Cape Hatteras National Seashore

05 542745 ch05.qxd 3/23/04 9:01 AM Page 105 <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">C H A P T E R </li><li style="flex:1">5</li></ul>Cape Hatteras National Seashore Driving along Hatteras and Ocracoke islands national seashore and other nature preserves are on a narrow strip of sand with the ocean close wild and beautiful. Being here, it’s easy to on both sides, you may think that the Outer imagine what it was like when the first English Banks are a geographic miracle. Why should colonists landed more than 400 years ago, or this razor-thin rim of sand persist far out in the when the Wright brothers flew the first airplane sea? How wild it seems, a land of windy beach over a century ago. Both events are well interwith no end, always in motion, always vulner- preted at their sites. The area is fascinating ecoable to the next, slightly larger wave. There’s so logically, too. Here, north and south meet, the much here to see and learn, and so much soli- mix of ocean currents, climate, fresh and salt tude to enjoy. You’re like a passenger on an water, and geography creating a fabulous diverenormous ship, and unpredictable nature is the sity of bird and plant life at places like the Pea <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">captain. </li><li style="flex:1">Island National Wildlife Refuge (p. 124) and </li></ul>Oddly, many people don’t see Cape Hatteras Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve (p. 124). this way. When they think of the Outer Banks, In this sense, the area is much like Point Reyes, they think of Nags Head or Kill Devil Hills, its counterpart on the West Coast, covered in towns where tourist development has pushed chapter 21, “Point Reyes National Seashore.” right up to the edge of the sea and, in many And for children, the national seashore is a places, gotten really ugly. Most visitors to the huge sandbox. We saw more children having a national seashore come only for the weekend, great time here than anywhere else we went. and just from the nearest states, to escape the BEST THINGS TO DO damp heat of the Southern summer. On the • Pick a place to be alone on a hot, sunny beach, where you can find crabs and shells and swim in warm surf. Outer Banks, the wind almost always blows, so it feels cooler than inland. But people should come from all over the United States, because the parts of the Outer Banks protected by the • Visit Wright Brothers National Memorial, where the first flight occurred in 1903, and 105 05 542745 ch05.qxd 3/23/04 9:01 AM Page 106 OUTER BANKS ADDRESS BOOK Outer Banks National Park Service Group Headquarters. Mailing address for all area national park units: 1401 National Park Dr., Manteo, NC 27954. <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">Cape Hatteras National Seashore. </li><li style="flex:1">252/473-2111. <a href="/goto?url=http://www.nps.gov/caha" target="_blank">www.nps.gov/caha. </a></li></ul>&Wright Brothers National Memorial. Fort Raleigh National Historic site. 252/441-7430. <a href="/goto?url=http://www.nps.gov/wrbr" target="_blank">www.nps.gov/wrbr. </a>&252/473-5772. <a href="/goto?url=http://www.nps.gov/fora" target="_blank">www.nps.gov/fora. </a>&Eastern National (for books and maps). 470 Maryland Dr., Suite 2, Ft. Washington, PA 19034. 877/NAT-PARK. <a href="/goto?url=http://www.eparks.com" target="_blank">Fax 215/591-0903. www.eparks.com. </a>&<ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">North Carolina Ferry System. 113 Arendell St., Morehead City, NC 28557. </li><li style="flex:1">800/BY-FERRY </li></ul>&<ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">(eastern U.S. only) or 252/726-6446. Ocracoke </li><li style="flex:1">800/345-1665 or 252/928-3841; Hatteras </li><li style="flex:1">800/ </li></ul>800/ <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">&</li><li style="flex:1">&</li></ul>&<ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">368-8949 or 252/986-2353; Cedar Island </li><li style="flex:1">800/856-0343 or 252/225-3551; Swan Quarter </li></ul>&<a href="/goto?url=http://www.ncferry.org" target="_blank">773-1094 or 252/926-1111. www.ncferry.org. </a><ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">Outer Banks Visitors Bureau. 1 Visitors Center Circle, Manteo, NC 27954. </li><li style="flex:1">877/298-4373 or </li></ul>&<a href="/goto?url=http://www.outerbanks.org" target="_blank">252/473-2138. www.outerbanks.org. </a><ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce. P.O. Box 1757, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948. </li><li style="flex:1">252/441- </li></ul>252/928- &&8144. <a href="/goto?url=http://www.outerbankschamber.com" target="_blank">www.outerbankschamber.com. </a>Ocracoke Civic and Business Association. P.O. Box 456, Ocracoke, NC 27960. 