Dare County
Land of Beginnings
Roanoke Voyages
The Roanoke Voyages began as a military and pirate colony established by the
English in 1584, 20 years before the founding of Jamestown. Explorers Philip Amadas and Arthur
Barlowe had been sent to Roanoke by Sir Walter Raleigh to scout the region. They returned to
England with tales of a fertile land and two Algonquins, Manteo and Wanchese.
In 1585, seven more ships, led by Sir Richard Grenville,
sailed to Roanoke in hopes of establishing a military fort. They constructed the ‘Cittie of
Ralegh' and began exploring the area. The English used Roanoke Island as a base of operations
until 1586, when the men fled aboard the ship of Sir Francis Drake who was sailing in the area.
The men had lost provisions in route to Roanoke so drought, starvation, and escalating Native
American conflict forced them to abandon the base.
In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to establish a colony
for the third time. This time with women and children. Shortly after their arrival, Virginia
Dare was born, she was the first English child born in North America. Governor John White had to
return to England for more supplies but he was unable to return for three years. He returned to
find the colony evacuated, including his granddaughter Virginia, there were no houses, signs of
destruction, or signs of death. The site has been protected through the years by many
organizations including, as a private park (1894-1934), a state park with log cabins and
palisaded fencing (1934-1941), and finally as a national park unit (1941- present), which
restored the old fort's appearance in 1950.
Fort Raleigh Historic Site, located at 1401 National Park Dr. Manteo NC 27954, is a Dare
County A250 Passport Program location.
The sign is located on the visitor center window to the left of the entrance.
North Carolina is Chartered
In 1663, North Carolina was chartered by King Charles II of England as part of the
Carolina Charter which marked the beginning of representative government in this region. Many of the
Charter's provisions were later incorporated into North Carolina's governing documents.
Following the beheading of King Charles I and the brief reign of the Cromwells as a result of
the English Civil War (1642-1651), Charles II ascended to the British throne in 1660. King
Charles II owed an enormous debt to his friends who helped restore the monarchy, so he rewarded
eight of them with a grant of land that included what is now North and South Carolina. The
Charter of Carolina of 1663 described the eight men as follows:
Our right trusty, and right well beloved cousins and counsellors, Edward Earl of Clarendon,
our high chancellor of England, and George Duke of Albermarle, master of our horse and captain
general of all our forces, our right trusty and well beloved William Lord Craven, John Lord
Berkley, our right trusty and well beloved counsellor, Anthony Lord Ashley, chancellor of our
exchequer, Sir George Carteret, knight and baronet, vice chamberlain of our household, and our
trusty and well beloved Sir William Berkley, knight, and Sir John Colleton, knight and baronet.
These eight men, and their heirs and assigns, were identified
by the charter as "the true and absolute Lords Proprietors" of Carolina. The 1663 Charter also
included many other provisions. The Lords Proprietors were permitted to delegate their
governmental powers to "deputies, lieutenants, judges, justices, magistrates, officers and
members" of their choosing. As extensive as the Lords Proprietors' powers were, the 1663 Charter
included a number of provisions designed to guard against the abuse of those powers.
In 1664, land was granted to one of Carolina's Lord
Proprietors, Sir John Colleton, for "an island theretofore called Carlyle now Colleton Island,
Lyeing near the mouth of the Chowane now Albemarle River" where he established a plantation that
later became Colington Island. It was the first proprietary settlement in Carolina under the
direction of Peter Carteret to plant vineyards, cornfields, and tobacco and raise chickens and
hogs. It was later abandoned due to severe storms. We know this island today as Collington
Island, a community in the town of Kill Devil Hills.
In 1729, seven of the eight Lords Proprietors, with the
exception of Sir George Carteret, sold their shares of North Carolina to the crown. North
Carolina thereby became a royal colony and remained under royal control until the American
Revolution.
Permanent Settlers and Farms
While establishment of the first North American English colony on Roanoke Island was ultimately unsuccessful, the settlement period on the Outer Banks continued up until the Civil War. As early as 1663, Sir John Colleton received a land grant from the Lords Proprietors of Carolina for "the island heretofore called Carlyle now Colleton Island." This is now known as Colington Island. In the coming years, that first permanent settlement on the Outer Banks was well established and complete with houses, outbuildings, corn and grazing cattle.
During the early settlement period, although larger land grants were obtained along the Outer Banks and then managed by caretakers, there were many first residents who quite literally placed their stake in the sand on small pieces of land. Raising livestock was a popular initial venture in the maritime environment, as stock could roam free and be fed relatively well off of the land.
Most first settlers were English, and found their way to the Outer Banks through either Virginia or inland parts of North Carolina. Listed occupations of early residents depended largely on their location along the Outer Banks; most all living on Roanoke Island listed themselves as farmers. Early families that established ownership, homeplaces and subsistence farms on the Outer Banks did so permanently by the late 18th century; nearly 1,000 people were spread across the barrier islands at this time. The earliest federal agricultural census documents (dated 1850) point to well-established homesteads and farms along the Outer Banks. These farms were well-equipped with various types of stock (sheep, cattle, fowl, and equines), and were producing substantial amounts of staple crops (potatoes, corn, field peas) and farm goods like butter, wool, flax, and meat.
Island Farm, located at 1140 N Us 64 Hwy Manteo NC 27954, is a Dare County A250 Passport
Program location.
The sign is located at the visitor center window to the left of the entrance.
First Hotels on the Outer Banks
In 1838, plantation owners were coming to the Outer Banks trying to escape the
summer heat and bugs on the mainland. Ships docked on the sound side right near Jockey's Ridge
and visitors could traverse a wooden boardwalk over the dunes to the cool ocean air. At the
heart of it all was the Nags Head Hotel, a 200 room wooden hotel built to house the new
tourists coming to the Outer Banks. The hotel had a dance hall and a wharf that became a hub
where locals hung out and welcomed the new tourists to the island. The hotel was burned to the
ground by confederates during the civil war.
Nearly 50 years after tourism in Nags Head was picking up, the
Tranquil House was opened in
downtown Manteo in 1885. Known for decadence and excellent customer service the Tranquil House
hosted tourists, officials, and celebrities
like the Wright Brothers and Reginald Fessenden. The Tranquil House was torn down in 1959 but
the name lives on with the Tranquil House Inn, built in the 1980s near the original location.
