0065959 National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Cape Hatteras National Seashore North Carolina Cape Hatteras National Seashore Long-Range Interpretive Plan 0065960 Cover Photo: Bodie Island Lighthouse is one of three lighthouses preserved within the 30,320 acres of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. 0065961 Cape Hatteras National Seashore Long-Range Interpretive Plan Prepared by the Department of Interpretive Planning Harpers Ferry Center and Cape Hatteras National Seashore September 2007 National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 0065962 Contents Introduction 1 Executive Summary 2 Foundation for Planning 4 Legislative Background 4 Purpose 4 Significance 6 Interpretive Themes 7 Management Goals 12 Visitor Experience Goals 13 Visitor Profiles 15 Issues and Influences 22 Existing Conditions 33 Interpretive Facilities owned by NPS and Partners 34 Media Conditions 36 Interpretive Programs 44 Recommendations 49 Personal Services 49 Non-Personal Services 51 Partnerships 58 Collection and Archive Needs 59 Research Needs 60 Staffing Needs 62 Implementation Plan 65 Appendices 73 Appendix A: Planning Team 73 Appendix B: Enabling Legislation 74 Appendix C: Media Accessibility Guidelines 75 0065963 CAPE HATTERAS NATIONAL SEASHORE 0065964 INTRODUCTION Within the planning hierarchy of the This LRIP will guide the interpre- National Park Service (NPS), a tive staff at Cape Hatteras National park’s General Management Plan Seashore over the next five to seven (GMP) guides park management years in their efforts to orient visi- decisions over a 20-year period. A tors to the Seashore’s recreational new GMP for Cape Hatteras opportunities and interpret its National Seashore is scheduled for natural history and human history 2010 or 2011. A park’s Long-Range stories. This LRIP was created in Interpretive Plan (LRIP) is one of a 2006 with input from many of the handful of park strategic plans park’s partners. It describes visitor under the GMP. The LRIP is the experience goals and recommends keystone of the Comprehensive ways to achieve those goals through Interpretive Planning (CIP) process. interpretive media and personal Once approved, the park staff will services. Achievement of the continue the CIP process by imple- LRIP’s recommendations depends menting the LRIP through Annual on funding as well as cooperation Implementation Plans (AIPs). from the park’s partners. This LRIP Throughout the CIP process, the will help guide park management in park will also compile and maintain reaching their “ideal future vision” the park’s Interpretive Database for the interpretive services and (ID). media for park visitors. Managers will need to adapt this ideal future vision based on current and projected fiscal and political realities. Please note that throughout this LRIP, Cape Hatteras National Seashore may be referred to as Cape Hatteras NS, the Seashore, or the park. 1 0065965 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Personal Services located on the Outer Banks of east- • Increase communication between ern North Carolina, is administered the Seashore and its partners by the National Park Service Outer • Offer a balanced interpretive pro- Banks Group. The Group also gram schedule for park visitors includes Fort Raleigh National • Coordinate education programs Historic Site and Wright Brothers for schools and other groups National Memorial. This Long- • Collaborate in recruiting and Range Interpretive Plan (LRIP) was training seasonal employees and written specifically for Cape volunteers for the Seashore and its Hatteras NS. partners Authorized by Congress in 1937 as Visitor Facilities our nation’s first national seashore, • Open the Hatteras U.S.Weather Cape Hatteras NS contains 30,320 Bureau Station as a visitor infor- acres stretching along 74 miles of mation facility three barrier islands — Bodie • Restore the Little Kinnakeet Life Island, Hatteras Island, and Saving Station and open part of it Ocracoke Island. as a visitor information facility • Upgrade the Whalebone Junction This LRIP provides a vision for the visitor information area with new future of interpretation at the visitor facilities Seashore. The LRIP was created through a goal-driven process that describes desired visitor experi- ences and recommends appropriate means to achieve them while protecting and preserving the park’s natural and cultural resources. The LRIP’s first section confirms the foundations of the park: its pur- pose, significance, interpretive themes, visitor profiles, visitor experience goals, issues and influ- ences, and existing conditions. The LRIP’s second section recommends actions to be taken over the next five to seven years to improve the park’s personal services program and interpretive media, and pro- vides an achievable implementation