wildlife population) are the only such populations on the American East Coast, and the canonical origin story attributes them to survivors of a Spanish galleon shipwreck around 1620 — though more recent historians argue the herds are simply abandoned 17th-century mainland Virginia livestock that swam to the island to escape colonial fence-tax regulations. Either way, the genetic isolation has produced the characteristically stocky, short-legged 'Chincoteague pony' phenotype with bloated bellies (a consequence of salt-marsh forage low in nutrient density requiring large gut capacity per pound of body weight to extract sufficient calories).

Worcester County's 472 sq mi wrap the Maryland Atlantic coastline, the entire Maryland section of Assateague Island National Seashore, Ocean City (population 6,938 permanent residents but swelling to 320,000+ summer weekends per Ocean City Department of Tourism estimates, making it the most population-volatile US municipality), and the inland agriculture community around Snow Hill (population 2,134, the county seat). The Ocean City Boardwalk runs 3.0 miles along the Atlantic and is the longest continuously-operating wooden boardwalk on the East Coast per the Ocean City Boardwalk Historic District National Register nomination. Assateague Island National Seashore Maryland campground (Bayside and Oceanside Loops) accepts rigs to 40 ft on 148 no-hookup sites with reservations 6 months ahead on recreation.gov; the loops sell out almost instantly for Memorial Day through Labor Day. Assateague State Park immediately adjacent (separate Maryland-DNR-managed unit) accepts rigs to 35 ft with electric hookups across 350 sites. Both units enforce 14-day max stay. Ocean City Municipal Code §50-2-101 prohibits overnight RV street parking citywide. Pocomoke River State Park inland (Shad Landing and Milburn Landing campgrounds) accepts rigs to 40 ft.