The Outer Banks has gone through phases of hotel facades and
some are standing reminders of
the times. First Colony Inn, originally called LeRoy's Seaside Inn, was built in 1932. It was
moved across the street from its original location, but the large wooden hotel with its wide
porches is an iconic symbol of the hotel industry in the early days of Nags Head. Standing in
contrast is the giant retro sea foam green sign of the Sea Foam Motel. The Sea Foam Motel was
built in 1948 and is an excellent example of the transition from large wooden hotels to the
quaint cottage courts on the Outer Banks. These hotels, motels, and inns plus many more are the
beginning of tourism as we know it in Dare County.
First Churches
In 1848, the first Bethany Church was established in Wanchese. Later, a new
sanctuary was built in 1905, and the parsonage was built in 1928. Methodism was the oldest known church on the Outer
Banks and first to bring an established Christian religion to this part of the North Carolina
coast. In 1958, an educational building and other modern facilities were added. Years later, new
hymnals, carpet, pews, pulpit furniture, and stained-glass windows were installed in the
sanctuary.
In 1850, St. Andrew's By-the-Sea Episcopal Church was founded
as All Saints Episcopal Church in Nags Head. The church was torn down in 1865 during the Civil
War, and the lumber was used for housing on Roanoke Island. It was rebuilt in 1916. Once the
"Beach Road" (Virginia Dare Trail) was completed in 1937, the church was moved 680 feet east and
re-oriented to its present location.
In 1865, the first African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
established in Northeastern North Carolina built in Manteo. Andrew Cartwright, born in Elizabeth
City in 1835, became an ordained minister of the AME Zion Church sometime around 1860 in New
England. Shortly after, during the Union occupation of eastern North Carolina, Andrew Cartwright
returned to North Carolina and began preaching to freedmen in the areas around the Albemarle
Sound. He settled in Manteo in 1865, where he established an AME Zion Church. Cartwright went on
to establish churches in Pasquotank, Perquimans, Currituck, Camden, and Hertford counties, and
later in his life, he became one of the first missionaries in Liberia. There is now a park named
for Cartwright where the first AME Zion church used to sit, on the corner of Sir Walter Raleigh
Street and Bideford Street. Cartwright Park includes the ruins of the church, as well as a
pavilion where the Annual African-American Heritage Celebration was held in 1992.
Roanoke Island Baptist Church, which is believed to be the
second oldest church in North Carolina behind the church in Bath, was originally built in 1808
but was destroyed during the Burnside Expedition in 1862. It is said to have been rebuilt in
1884 using the dismantled timber of Burnside's military hospital on Roanoke Island. Some of its
members later disbanded and founded Baptist churches in Manteo (Manteo Baptist Church) in 1905
and Nags Head (Nags Head Church) in 1909.
Bethany Church of Wanchese, located at 101 Old Wharf Rd Wanchese, NC 27981, is a Dare County
A250 Passport Program location.
The sign is located in a window on the north side of the church.
Civil War in the Outer Banks
Prior to the Civil War, Hatteras was one of North Carolina's busiest ports.
Although its importance equaled that of Wilmington, its location made it more difficult to
defend during the Civil War. At the onset of the war, the Confederate state government built two
forts to protect the port of Hatteras: Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark. Fort Hatteras was a
250-foot fort that contained twelve smoothbores. Fort Clark was built closer to the ocean and
had five large cannons and two smaller ones. Union commanders decided to attack Fort Hatteras
and eliminate the Confederate raiding threat along the North Carolina coast. Although the Union
victory resulted in few casualties for either side (one Union dead and 12 Confederate dead), the
capture of Fort Hatteras was a significant Confederate defeat. Approximately 700 Confederates
had been captured, and thirty cannons and five small boats were now in Union hands. Of more
significance, Southern privateering on the Outer Banks had been eliminated, the Union Navy
acquired a fueling station that strengthened its blockading effort, and the Union Army obtained
a post for military operation in Northeast North Carolina. The fort's capture gave the Union a
morale boost and a base from which to attack Roanoke Island.
The Hotel De' Afrique was one of the first safe havens for
freedom seekers in North Carolina and is officially recognized as part of the Underground
Railroad Network to Freedom. During the Civil War, after the Union won the Battle of Hatteras
Inlet in 1861, Federal forces took control of the island. News quickly spread to the mainland,
and enslaved people began traveling to Hatteras seeking refuge. Due to this increase in new
families on the island, a wooden structure was designated as lodging and named the Hotel De'
Afrique.
As the initial battle in the 1862 Burnside Carolina Campaign,
the Battle of Roanoke Island represents a turning point in the early Civil War. Union troops,
with the aid of local enslaved African Americans, invaded the island on February 7, 1862. The
next day after intensive land fighting, Union troops swarmed Confederate defenses and captured
the island's 2500-soldier garrison, weapons, supplies, and 200 enslaved men. The island remained
a Union base for the rest of the war and served as the launching point for further Union
incursions along the coast of North Carolina.
The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, located at 59200 Museum Dr. Hatteras, NC 27943, is a
Dare County A250 Passport Program location.
The sign is located on the front doors.
Freedmen's Colony
With the capture of Roanoke Island in February 1862 by Union forces, the
Confederates' enslaved people were freed. Returning to the interior, the freed men rescued
family members and spread the word of Union emancipation. Soon, thousands of enslaved people
streamed to Union lines in the hope of freedom. The military and formerly enslaved people
created a settlement, called the Freedmen's Colony, along the northwestern coast of Roanoke Island,
from the Dare County Regional Airport to Weir Point and beyond. The freed people acquired 1-acre
land plots to build homes, gardens, and a town. Over time, the colony added a sawmill, fishery,
and industrial school. Local and northern teachers educated colonists at ten operational
schools.
The colony became a recruitment center for United States
Colored Troops in North Carolina, helping to recruit nearly 5,000 African American soldiers. In
1866, Federal authorities closed the colony, forcing the 3,900 residents to depart from the
island. The original landowners reclaimed their land taken during the war, and most colonists
left the island to seek opportunity elsewhere.
Commercial Fishing
The Outer Banks has been blessed with abundant resources of fish both in sound and
ocean waters. The isolated nature of the area kept product limited to local distribution until
ice made it possible to ship catches to northern markets. Before tourism was a driving
economic force, commercial fishing was a primary occupation for many villagers. Fishermen
widened their range of territory and species with trawl boat fishing beginning after WWII. The
village of Wanchese became a key hub for fish distribution on the east coast and, eventually
worldwide, as millions of pounds of fish passed through its small, locally owned fish houses.
