Chincoteague Island Town Banners | Miles Hancock | Decoy Carver

My step-father, Larry Williams is from Chincoteague Island, VA originally. HIs birthday always falls near Chincoteague’s most famous event, Pony Penning. This event was made so popular by the book Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry. She was awarded the John Newberry Medal for her writing. Later, Paramount Pictures made a movie based on the book. They used a lot of local people for extras in the movie. One of my favorite scenes features Miles Hancock carving decoys in his shop. Larry’s family helped raise Miles, he referred to him as Uncle Miles growing up and helped him in his Terrapin business. For his birthday one year, I drew a portrait of Miles for him as a gift. Later the town of Chincoteague printed it on a banner when they chose to decorate the town with local art. The piece was drawn in pencil. I was really young, maybe 20 years old when I drew it? Still one of my favorites because of the story behind it.