Hog Island

Hog Island is a barrier island off the coast of Virginia. Someone put a flock of British-type sheep there in the 1700s and the island did the rest. Storms, salt, marsh grass and no shepherd selected for hardiness, foraging ability, and ewes that could raise a lamb unassisted.

By the early 1900s there were hundreds. A run of hurricanes and nor'easters in the 1930s drove the people out, and by 1945 the last residents had moved to the Eastern Shore with most of their livestock. The sheep stayed. For years the only human contact was a spring gathering to shear and notch. They grazed marsh grass and drank from pools dug ankle-deep into the sand.

The Nature Conservancy bought the island in 1974 and removed the last of them. Four years later, agents found a thriving flock still living there.

They browse rather than graze, which is worth knowing when you plan pasture for them, and they need very little management. Living history museums keep most of the ones you will see.