The heyday decades of the 1970s and 1980s with record breaking
catches were short-lived. Oregon Inlet, the entryway to the sea, became increasingly unstable
and treacherous. State and federal commercial fishing regulations put a chokehold on what
species could be caught and when. Tenacious, yet fewer, commercial fishermen bring their catches to
Wanchese harbor, but much of the dock space has been yielded to sport fishing and other marine
interests.
Dare County is Established
In 1870, the General Assembly voted to remove parts of Currituck, Hyde, and Tyrrell to form a new county they named Dare County in memory of Virginia Dare, who was the first child born of English parents (Ananias Dare and Eleanor White) in America. For taxing purposes, the new county was divided into five townships: Hatteras and Kinnakeet were located on the south banks of Hatteras Island, Croatan and East Lake were located on the mainland, and Nags Head consisted of all of Roanoke Island as well as the north banks from Oregon Inlet to the south edge of the community of Kitty Hawk. Kitty Hawk and Duck remained in Currituck until 1920 when the General Assembly removed the north banks area of Kitty Hawk Bay to Caffey's Inlet and added it to Dare County. Subsequently a sixth township, known as Atlantic Township, was formed from this newly acquired area plus Colington Island and what is now the town of Kill Devil Hills. It is bounded by the Pamlico, Croatan, and Albemarle Sounds, Hyde and Tyrrell Counties, and the banks of the Atlantic Ocean. The present area is 388 square miles, and Manteo is the county seat.
Read MoreOBX Lighthouses
The powerful Gulf Stream comes up from the southwest off the East Coast bringing
warm winds and quick-moving ocean water where it meets the colder, slower-moving ocean from Cape
Hatteras north and there forms treacherous seas and hidden sand bars known as the Diamond
Shoals. In acknowledgement of the need to guide ships-both commercial and private-traveling
along the eastern seaboard, light ships and lighthouses were erected along the North Carolina
coasts' many land masses and inlets, beginning as early as the 1700s.
Dare County saw its first lighthouse erected on Cape Hatteras
in 1803. Standing at 90 feet tall, Keeper Adam Gaskins used whale-oil to light its flame. It
became apparent that the height of the lighthouse did not quite reach above the mists and fogs
that hovered over the Atlantic and, in 1853, an additional 150 feet were added to the Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse's base. In the decades that followed, lighthouses were erected at strategic
points along the Outer Banks' coast to include Ocracoke Lighthouse in Hyde County; Hatteras
Inlet Lighthouse, Roanoke Marshes Light, and Bodie Island Lighthouse in Dare County; and the
Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Currituck County. Several lighthouses were rebuilt--or moved, most
famously in the case of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse-as needs, materials, and wear-and-tear forced
engineers to build taller and stronger.
1803 - Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
1823 - Ocracoke Lighthouse
1848 - Bodie Island Lighthouse
1853 - Cape Hatteras Lighthouse elevated 150 feet
1857 - Roanoke Marshes Light
1858 - Second Bodie Island Lighthouse
1870 - Second Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
1872 - Third Bodie Island Lighthouse
1874 - Hatteras Inlet Lighthouse aka Oliver's Reef Lighthouse
1875 - Currituck Beach Lighthouse
1877 - Second Roanoke Marshes Light
Almost all of Dare County's lighthouses remain today and visitors can tour their grounds
year-round. Bodie Island Lighthouse, located at 8210 Bodie Island Lighthouse Rd. Nags Head,
NC 27959, is a Dare County A250 Passport Program location.
The sign is located in a window on the back side of the keepers quarters facing the lighthouse.
Life-Saving Stations
The United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS) operated between 1874 and 1915 in
North Carolina. It is a history that is near and dear to the Outer Banks community as the region
is filled with descendants of the Keepers and Surfmen who once manned the USLSS stations that
the federal government built along America's coastlines. Lifesaving stations were a government
solution to the growing public outcry over the staggering number of deaths by shipwreck, often
happening within yards of the beach, during the nineteenth century. By the turn of the next
century, 279 lifesaving stations dotted the Atlantic, Pacific, and Great Lakes coasts. The coast
of North Carolina hosted a chain of twenty-nine lifesaving stations located five to seven miles
apart with each station managed by a Keeper and six Surfmen, ranked one through six according to
experience; crews were later increased to seven Surfmen. These men embodied the myth of
lifesaving: "they had to go out, they did not have to come back." The USLSS was a government
success story that saved thousands of lives until its eventual merge with the United States
Revenue Cutter Service to form the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915. The tales of these daring rescues
are renowned on the Outer Banks, the rescue of the crew of the Mirlo, a tankard that was ablaze
at sea, the story of Rasmus Midgett who single handedly rescued 10 men from the Priscilla, and
countless others.
The Pea Island Lifesaving Station was a historically
significant lifesaving station on the Outer Banks known for being the only one with an all-Black
crew and the first to have an African American Keeper, Richard Etheridge. The Pea Island crew
performed numerous rescues, most notably saving all nine people from the schooner E.S. Newman
during a hurricane in 1896.
One can travel back in time to visit the lifesaving service by
visiting the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Museum in Rodanthe on Hatteras Island. Each
summer historical reenactors demonstrate the drills, beach apparatus, and specialized training
that surfmen used to rescue distressed mariners and victims of shipwreck more than a century
ago. Additionally, the Pea Island Lifesaving Station's history is preserved through the Pea
Island Preservation Society and is the subject of museum exhibits and educational programming at
the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum in Manteo.
Chicamacomico Life Saving Station, located at 23645 NC Hwy 12 Rodanthe, NC 27968, is a Dare
County A250 Passport Program location.
The sign is located near the main sign on the fence surrounding the station.
Pea Island Cookhouse Museum, located at 622 Sir Walter Raleigh St. Manteo NC 27954, is a Dare
County A250 Passport Program location.
The sign is located in a tall kiosk outside the museum near the sidewalk.
Buffalo City
The community of Buffalo City was established in the 1880s when Buffalo City
Mills, a timber and mill company from Buffalo, New York, purchased more than 100,000 acres on
the Dare County mainland and set up operations. Located on Milltail Creek in the middle of the
mainland peninsula, the company drew its labor from both the local population and recent foreign
immigrants, including, according to oral tradition, Russians or Ukrainians. Due to the swampy
nature of the area, the mill concentrated on harvesting Atlantic White Cedar, known locally as
juniper, to produce shingles. This continued a trade dating to the colonial period.
