Chincoteague Island to Greenbackville Directions
Take VA-175 west from Chincoteague 8 miles to Fleming Roaod. Turn right and go 7.8 miles to MD-679/ Stateline Rd/VA-679. Make a slight right and follow Stateline Rd/VA-679 2 miles to Church St. Turn left into Greenbackville. The driving time is about 40 minutes.
Chincoteague Island to Greenbackville, Virginia Day Trip
Directly across Chincoteague Bay from the Wildcat Lane area of Chincoteague's northern end, and within hailing distance of the Maryland border, is what used to be the town of Franklin City, Virginia. Less than a mile to its west is the town of Greenbackville. Both towns were created in response to the great “Oyster Rush” which hit Chincoteague Bay between the mid 19th and mid-20th centuries, and both of them prospered.
Much of the 20th century was anything but kind to these tiny Eastern Shore communities, and what was Franklin City belongs now, for all intents and purposes, to Greenbackville. At the end of Franklin City Road, you'll find the Bay Watch Inn, a terrific B&B with views of the salt marsh and Chincoteague Bay (binoculars come with your room!).
Things changed quite dramatically, however, when construction began on a planned community and golf course, Captain’s Cove, laid out in the 1960s. Encroaching on Greenbackville’s south with a litany of seafaring streets like Mutiny Drive, Scimitar Way, Captain’s Corridor, and Starboard Street, the manicured two thousand acres of Captain’s Cove are in sharp contrast to the tiny town they border.
Over the past decade, people have been flooding to Captain’s Cove, and if it is built out by 2015 as expected, there will be 10,000 people in the areas 10,000 people to the area immediately south and west of Greenbackville.
This building boom, however, is not Greenbackville’s first. Like much of the Eastern Shore, Greenbackville is surrounded by marshland, which is largely responsible for the town's name. When the Oyster Boom hit this area, a landowner further inland on the Eastern Shore began grumbling about the prices for which marshland lots were selling, saying that an acre of such real estate was really worth less than a greenback!
Greenbackville‘s approximately 600 full-time residents live in a town where business is conducted along the few blocks of Stockton and Ellis streets. Both of these end at Bayfront Street.
Take Bayfront Street north to State Line Road, head east, and you'll hit the harbor which has sustained Greenbackville for more nearly a century and a half. Now you can appreciate the appeal of this small place, where fishing, crabbing, kayaking, and hiking along the shore will keep you busy for as long as you like.
If you're an intermediate kayaker who can navigate through power boat traffic, launch from the Greenbackville boat ramp closest to the harbor's exit, head out past the breakwater, and go southwest along the Chincoteague Bay coastline. You can spend hours exploring both Swans Gut and Powell Creek.
Return the way you came, and when you’re back on land, take a stroll along Stockton Avenue until you arrive at the Fire Station. For over 50 years, Greenbackville's fire stations have been the heart and soul of the community.
Each November the new fire station hosts Ice Cream Week, producing their own chocolate, vanilla, and pineapple ice creams for the citizens’ enjoyment. The old fire station built in 1956, is now the town Banquet Hall and site of the town’s Old Tyme Days!
While Greenbackville has seen more than its share of hard weather and hard times, its community spirit is as strong as it has ever been!