Bill Simmons, Assateague’s Park Manager, is standing by with a slight smile as he watches the re-creation of what was once included in the National Geographic Explorer magazine’s list of America’s top fifty beaches.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Bill explains. “Among our primary missions is the commitment to protect and preserve the natural resources of the State of Maryland. This project will restore what man, wind and waves have eroded over the past 70 years. What a fantastic sight!” he remarks.

Following the New Year’s storm of 1992 things seemed bleak. Although we were able to push sand from the parking lots and camp loops back onto the beach to reform the dunes, we realized that it was not the same. Prior to the storm the dunes were 18 to 20 feet above sea level. The reformed dunes were 16 to 18 feet high. Then big storms in 1993, 1994, and 1998 all but erased the protective line of dunes from the park. Every storm took more sand from the beach and ate away at the camp loops.

“Early this morning, before the work began, if you were standing in B-Loop you could see straight out into the ocean. This afternoon, what you see is the west side of the dune. By next month the crews will rebuild nearly 7,000 feet of dunes, 16 feet high, and the park’s protection will be back in place,” explains Bill.

Some history
Barrier islands such as Assateague are formed and maintained by the movement of sand within the littoral zone (the part of the ocean closest to the shore). Along Maryland’s Atlantic coast the littoral zone extends from the beach out to a water depth of approximately 25 feet below sea level. Within the zone, sand continually moves both across and along the beach, either north or south depending upon conditions. The net movement at Assateague is about 175,000 cubic yards of sand to the south.

Under natural conditions, the action of waves and currents causes the shoreline to recede an average of two to six feet a year. With a constant resupply of sand from the north, the shoreline and shoreline features such as the dunes would stay generally constant, migrating west or east depending on average and exceptional weather conditions for the year.

Inlets are a normal condition along barrier islands. Without the influence of man, inlets are cut through barrier islands during large coastal storms only to fill in during less turbulent years and be re-cut in different locations during subsequent storms. Their locations may be determined by underlying conditions such as ancient river channels. Many are formed as water builds up in the coastal bay landward of the island creating unbalanced water levels. The pressure of the perched water behind the island overcomes the weight of sand on the island, blasting out a channel allowing the water to drain and the pressure to be relieved.

In August of 1933, the northern portion of Assateague Island was changed forever when the Ocean City Inlet was formed during a large hurricane. A number of homes and other buildings in what was then known as south Ocean City were lost; remnants of those buildings are still found today. Realizing that ocean access was a huge benefit to the town, plans were immediately formulated to stabilize the new inlet. From 1934 to 1935 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) worked to place stone jetties that would maintain the inlet in its current position. Since that time the jetties have been lengthened, sand-tightened to prevent sand from migrating through the stone and raised to provide safer navigation through the inlet.