The era of Buffalo City Mills was a heyday for the area. A
company town was constructed, along with a hotel, schoolhouse, and company store. Housing was
also segregated. Divided by a railway track along the main street, on one side were houses
painted red for White workers and on the other side a few rows of white houses for African
Americans and immigrant employees. As in similar places, workers could only spend their pay, an
aluminum coin known as "pluck," here for basic supplies. Buffalo City Mills logged the area
until the 1910s when the timberlands switched hands to the Dare Lumber Company. Dare Lumber
shipped their harvest from the woods to Elizabeth City where they had a large mill on Knobbs
Creek. Later, the Duvall brothers ran the operation (and store). While some logging continued
after this, in general, it had reached its end.
As the forest resources dwindled putting an end to logging,
another economy was beginning to take shape, albeit illicit. Taking advantage of the area's
isolation, unique resources such as tannic water, water access for transportation, and
relatively hidden location, East Lake (the name of the larger area) became an ideal spot for
large-scale, and lucrative, moonshining operations. This production of illegal liquor or
moonshine was not simply for profit as it assisted the area's residents get through the hard
times of the 1920s and 1930s. Well-known for its quality, East Lake whiskey, particularly rye,
was said to have a national reputation and on the cocktail menus at speakeasies in New York City
among other locations. The money liquor brought into Dare County also helped fuel the
development of much needed infrastructure, such as hotels. The end of Prohibition and the
attraction of steady employment in the developing industries of Hampton Roads, Virginia helped
to bring an end to this second heyday of Buffalo City. While few residents remain in the area
today, a Homecoming occurs every September at a local church for the dispersed community. The
majority of the mainland, including the location of Buffalo City, is now administered by the
federal government.
Buffalo City, located at 17344 Buffalo City Rd. Manns Harbor, NC 27953, is a Dare County A250
Passport Program location. The remnants of the city itself are lost in the wilderness now,
but you can hike or paddle a trail here and get a sense of what the area was like.
The sign is location on a fence crossing the bridge.
First Radio Transmission
In 1901, three 50-foot-tall radio towers were erected at Cape Henry, Roanoke
Island, and Buxton. A year later in March of 1902, a 127-word message was sent from Buxton to
Roanoke Island. Reginald Fessenden, the Father of Modern Radio, had successfully sent the first
wireless voice transmission.
Reginald Fessenden showed inventing genius from a young age.
He worked as an instrument tester for Edison until he was promoted to his assistant after
impressing J.P. Morgan with the upgrades he made to the wiring in his mansion. Prior to 1902 he
experimented with wireless messages and had sent a small message 1-mile but that message was
impossible to understand.
Fessenden went on to patent 500 inventions, including the
fathometer, submarine telephone, and a submarine iceberg detector. The latter of which was
fueled by the disaster of the Titanic, whose distress signal was picked up in Cape Hatteras. He
served in the Naval Reserve where he worked on SONAR and recognition signals to distinguish
friendlies and foes. Over the course of his life he received many awards and he was able to
retire to Bermuda after receiving $3 million for patents from RCA.
The First Flight
On December 17, 1903, an uncertain, wavy, creeping sort of flight just twelve seconds long lifted off from the sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills and changed the world. The dream of powered flight, chased for centuries and carried by two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, finally took wing. Wilbur and Orville Wright had come to the Outer Banks not for profit or fame, but for the winds, the isolation, and a chance to rise. With local support and grit forged through countless experiments, they launched a new era of human possibility.
Today, Wright Brothers National Memorial honors more than an invention. Dedicated in 1932 in Dare County, the memorial marks a moment when curiosity met courage, and when a quiet coastal community became the cradle of aviation. From the granite monument atop Big Kill Devil Hill to the reconstructed camp buildings below, the site reminds us that the future is often shaped by ordinary people working together with steady hands, open skies, and wind at their backs.
The Wright Brothers National Memorial, located at 1000 N Croatan Hwy Kill Devil Hills, NC
27948, is a Dare County A250 Passport Program location.
The sign is located in a window on the visitor by the entrance closest to the highway.
Monument to a Century of Flight, located at 5230 N Croatan Hwy Kitty Hawk, NC 27949, is a
Dare County A250 Passport Program location. The monument is located down a short path behind
the Aycock Brown Welcome Center.
The sign is located in the window of the visitor center vestibule, the monument is a short walk behind the visitor center.
Surfing Comes to the Outer Banks
Surfing arrived in the Outer Banks and Dare County around the 1950s and 1960s. People soon discovered that the beaches of the Outer Banks in places like Hatteras Island, Nags Head, and Kitty Hawk produced some of the best waves on the eastern seaboard. Surfing quickly caught on, and a sizeable industry of board shapers and surf shops found its way to Dare County.
While historians can date the art of surfing back over 2,000 years in Polynesian culture, the first written account of surfing was documented by a scientist sailing with Captain James Cook who witnessed Tahitians surfing in 1769 and later, the same practice, by men in the Hawaiian Islands in 1779. In fact, a group of Hawaiians visited the Outer Banks in the summer of 1928 and provided surfing demonstrations to the locals during the Virginia Dare Days celebration in present-day Kill Devil Hills. A newspaper article in the Charlotte Observer read, "the program…will include a demonstration of surfboard riding by Willie Kaiama, member of a troupe of native Hawaiians now at the shores."
Local surfer, Thomas Fearing, is documented by historian David Stick as being one of the earliest surfers in Dare County as he was riding the waves in the 1930s. At that time, surfboards were described as being made of Juniper but were likely made of the native wood, Atlantic White Cedar. In the early days, boards were shaped and sold outside of grocery stores or from shapers' homes. Others, like famed surfer Robert "Bob" Holland, came along in the 1950s and were willing to teach others their love of the sport. By the 1960s, the sport had stuck, and Surf Clubs were forming in the county. By the 1980s, Outer Banks surfing was world-renowned and drew surfers from all over the world.
The sport of surfing in Dare County grew throughout the twentieth century and is now a significant draw for tourism on the Outer Banks. The recreational sport is supported by a variety of surf shops and locally-owned board shaping outfits. It has sparked innovative entrepreneurs, like Bri Young, to start one of the first women's surf clubs in North Carolina.