6711. <a href="/goto?url=http://www.ocracokevillage.com" target="_blank">www.ocracokevillage.com. </a>Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, where the first English colony in the New World was built and disappeared in the 1580s. • Climb one of the nation’s highest lighthouses, visit the aquarium, and climb aboard a 16th-century ship replica. • Hike a wetlands trail and look for interesting birds. • Go fishing, sailing, or sea kayaking, or wade into shallow sound waters to catch crabs. See “Activities” (p. 127). HISTORY: ISLANDS IN TIME As you drive south along the Outer Banks from Nags Head, heading down Hatteras Island and crossing to Ocracoke on a ferry, you might feel as if you’re driving backward in history toward a more isolated, more natural time. The drive starts where the seasonal shopping centers and rows of beachfront houses in the Nags Head area crowd the ocean. Farther south, the highway enters the national seashore, with its miles of wild, windy dunes and empty sand where breakers roll in, mostly unnoticed, day and night. On Ocracoke Island the quiet town of Ocracoke sits among the trees in the wider part of the island, while the beachfront along the highway remains pretty much wild. History set these patterns. Over hundreds of years, people decided which places to fill or leave open based on the jobs they had, the roads and bridges they built, and what they wanted to save for the future. After Sir Walter Raleigh’s Lost Colony disappeared in the 1580s (see chapter 2, “Moving Water, Moving Land”), several generations passed without Europeans on the Outer Banks. The islands were too remote and sandy for most people. Just getting there was difficult. On the stormy outer shore, surf constantly beat <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">106 </li><li style="flex:1">Cape Hatteras National Seashore </li></ul>05 542745 ch05.qxd 3/23/04 9:01 AM Page 107 I R G I N I A Ferry Kitty Hawk 168 17 V I R G I N I A 1Lake Gaston EElliizzaabbeetthh CCiittyy MMuurrffrreeeessbboorroo Kill Devil Hills 258 158 13 95 85 nNags Head 1Rocky Mount 64 MMaanntteeoo DDuurrhhaamm Plymouth 12 Williamston 301 64 HATTERAS ISLAND CChhaappeell HHiillll 45 264 Swan Quarter WWaasshhiinnggttoonn Raleigh CAPE HATTERAS NATIONAL Greenville SEASHORE 117 40 FERRY Hatteras Village 17 OOccrraaccookkee 70 OCRACOKE ISLAND CCEEDDAARR IISSLLAANNDD Dunn 95 NNeeww BBeerrnn nRaleigh Bay 40 BBeeaauuffoorrtt CAPE LOOKOUT NATIONAL SEASHORE Fayetteville MMoorreehheeaadd CCiittyy Cape Lookout 17 ATLANTIC OCEAN 74 <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">76 </li><li style="flex:1">74 </li></ul>Wrightsville Beach Wilmington 17 Carolina Beach SSOOUUTTHH CCAARROOLLIINNAA 00 25 mi Myrtle Beach 17 25 km the beaches, making this a dangerous place to plain piracy—and if you got caught, the punsail and an impossible place to land a ship. On ishment was death. In 1718, in a battle near the calm, sound-side shore, the water was too Ocracoke, the British navy killed the most shallow for all but small boats, and only ex- notorious pirate, Blackbeard, and the age of perienced sea pilots could find the way through piracy ended (see “Read Aloud: Blackbeard’s channels that constantly shifted in the sand. Ghost,” p. 116). His treasure was never found. <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">These conditions were perfect, however, for </li><li style="flex:1">The village of Ocracoke became a home for </li></ul>one group of residents: people who didn’t want pilots who knew the shipping channels well anyone to find them. The Outer Banks became enough to safely guide vessels through Ocra- <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">a hideout for pirates and other fugitives. </li><li style="flex:1">coke Inlet and across Pamlico Sound to larger </li></ul>During wars, European kings and queens towns on the North Carolina mainland. Just as would allow private ship captains to attack any pilots still do in many parts of the world, an vessel from an enemy nation and keep what- Ocracoke pilot would take a small boat out to ever they could take. This was called priva- meet a ship, steer the ship through the chanteering. But when the War of the Spanish nels, and then travel home in the small boat. Succession ended in 1713, many of the priva- As the town was settled and built by pilots and teers kept right on attacking and robbing other their families, others settled there, too. People ships. With no war for an excuse, this was just lived by piloting, fishing, carrying cargo in History: Islands in Time 107 05 542745 ch05.qxd 3/23/04 9:01 AM Page 108 00 5 mi TToo EElliizzaabbeetthh CCiittyy Southern Shores && NNoorrffoollkk 5 km Kitty Hawk 168 Point Harbor Kill Devil Hills Campground 1S Swim Beach 2DDaarree Nags Head CCoouunnttyy 3EEaa sstt LLaakkee RReeggiioonnaall AAiirrppoorrtt kk 4ꢀMMaanntteeoo Whalebone Junction Information Station AAlllliiggaattoorr 564 264 6TToo RRaalleeiigghh Manns Harbor 345 64 Coquina Beach Bathhouse SOregon Inlet WWaanncchheessee Bodie Island Visitor Center AALLLLIIGGAATTOORR RRIIVVEERR NNAATTIIOONNAALL WWIILLDDLLIIFFEE RREEFFUUGGEE 7MMaarriinnaa on ꢂ264 12 Refuge Visitor Center Nature trail SSttuummppyy PPooiinntt Fishing Pier 8P a m l i c o S o u n d Rodanthe Waves 9Lake Mattamuskeet Salvo Richmond Engelhard Bodie Island Lighthouse 7 Area of Detail VA Cape Hatteras Campground 9 To Swan Quarter Cape Hatteras Lighthouse 10 Cape Woods Campground 11 Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station 8 Elizabethan Gardens 4 Fort Raleigh National Historic Site 4 Frisco Woods Campground 12 Jockey’s Ridge State Park 3 Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve 2 The North Carolina Aquarium— Roanoke Island 6 Raleigh NC ATLANTIC OCEAN SC 12 Avon Fishing Pier Ocracoke Lighthouse 14 Ocracoke Pony Corral 13 Roanoke