Wallops Island
| Wallops Island | ||
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| Waters | Atlantic Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 37 ° 51 ′ N , 75 ° 28 ′ W | |
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| Residents | 434 | |
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Wallops Island is a 15.5 km² island in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the US state Virginia . It is part of a chain of islands that stretches along the east coast of the United States .
The island is part of Accomack County and is located directly south of Chincoteague Island .
history
The ownership of the island, originally called Kegotank Island , was granted on April 29, 1692 by the English crown to John Wallop , whose name was also transferred to the island. The property was increasingly subdivided in the following years until the state of Virginia confiscated it in 1876 and 1877 to compensate for unpaid taxes.
From 1877 the property was subdivided again until 1889, when the property went to the Wallops Island Club through several trustees . In 1933 the now officially registered club took over ownership as Wallops Island Association, Inc. The members of the Association and their families used the island for fishing and swimming in the summer months. The Association grazed sheep, cattle and ponies on the island until the 1940s.
In 1947 the US Navy began using the northern two thirds of the island on a lease basis for testing aircraft armament. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA , leased the southern 4 km² for use as a rocket launch site .
The island is primarily used for NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport , although the name is also used as a postal address for the area of the peninsula surrounding the island.
The current population of Wallops Island (just the peninsula, not the island itself) is 434 people.