Surfing contests have also developed in the area, like the Eastern Surfing Association's Eastern Surfing Championship that came to Hatteras in 1971 or the Wave Riding Vehicles (WRV) Outer Banks Pro in 2009, with both men and women surfers competing. Photography and film eventually joined the surf culture, like famed local photographer, Micky McCarthy, who captured the world of surfing in Dare County during the latter twentieth century and the Surfalorus Film Festival happening each year at Jennette's Pier. Surfing has become an essential part of Outer Banks Culture; and its history continues to thrive.
Wright Memorial Bridge
Dare County's first bridge was built in 1928 across the Roanoke Sound connecting Roanoke Island and Nags Head. County commissioner Washington Baum sold bonds to pay for a portion of the project which was questioned by some residents. To save money, an old trestle from a bridge in the mainland logging town Buffalo City was used as the swing span portion. In 1954 a new bridge replaced the original structure and was later named for Baum. It was replaced by a high-rise bridge in 1994. It recently underwent a $21.3 million renovation.
The Wright Memorial Bridge between mainland Currituck County and Kitty Hawk opened for traffic at noon September 27, 1930. An eight-car procession made its way across the wooden span. More than one thousand cars crossed the bridge in the next ten days. The Outer Banks were now accessible via automobile. In 1966 a new concrete and steel span replaced the original wooden structure. A second span of the Wright Memorial Bridge opened for traffic in 1995.
The William B. Umstead Bridge, a concrete span that crosses Croatan Sound connecting Roanoke Island's north end with the fishing village of Mann's Harbor on the mainland was dedicated April 25, 1957. It's named for a North Carolina governor who appropriated money for the bridge but died in office shortly afterwards.
Following the dedication of the Lindsay C. Warren Bridge across the Alligator River May 10, 1962, motorists were able to drive across the state from Manteo to Murphy near the Tennessee border on U.S. Highway 64, the state's longest highway.
The Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet was named for a congressman from Washington, N.C. It took over 18 months to construct at a cost of $4 million. It officially opened to traffic November 20, 1963. After a useful lifespan, it needed to be replaced A new high-rise bridge named for Dare County native and former state senator Marc Basnight opened for traffic in February 2019.
The Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge, dubbed the midway to gateway bridge opened August 18, 2002. Andy Griffith and North Carolina governor Michael Easley led the procession followed by motorcycles, vintage vehicles, and a motorcade of local dignitaries. At five miles long, it is the longest bridge in the state.
Hatteras Island's Jug Handle Bridge was built on the west side of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge to provide a new route to and from Rodanthe, thus avoiding an area of NC12 that experienced ocean over wash known as the S-curves. It was completed July 28, 2022.
First African American Beach
During the 1920s and 1930s, the Outer Banks of North Carolina emerged as a
national coastal resort. New roads and bridges, along with the marketing efforts of local
boosters and recently arrived developers, encouraged tourists by the thousands to visit the area
and take in attractions such as the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, The
Lost Colony pageant on Roanoke Island, and the miles of uncrowded beaches.
But not everyone was welcome. For African Americans, Jim Crow
segregation was the order of the day. Frequently allowed only in domestic roles at resorts like
Nags Head or at separate events, they had to create their own places for recreation. Hargraves'
Beach was one of these locations. Located just south of Duck, it was established
in 1931 by Henry Hargraves, an entrepreneur from nearby Elizabeth City. This
development was part of a larger tract, running from the Atlantic Ocean to Currituck Sound,
originally purchased in 1929 with two other Elizabeth City residents, John Henry Bias and
Charles Jenkins. Realizing both opportunity and the need for relaxation and recreation among
African Americans, Hargraves turned his portion into an oceanfront resort.
Hargraves constructed a cottage for himself, along with two
bath houses, a seven-hundred-foot pier, and a dance pavilion along Currituck Sound on his
thirty-seven-acre resort. Based on the immediate popularity, he quickly began developing plans
to convert the existing pavilion into a fourteen-bedroom boarding house, construct a larger
dance hall, and add amusements. By the next year, a hotel (most likely, the converted pavilion)
and dining room specializing in seafood were in place and the Beach was recognized as becoming a
"choice watering hole." He also desired to build a community through the selling of lots to
African Americans.
According to tradition, the resort mysteriously burned in the
late 1930s. Some suspected arson. With more construction occurring in the early 1950s, the
resort's popularity continued, especially for dancing and music. Upon Hargraves' death in 1967,
the remaining land was sold to a corporation for further development.
The Bias and Jenkins families continued enjoying their
sections of the original purchase as private beaches for several decades. While the Jenkinses
began to sell their property as early as the 1960s, the Biases retained theirs until developing
the Bias Shores subdivision in the 1980s, just north of where Hargraves' Beach had been.
Conservation of the Outer Banks
In order to combat the problem of unemployment during the Great Depression,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced several programs that put Americans to work. They
were known collectively as the New Deal. The passage of the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933
created the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which provided federal grants to state and
local agencies to create jobs for distressed Americans through a variety of programs. Two
programs, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) had
camps on the Outer Banks and Roanoke Island. The CCC was comprised of unmarried young men
between the ages of 18 and 25. They performed a variety of tasks for which they were paid wages,
a large portion of which was sent home to their family. The CCC "boys," as they were known, were
housed in military-style camps and received meals in a designated mess hall, slept in open
barracks, and wore uniforms. CCC Camp Virginia Dare was located on Roanoke Island, and CCC Camp
Diamond Shoals was located in Buxton.
WPA Transient Camps consisted of men from a wide variety of
occupations and backgrounds who found themselves in need of a job. As a whole, they were older
than the CCC boys; some were single, others had families, but all tended to have more life
experience. While detractors insisted Transient Camps were the perfect hideout for those running
from the law, many of the men were honest and hardworking.
The men in Camp Kitty Hawk bunked at the Nags Head Casino,
until Camp Weaver was constructed near present-day Jennette's Pier. Camp Wirth was on Roanoke
Island's north end, and yet another camp was built at Rodanthe. A major project undertaken by
the CCC and WPA was sand fixation following the devastating Hurricane of 1933. Under the
direction of the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development, workers assembled
fences made of brush and sticks. These were installed along the beaches to collect blowing sand
and eventually create dunes. Afterwards, beach grass was planted along the newly constructed
dunes and along Virginia Dare Trail to keep sand from covering the road. Other public works
projects in which the CCC and WPA were involved in Dare County included repairs to and
beautification of schools, construction of sanitary privies, digging drainage canals to aid in
mosquito abatement, building Waterside Theater for the Lost Colony Outdoor Drama, repairing the
Dare County Courthouse, fixing school busses, improvements to the Fort Raleigh historic site,
and chopping wood and performing house repairs for widows in need.
