Misty Lives on in Chincoteague
Beebe Pony Ranch in Chincoteauge, Va was opened for the first time in nearly a decade on Wednesday. The reopen is significant for many reasons but six weeks ago a foal named Drizzle, made that reason even more special.
Drizzle was the first pony born on Beebe’s Pony ranch in over 40 years. The history of the ranch dates back to the 40’s when Drizzle’s ascendant, Misty, was born. During this time a popular American author, Marguerite Henry was visiting the island from Illinois for the historic pony swim. On her visit she had plans of finding inspiration for a new book and when she discovered Beebe ranch and Misty she found it.
She enjoyed Misty so much that she wrote the popular novel “Misty of Chincoteague” and soon bought Misty and had her shipped to her home in Illinois.
She and Misty lived together for 10 years; making appearances at schools, museums, and parks. In 1957 Henry’s book was a best seller and it was time to return Misty to Beebee Ranch to have foal of her own. At the time the ranch had nearly 100 ponies and with the popularity of the book had a ton of visitors.
In 1962 the storm known as Ash Wednesday hit the Eastern Shore – flooding the entire grounds where the Bebee family and their ponies lived. Billy Beebee, who is the grandson of the original ranch owners tells 47 ABC about that experience.
“I was young when it happened – 1962. I remember the water came up over the staircase. It was devastating.” said Billy. We lost over 70 ponies during that storm and I remember Misty was pregnant. We put her in the kitchen.”
This storm began as a Nor’easter that sat off of the coast for a total of 72 hours, brining extremely high tides and consistent rain. It was especially bad, because of the timing. The storm hit at the same time of the Spring tide, which creates higher tides than usual. Thus the combination of the two led to complete mayhem. The final high tide of this storm was the worst, bringing walls of water past the beaches, and into the towns.
Fast forward to June 2016, when the Bebee family reached out to a Pennsylvania man who had one of the last Misty descendants- the foal of Stormy. They brought her to Bebee and six weeks ago she gave birth to Drizzle.
The ranch will be open to the public all the way into the end of summer Thursday through Saturday from 11am – 5pm.