Island Festival Park 5 Teeter’s Campground 14 Wright Brothers National Memorial 1 Buxton Hatteras Island Visitor Center SBilly Mitchell Airstrip 11 12 Frisco 10 Hatteras Cape Point Frisco Cape Hatteras Bathhouse SFishing Pier To Swan Quarter Ocracoke Island Visitor Center 12 Ocracoke 13 OOccrraaccookkee To Cedar Island OOccrraaccookkee S14 CCAAPPEE USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary Ocracoke Airstrip LLOOOOKKOOUUTT NNAATTIIOONNAALL SSEEAASSHHOORREE t<ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">108 </li><li style="flex:1">Cape Hatteras National Seashore </li></ul>05 542745 ch05.qxd 3/23/04 9:01 AM Page 109 boats, grazing cattle and sheep on the beach and passengers from shipwrecks. When a grass, growing food in their gardens, and gath- wreck was spotted, horses pulled a boat down ering valuables that washed up on the beach the beach, and if the waves weren’t too rough, <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">from shipwrecks. </li><li style="flex:1">lifesavers rowed to the grounded ship. Some- </li></ul>Many ships sank on the Outer Banks and times the lifesavers themselves drowned. When off Cape Hatteras. Sometimes ships wrecked the waves were too big to even try rowing out, trying to get through the dangerous inlets. rescuers fired a cannon that shot a brass ball Sometimes they wrecked just trying to get with a rope attached. With that line fastened to around the Cape. Look at a map: Cape Hat- the ship, the sailors could slide across to safety teras forms a turning point for ships traveling on shore one at a time. (See “Chicamacomico up and down the East Coast. If the wind was Lifesaving Station,” p. 127.) <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">blowing the wrong way for a sailing ship to get </li><li style="flex:1">Even after steamships began to replace sail- </li></ul>around the corner, the captain would have to ing ships, many people died on the Outer wait for the wind to change, sailing back and Banks when they made mistakes in navigation, forth until it did. If he sailed too far out, he lost engine power, or suffered storm damage to might get caught in a current that carried his their vessels. In the world wars, the German ship the wrong way. But if he made a mistake navy took advantage of this “Torpedo Juncsailing in the shallow water near shore, espe- tion,” the best spot on the East Coast to attack cially if a storm blew in that direction, the ship American shipping by submarine. In the first could hit the bottom and get stuck. Once half of 1942, while the U.S. Navy concenstuck in the surf, the ship would be smashed to trated on fighting in the Pacific Ocean and left pieces by the waves. This could happen miles Cape Hatteras almost undefended, German offshore or right on the beach, and either way, U-boats sank some 80 ships within sight of the the sailors often drowned in the breakers. Outer Banks. Wreckage, oil, and bodies litOcracokers and other Bankers (as year-round tered the beaches. The British sent ships to residents of the islands were called) would help defend against the submarines, and on May those sailors lucky enough to wash up on the 11, 1942, a British ship went down with all beach alive—but that didn’t stop them from hands in a torpedo attack. Four British sailors gathering the valuable cargo that also washed washed up on Ocracoke and were buried by <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">up, and using or selling it. </li><li style="flex:1">the islanders, who dedicated their little plot to </li></ul>The dangerous waters helped towns grow England forever. You can see it on a walking on the Outer Banks. The first Cape Hatteras tour of the village; it’s an emotionally moving Light was built in 1802 to guide ships past the place. <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">hazards. The lighthouse that stands in the vil- </li><li style="flex:1">The Outer Banks had a part in many wars. </li></ul>lage of Ocracoke today was finished in 1823; During the American Revolution, the Ocrait’s the oldest still standing in the area. Over coke pilots captured a British ship in their harthe next 50 years, more great lighthouses were bor and helped supply General Washington at built on the islands. The current Cape Hatteras Valley Forge by guiding ships of supplies. Light, the second, was finished in 1870. It’s the When the first U.S. Census was taken in 1790, tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, 25 families were listed on Ocracoke and and probably the most famous. The Bodie Portsmouth islands. Among Ocracokers, the Island Lighthouse was knocked down by Con- names are all still familiar, for the same families federate soldiers during the Civil War—the live there today. Over more than 200 years, Outer Banks were the site of furious sea bat- they developed their own ways of doing things, <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">tles—and was rebuilt after the war. </li><li style="flex:1">and even their own accent and words that were </li></ul>In the 1870s, the U.S. Life-Saving Service spoken nowhere else. When babies were born, built stations along the islands to rescue sailors a local midwife attended, and when people

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

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