After World War II broke out in 1939, the CCC shifted its
focus to national defense projects. When the United States entered the war and conscription
began, the numbers of young men available to work were drastically reduced. The program was
fully disbanded in 1942, but its legacy lives on in the handful of CCC-built structures that are
still standing throughout Dare County.
Sport Fishing
In the mid-twentieth century, charter fishermen became interested in a new and exciting type of fishing. The grapevine was buzzing about huge trophy fish available in Gulf Stream waters only 35 miles off Hatteras Island. Surplus communication and navigation technology from WWII made getting to deep sea fishing grounds a possibility. Captains outfitted commercial fishing boats to accommodate a clientele who would pay big money for a day of fighting and catching blue and white marlin, sailfish, tuna, and mahi-mahi. With hard work, innovation, and promotion, sport fishing pioneers put Hatteras Island on the map as the Blue Marlin Capital of the World. Nearby Oregon Inlet Fishing Center has its own competent fleet of captains and Carolina-flare sport fishing boats.
Sport fishing continues to be a vibrant industry in the area with the practice of catch-and-release reigning now. Sport fishing charter boats have become larger and more luxurious. High-stakes tournaments bring a new level of competition to a sport with humble beginnings.
OBX Restaurants
In the early days of tourism on the Outer Banks tourists were mainly fed by the
boarding houses and hotels. In 1937, Sambo Tillet opened a restaurant at Whalebone Junction in Nags Head
called Sambo's. It wasn't primarily to feed tourists though, his restaurant fed breakfast and
evening beers to the local fishermen who docked their boats nearby. Eventually his son joined
him in the business and the restaurant became Sam & Omies, and it is still a staple in Nags Head
today.
Not long after Sam & Omies, came Owens Restaurant just a short
walking distance away. Owens, opened in 1946, by Bob and Clara Owens, was the first and longest
running family-owned restaurant on the Outer Banks. It remained in the family for over 70 years
before it sold in 2023, and eventually closed its doors. While we don't have an exact year that
it opened, the general consensus from locals is that Scottie's Restaurant at the Atlantic View
Hotel was the first restaurant on Hatteras Island. The hotel opened in 1928 and it is confirmed
the restaurant was there in the early 1950s.
There are so many great restaurants on the Outer Banks to
choose from, new and old, but if you would like to have a bite with a bit of nostalgia you can
try one of the many restaurants that have been around for decades. Just to name a few are The
Blue Point in Duck, Darrell's Restaurant in Manteo, Jolly Roger Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills,
The Froggy Dog in Avon, Gingerbread House Bakery in Frisco, The Black Pelican in Kitty Hawk, and
Diamond Shoals Restaurant in Buxton.
OBX Piers
In July 1939, Jennette's Pier opened to the public. It was a 754' long 16' wide wooden pier with a 28' wide platform at the end. Warren Jennette first thought of building a pier after watching locals fish from the wreckage of the Paraguay, a tanker that was sticking out of the water in Kill Devil Hills. After he took a trip with his son to visit the East Coast's first fishing pier, built in 1923 in Kure Beach, the idea was firm and he set to work. The wooden pier stayed in the Jennette family until 2002 when it was sold to the North Carolina Aquarium Society. The original pier, which was drastically shorter thanks to years of storms, floating shipwrecks, and Hurricane Isabel, was torn down and replaced with a new concrete pier.
Shortly after Jennette's Pier opened, Nags Head Fishing Pier was built in 1947. Gaston Mann opened the pier and a recreation center next door. At almost 750' the Nags Head Pier is one of the longest wooden piers in NC. Kitty Hawk Pier was built next in 1953. It had many owners over the years but none had a story as wild as oil tycoon Walter Davis. Davis bought the pier because it didn't have enough Orange Crush in stock and after a decade of owning the pier he sold it and gave all the profits to employees of the pier. The next pier built was the Seaport Fishing Pier, but you would know it today as the Outer Banks Fishing Pier. Garry Oliver changed the name after he bought it in his early 1920s and it has been run by Garry and wife Mary since 1969. Now their son Ryan also runs the pier and one of the most popular restaurants on the Outer Banks, Fish Heads.
Once the 1960s came, so did 4 new Outer Banks Piers. The Hatteras Island Pier in 1960, later renamed the Rodanthe Pier. The Frisco Pier was built in 1962 but demolished in 2008. Avalon Pier in Kill Devil Hills was also built in 1962, and Avon Pier built last in 1964. The last pier was opened in 2021, the Bonner Bridge Pier, it is made of the remnants of the old Bonner Bridge. Pier fishing has become an Outer Banks tradition and generation after generation of young anglers are born on these piers. One last pier to mention would be the US Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility Pier. Though it is not a fishing pier, the 1840' concrete pier built in 1977 has records for the longest continual ocean measurements and the data is used for scientific research across the globe.
Jennette's Pier, located at 7223 S Va Dare Trl Nags Head, NC 27959, is a Dare County A250
Passport Program location.
The sign is located in a kiosk on the wall of the pier house before you enter the doors.
British War Graves Cemetery
The December 1941 attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii thrust the United
States unexpectedly into the hostilities of world conflict. Germany, Japan's major ally, soon declared
war on the United States, too. The declaration also led to the development by the German Navy of
a plan to take advantage of inadequate American war preparations and strike at the vulnerable,
merchant-rich sea lanes just off the Atlantic coast. Code-named Operation Paukenschlag or
Operation Drumbeat, it called for a swift, decisive submarine assault on the American eastern
seaboard. Only five submarines were initially assigned to the operation, but no one imagined the
success that these few U-boats would achieve.
During the first six months of 1942, the U-boats inflicted
considerable damage on coastal shipping. Among the victims of this so-called "Atlantic Turkey
Shoot" was the San Delfino, an armed British tanker carrying airplane fuel. She was sunk by the
German Submarine, U-203, on April 9, 1942 just off the shoreline of Pea Island (part of northern
Hatteras Island). A body identified as Fourth Engineer Officer Michael Cairns of the Royal
Merchant Navy soon washed up on Hatteras beach, where he was buried by locals. Early the next
month, on May 11, 1942, the HMS Bedfordshire, a trawler converted for anti-submarine usage, was
also torpedoed off the Outer Banks. Four bodies from it washed ashore on Ocracoke Island where
they were buried. An unknown sailor washed up on Hatteras Island and is believed to have been
part of the Bedfordshire crew. He was buried beside Cairns, who had been interred two weeks
earlier.
