Stephen Kirk - Voices from the Outer Banks

By one estimate, the Outer Banks has a land area of 391 square miles. Its year-round population is perhaps 40,000. That calculates to about 80 percent of the size and 40 percent of the population of an average North Carolina county.

Considered as an aggregate and viewed in terms of raw numbers, the Outer Banks is a minor landmass, meagerly inhabited.

Moreover, its a tough place to get to and a tougher place to live. For the majority of North Carolina residents, the South Carolina beaches are closer, more convenient, and more amenity-rich. Parts of the Outer Banks are accessible only by boat. Citizens have to deal with roads that wash out and islands that migrate from underneath the bridges built to reach them. Summer visitorsmany from Virginia, the Northeast, and the heartlandshould factor in the possibility of an evacuation, as the Outer Banks is the most hurricane-prone region on the East Coast north of Florida.

Why, then, is the area such a draw? The in-season population swells to 300,000, a number that turns over every Saturday with a fresh influx of vacationers arriving for their week at the beach; one estimate places the total at 7 million visitors per year. An Outer Banks seashore park attracts 2.3 million annually. A pier draws 307,000 fishermen.

It must be the sun, sand, and sea.

But all beach communities offer those.

This book suggests that history and tradition make the Outer Banks a destination like no other.

The Outer Banks is the site of the first British settlement in North America and the birthplace of the first English child on American soil.

Its the bloody death site of the most famous of all the pirates, a man still inspiring movies and television series three centuries onward.

Its the site of the first powered airplane flights in human history.

And Americas first national seashore.

And the nations most iconic lighthousepart of a matched set of four.

Its a place whose namesKitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Cape Hatterasare known internationally.

Its the Graveyard of the Atlantic, in a nod to the rough waters that over the centuries have claimed hundreds of vessels.

Its Torpedo Junction, site of the Great American Turkey Shoot, the latter nickname bestowed by German submariners during World War II. Because of their deadly work, a tiny piece of the Outer Banks is British soil today.

In days gone by, the Outer Banks hosted Civil War battles, a freedmens colony, hunt clubs for the mega-rich, lighthouse families on shore and at sea, and lifesavers who used horses to pull their surfboats to the water and fired lines by cannon to wrecked vessels. To get from place to place, buses, mail and delivery vehicles, and cars drove the beach.

Even now, the Outer Banks is a unique place where ferry transportation remains a way of life and wild horses, perhaps the descendants of ancient shipwrecked animals, roam the sands.

The following chapters present some of the seminal moments in Outer Banks history in the words of people who lived them. Readers will hear the voice of a man who stood aboard a ship and watched Native Americans row from shore to make the first North American contact between the New World and the Old. Theyll hear the out-of-state governor who staged an invasion to take Blackbeards head. And the local postmaster who befriended the Wright brothers and helped set the course of the twentieth century. And the U-boat captain who bumped into one of his victims half a century later. And the former ten-year-old, barefoot beach-bus driver whose size belied his skill. And more than a hundred others.

The term Outer Banks is of relatively recent coinage, having come into use perhaps a century ago. Different schools of thought exist as to exactly what it encompasses. One Outer Banks tourist bureau defines it as the string of barrier islands stretching from the Virginia border southward through Ocracoke Island. Another bureau considers it as extending farther, through Cape Lookout; the area would thus include parts of four North Carolina countiesCurrituck, Dare, Hyde, and Carteret, from north to south. The late David Stick, definitive historian of the Outer Banks, subscribed to the latter view, as does this book. Which of the small islands approaching the Virginia line ought to be included in the Outer Banks is also a matter of opinion.

This book doesnt claim to present every significant voice from the Outer Banks, or even to treat every worthy subject. Its aim is an overview of the richness of a noteworthy area, expressed in the words of those who discovered its treasures and knew it best. The chapter introductions provide context. Alterations to the text have been made only for readability and limitations of space.

Indeed, little editing was necessary, as it would be difficult to imagine another place that speaks so well for itselfone of such small size packed with such a breadth of history.

View of the Outer Banks taken by Apollo 9

After 425 years, it appeared that Americas oldest mystery was solved.

In 2012, a researcher at the First Colony Foundation noticed patches on an old map that he suspected hid something underneath. Scientists at the British Museum subsequently confirmed the presence of a tiny symbol previously unseen. Speculation was that it indicated the site of a fort established by the Lost Colonists after their departure from Roanoke Island.