strategy. The following short sections and bulleted phrases on these two pages summarize this LRIP’s Future Interpretive Program: 2 0065966 Executive Summary Non-Personal Services Wayside Exhibits (Interpretive Media) • Prepare a park-wide Wayside Exhibit Proposal to guide wayside Audiovisual Programs development of a complete, high- • Edit the “Move of the Century” quality, unified system of waysides audiovisual program into different • Plan, design, fabricate, and install lengths for use at other park ven- a series of 3-sided, roofed kiosks ues • Plan, design, fabricate, and install • Produce a new movie on the interpretive, low profile waysides “Weather of the Outer Banks” to interpret the park’s cultural Exhibits landmarks and natural landscape • Develop a master plan for all features indoor exhibits at the Seashore • Plan, design, fabricate, and install that will include an overall upright trailhead wayside exhibits approach to developing all the and trailside interpretive wayside interpretive themes exhibits • Redesign and replace exhibits at Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Achievement of the above-listed complex recommendations (and others listed • Develop a temporary exhibit for in detail within this LRIP’s second the Ocracoke Keepers Quarters section) is based on the receipt of • Develop exhibits for the Bodie funding and the park’s coordination Island Visitor Center and with willing partners. Lighthouse • Develop exhibits for the 1901 U.S. Weather Bureau Station in Hatteras Village • Develop exhibits for the Little Kinnakeet Life Saving Station • Develop exhibits for the Ocracoke Island Visitor Center Furnishings • Furnish the Little Kinnakeet Life Saving Station Publications • Write, design, and produce a handbook that is smaller in scope than a traditional NPS handbook through a Harpers Ferry Center (HFC)-recommended contractor 3 0065967 FOUNDATION FOR PLANNING LEGISLATIVE PURPOSE BACKGROUND Purpose statements describe why an area was set aside as a unit of the In 1934 the National Park Service national park system, and the pur- (NPS) launched a preliminary sur- pose of the area today. vey study of some twenty areas Congressional testimony, enabling along the Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, and legislation, and other events in the Great Lakes shores in an effort to park’s legislative and administrative preserve the remaining unspoiled history often provide the basis for coastlines for public recreation purpose statements. areas. Little had been done to reserve shore areas for public use, The Seashore’s purpose statement and the rush for seashore summer as written in the park’s 2005-2008 home sites and the land and real Strategic Plan, states; “The purpose estate booms of the prosperous of Cape Hatteras National Seashore 1920s had taken its toll. The NPS is to preserve and protect significant felt that it was appropriate to segments of barrier island coastline include seashores and lakeshores in for the benefit and enjoyment of the the overall land-use conservation people and to provide for recreation- and recreational planning programs al visitor use consistent with that made possible through the New purpose. Cultural resources reflecting Deal relief efforts. and revealing the national maritime experience, cultural expressions and Employing the technical expertise man’s inherent relationships with the of the Coast Guard and other gov- land are also protected and ernment agencies, the NPS contin- preserved.” ued its seashore and lakeshore stud- ies in 1936 and 1937. The study Park managers who participated in resulted in the recommendation a LRIP workshop at the Seashore in that twelve major stretches of January 2005 drafted the revised unspoiled Atlantic and Gulf Coast purpose statements below (and the shoreline, comprising some 437 significance statements on the next miles of beach, be preserved as page) in anticipation that these new national seashores in the national statements would be a starting point park system. for park’s upcoming General Management Plan revision. One of the shorelines, Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, attract- The purpose of the Seashore is to: ed considerable attention, and local •Preserve and protect significant Representative Lindsay Warren suc- segments of dynamic barrier ceeded in getting legislation through islands that are shaped by ongoing Congress on August 17, 1937, natural processes; authorizing the establishment of our •Preserve, protect, and interpret the nation’s first national seashore. park’s natural and cultural resources; and A copy of this Act of Congress is in • Provide for recreational use and this document in Appendix B. enjoyment compatible with the preservation and protection of the park’s resources. 4 0065968 Foundation for Planning SIGNIFICANCE