Together these two graves lie in a small cemetery located
within Cape Hatteras National Seashore at the southern end of Hatteras Island just past the
Buxton Woods picnic area on Lighthouse Road. Along with the larger gravesite on Ocracoke, they
are designated as British territory despite being located in North Carolina. Every year on the
Thursday and Friday closest to the anniversary of the HMS Bedfordshire 's May sinking, members
of the National Park Service, United States Coast Guard, and British Royal Navy join visitors
and local citizens to honor not only the service of the men buried in the cemeteries, but also
the sixty-three foreign sailors who perished while protecting our coast.
Elizabethan Gardens
In 1951, the Garden Club of North Carolina voted to adopt a new project on Roanoke
Island: building a garden to serve as a memorial to the 1587 Lost Colony of Roanoke.
The original plan was to create a 2-acre garden that would be
representative of what the colonists might have created had their attempt at permanent
settlement been successful. After the garden club was gifted a collection of European garden
statuary from the Honorable John Hay Whitney, Ambassador to The Court of St James, these plans
began to shift. With a newly acquired Italian fountain and pool, wellhead, sundial, birdbaths,
stone steps, and several benches, the idea of a modest sixteenth century garden gave way to an
elaborate Elizabethan Pleasure Garden.
The garden club hired Webel and Innocenti to create the plans,
E.W. Reinecke to build the gardens, and Albert Quinton Bell as the nurseryman and supervisor.
After the land had been cleared and the statuaries put in place, plants from all over the world
began arriving as gifts and donations, and additional plants were purchased from nurseries. On
August 18, 1960, on the 373rd anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare, the Elizabethan Gardens
formally opened.
The Elizabethan Gardens have continued to grow over the last
65 years, adding many features of historical significance to complement the early garden
statuaries, including roses from Windsor Castle gifted on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, herbs
sent by Princess Anne after her visit to the gardens in 1984, iron gates that once hung at the
French Embassy in Washington DC, a gatehouse based on a sixteenth-century orangery, and an 1859
Virginia Dare sculpture that survived both a shipwreck and a fire before making its way to
Roanoke Island. Ever dedicated to historical accuracy, the Elizabethan Gardens constructed a
thatched roof gazebo using sixteenth century techniques, with reed sent all the way from
Norfolk, England, and had the coats-of-arms of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh produced
by the College of Arms in London, England.
Along with the multitude of historic furniture, fixtures and
features, the garden currently boasts over 500 different species of plants. Often considered one
of the largest garden club projects to be completed in the United States, the Elizabethan
Gardens on Roanoke Island continue to delight guests, and honor, as the plaque at the entrance
gate reads: "the valiant men and women who founded the first English Colony in America."
Pirate's Jamboree
In 1955, the Dare Coast "Pirate's Jamboree" was launched to jump-start the tourist
season on the Outer Banks. Originally a three-day event that began in late April, popularity
soon extended the festivities to a week, and eventually four weeks for the extravagant 1963
"Jamborama." Events were held up and down the Dare Coast. The Jamboree typically kicked off on
Hatteras Island on Friday, with Saturday events taking place in the Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills
and Nags Head area, and Sunday events happening on Roanoke Island. Fishing contests, lifesaving
demonstrations, beach buggy races, parades, dances, a beard-growing contest, costume contests,
boat races, fish fries, mock pirate battles and landings, frog jumping contests, and
water-skiing demonstrations entertained locals and visitors alike.
Each year the Jamboree's highlight was the Grand Pirate's
Ball, usually held at the Casino in Nags Head, where the Pirate King and Queen were crowned. In
the early years, the Pirate Queen was chosen by way of a beauty pageant, and she went on to
serve as Miss Dare County. The man who grew the thickest, most pirate-like beard was chosen as
King.
The Dare Coast Pirate's Jamboree ended as a victim of its own
success. The festival's decade-long run came to an end after 1964 because of its popularity and
a massive turn-out where guests partook in the piratical atmosphere of rowdiness and revelry
with few law enforcement officials to monitor them. It didn't help that the mock pirate battle
of 1963 set fire to the marsh across from the Manteo waterfront. Fearing for the safety of its
citizens and surroundings, Dare County chose to terminate the popular event.
Flat Top Cottages
Frank Stick developed the land that is now Southern Shores, and supervised the
platting of lots,
the installation of roads, and the design and building of the first flat top cottages. These now
quaint architectural houses were cement block construction, with wide overhanging soffits,
propped up shutters, and flat tar and gravel roofs. Around 100 Flat Tops were constructed in the
1950s and 1960s and around 23 remain today.
The home at 13 Skyline was constructed as a single-family
dwelling in 1951 and is considered
to be the "first cottage on the dune". Dr. John and Norma Tietjen purchased the property in 1971
and kept it as their summer home until 2007 when they gifted it to the Outer Banks Community
Foundation. It was then converted into an office for the OBCF for the next 16 years until the
Town of Southern Shores purchased it in 2023. The Town now leases the property to the Southern
Shores Civic Associate and the Chicahauk Property Owners Association as their home office.
A Southern Shores Flat-top, located at 13 Skyline Rd. Southern Shores, NC 27949, is a Dare
County A250 Passport Program location.
The sign is located in a window of the flattop.
Ash Wednesday Storm
Residents of the Outer Banks awoke to heavy surf, flooded streets, and gale force
winds the
morning of March 7, 1962. Houses were swept into the sea, roads washed away, and a new inlet was
cut severing Hatteras Island. It was a time before satellite television feeds, cell phones, and
social networking sites, so word of the storm spread very slowly. The powerful nor'easter that
was coined the ‘Ash Wednesday Storm' by photographer Aycock Brown who captured its aftermath,
struck the entire coast of North Carolina.
Once rescue operations were completed and the damage was
surveyed, the aftermath was staggering. The storm's devastation covered more than 500 miles of
shoreline and wiped out approximately 1,800 dwellings in the Outer Banks alone at an estimated
cost of $234 million in losses. Many Bankers who survived it remember it as a horrifying
experience. On the northern Dare County beaches, over 60 buildings were destroyed and 1,300 were
seriously damaged. At least 25% of buildings and homes within the county were visibly damaged.
All of the area's piers had been damaged, with two (Jennette's Pier and the Seaport Pier)
completely destroyed. Additionally, a new inlet had been cut between Avon and Buxton by ocean
over wash. Miraculously, no Dare County residents were killed during the storm; and over 60
years later, the Ash Wednesday Storm is still remembered by many as the region's most
significant disaster of the twentieth century.
