Museum of Chincoteague Island

A small local museum that covers considerably more ground than expected: island prehistory and fossils, the oystering and clamming economy, the Coast Guard station, decoy carving, pirates, and the storms — particularly the Ash Wednesday nor'easter of 1962, which put the entire island underwater and destroyed nearly every structure on neighbouring Assateague.

Its main draw is Misty. Marguerite Henry's 1947 novel Misty of Chincoteague made the island and its ponies famous worldwide and still drives a good share of the tourism; the actual mare, and her foal Stormy, are preserved here. The first-order Fresnel lens from the Assateague Lighthouse is also on display.

Practical: around $8, open Tuesday to Saturday with reduced winter hours, closed Sundays and Mondays. An hour is right. On Maddox Boulevard on the way out to the refuge, so it fits either side of a beach day — and it is one of the few indoor options on the island when the weather turns.