Jockey's Ridge State Park
Famous for being the tallest active dune on the east coast, Jockey's Ridge State Park offers a unique outdoor experience for all to enjoy. Visitors from all over gravitate to the park to soak in breathtaking views from the ridge and along our soundside shoreline. The park's naturally formed dunes, extending back close to 4,000 years have stood the test of time. Jockey's Ridge is the last remaining portion of an 80-mile dune system that once stretched from the Outer Banks to False Cape, Virginia. Impact from storm erosion, growth of vegetation, and development caused the loss of the system.
Before Jockey's Ridge was a state park, development threatened the destruction and loss of the dunes. Carolista Baum, Jockey's Rigde's legendary figure led the way for raising awareness. With the help of local volunteers, elected officials, and support by associated agencies the first parcels of land were purchased for protection. In 1975 Jockey's Ridge was officially established as a state park. Fifty years later over 526 acres are being protected including Run Hill State Natural Area.
Due to ongoing shifting sand to the south, action must be taken to keep the park within its own boundary. Thousands of cubic yards of sand have been relocated by dump trucks from the dune's southernmost slope to the north end of the park. Park staff work with volunteers to stabilize vulnerable areas by installing sand fencing. A series of retaining walls made of granite boulders has been installed along the shoreline to manage erosion. This also helps with promoting the growth and protection of marsh habitat.
Maritime shrub and forested areas wrap around the park's outer parameter, brackish/salt marsh run along the soundside shoreline, and pine forests reach to the north. Over 430 different species of plants have been identified (live oaks, wax myrtles, yaupon holly, American beachgrass, etc.). Birdwatchers may observe more than 160 species of bird throughout the year (coastal birds, migratory waterfowl, songbirds, birds of prey, etc.). These habitats also support 38 species of amphibian and reptile (eastern hognose snake, six-lined racerunner, green treefrog, etc.) along with a mammal count of 16 (coyotes, red/grey fox, white-tailed deer, bobcat, etc.). Keep an eye out for tracks left behind.
Take a hike along the Tracks in the Sand Trail, Soundside Loop Nature Trail, or choose your own path along the big dunes and shoreline. The ridge marks the end of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Aquatic activities can be found along the shoreline. Take flight and hang glide or relax in the shade and picnic. Sunset viewing is a must!
Interpretive and educational experiences are offered throughout the year, including family-oriented events and activities. Join staff on an informative hike, paddle the sound, explore the shoreline, or attend an indoor presentation. The visitor center's exhibit area covers all things Jockey's Ridge.
Jockey's Ridge State Park, located at 300 W Carolista Dr. Nags Head, NC 27959, is a Dare
County A250 Passport Program location.
The sign is located in a window next to the front doors of the visitor center.
400th Anniversary of the Roanoke Voyages
At Roanoke Island Festival Park, visitors can engage in the world of 16th century England and the first English colonists in America. The Elizabeth II tells the story of how the first English colony got to the New World, and the Settlement Site allows visitors to imagine what it would be like to establish a new community. American Indian Town offers an immersive look into Coastal Algonquian culture, and The Roanoke Adventure Museum offers a self-guided, interactive journey through over 400 years of Outer Banks history. The living history experience explores how the English settlers affected the cultures, communities, towns and families already living in the Outer Banks with their arrival.
Built in 1983 as part of a celebration commemorating the Roanoke Voyages 400th Anniversary, the Elizabeth II is a full-scale, working representation of the Elizabeth, one in a fleet of seven ships to arrive off the coast of what is now called North Carolina in the Spring of 1585, establishing the first colonial settlement in the area that had been discovered during a previous exploratory expedition.
The Roanoke Voyages set sail at the direction of Sir Walter Raleigh, and this fleet was under the command of Sir Richard Grenville. Shortly after arriving in the New World, the settlers built a fort and several houses on Roanoke Island. This group did not include women or families, likely consisting of military men and tradesmen along with various "gentlemen." In August, Grenville and most of his fleet, including the Elizabeth returned home leaving behind Ralph Lane as governor of the settlement.
During the time that followed, Governor Lane and his men spent time exploring the lands and waters around them. A series of conflicts between the English settlers and local Native American tribes caused relationships to become strained. In the winter of 1585, Governor Lane led a preemptive strike on the Roanoke people, resulting in the gruesome death of their leader, King Wingina.
By late May of 1586, the English no longer had the support of the locals and could no longer obtain food from the communities around them. Though Manteo's people, the Croatoan, continued trading, English crops were not ready for harvest, and the fish and game were in short supply. In June of 1586, Sir Francis Drake stopped to check on the colonists and offer much needed supplies. Weather conditions deteriorated preventing Drake's ships from lingering off the coast. In the end, all but three settlers would board Drake's fleet to return to England leaving the fort on Roanoke Island abandoned.
The Roanoke Voyages were not successful, but the lessons learned by the original settlers helped to inform others who would arrive later, including the successful settlement founded at Jamestown in 1607.
This project was produced with assistance from the America 250 North Carolina initiative, administered by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the State of North Carolina.
Special thanks go out to Tammy Woodward of the Outer Banks History Center, Brian Edwards of College of the Albemarle, Meaghan Beasley of Dare County Libraries, Ladd Bayliss of Outer Banks Conservationists, Austin Paul of Jockey's Ridge State Park, Kristen Stilson of Dare County GIS, Anna Davis of Roanoke Island Festival Park, Olivia Pratt of Roanoke Island Festival Park, Cari Boyce of Roanoke Island Festival Park, Cliff Ogburn and Rob Neilson of the Town of Southern Shores, Nancy Gray of Wanchese, Katie Daugherty of the Outer Banks History Center, Sarah Downing of State Archives of North Carolina, Adonis Osekre of the National Park Service, Leroy Trimbath of Friends of the Outer Banks History Center, Ken Daidone of the Outer Banks Repeater Association, Mike Zatarga of the National Park Service, and everyone on the Dare A250 Committee.
To learn more about America's 250th Birthday Celebrations in Dare County or the Dare County A250 Passport Program visit DareA250.org
This is not and does not intend to be a complete history of historical events in Dare County.
This information is NOT to be construed or used as a "legal description." Map information is believed to be accurate, but accuracy is not guaranteed.
If any questions about the map please contact Kristen Stilson @ [email protected]
