Travel & Vacation Guide, North Carolina

by Jim Kerr

Resort amenities and primitive charm lure vacationers to this fabled stretch of Atlantic coastline steeped in mystery and history

Through gnarled oak forests and across windswept, sandy dunes, an aura of mystery and intrigue permeates the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where the ghosts of vanished colonists and beheaded pirates still linger.

For more than 400 years, the history and events surrounding the dune-fringed and bow-shaped barrier islands have captured the imagination of visitors, from the first English settlers who searched in vain for their “Lost Colony” to the six million people who come here annually seeking fun and adventure.

The lighthouse studded Outer Banks stretch 130 miles from the Virginia border at Currituck National Wildlife Refuge south to historic Ocracoke Island. Only two bridges connect these barrier islands with the mainland: Highway 158, which leads to the nearest commercial airport at Norfolk, Virginia, and Highway 64, which links the Dare County seat of Manteo on Roanoke Island with the rest of North Carolina to the west. Toll ferry service also carries cars and passengers from Ocracoke Island to the North Carolina mainland, and a free car and passenger ferry crosses the narrow expanse between Ocracoke and Hatteras Island to the north.

It’s possible to visit the Outer Banks, plant yourself in a rented beach house, wander the shoreline, and go home with nothing more than a tan and a few fresh seafood dinners under your belt. But you would miss the wide range of reasons why people have been coming here for centuries in pursuit of a new life, new inventions, and new adventure. And you wouldn’t get the answers to any of the mysteries that make the Outer Banks a unique and fascinating place to visit.

When Spanish explorers leaked information to the English about what a fine place this was, Sir Walter Raleigh sent a ship full of colonists led by John White to set up digs on Roanoke Island. White’s daughter, Eleanor Dare, gave birth to little Virginia on August 18, 1587, the first English child born in the New World. But when White returned from a supply mission to England after a three-year delay, he found Fort Raleigh abandoned and the entire colony gone without a trace, save for the word “Croatan” (the local Indian tribe) carved on a tree. The fate of the 116 men, women, and children, including Virginia Dare, remains a mystery to this day. The story is re-enacted every summer from June 2 through August 25 when a 62-year-old play, “The Lost Colony,” is performed at the Waterside Theater near Manteo.

The small town, with a population just over 1,000, is the site of Roanoke Island Festival Park, where attractions include a hands-on museum, outdoor pavilion with free concerts and plays, and the Elizabeth II, a replica of the ship that brought the first colonists here. Kids and adults can jump aboard for tales of treacherous voyages told by volunteers playing mariners and soldiers. Nearby is the Elizabethan Gardens, with thousands of blooming flowers and shrubs, and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, where a museum and interpretive talks by park rangers are featured.

Manteo provides a friendly, historical backdrop to the Outer Banks, with a number of lodges and bed-and-breakfast houses. The town is a delightful mix of early 20th century architecture, shops, and a picturesque waterfront.

Less gentle on the mind is the legend of Blackbeard, the notorious Caribbean and Carolina coast buccaneer. He appeared on the scene in 1718 with a price on his head that led the Royal Navy to trap him off the south end of Ocracoke Island. Unable to make a night-time escape across the dangerous Diamond Shoals, Blackbeard was captured and summarily beheaded. It was only a prelude to other disasters on these reefs and shoals. More than 2,000 vessels have gone down, including the Civil War ironclad Monitor and cargo ships sunk by German submarines in World War II.

Watching seabirds dive and soar above the dunes of Jockey’s Ridge State Park makes it clear why the Wright Brothers came here to perform the most monumental event in Outer Banks history. On December 17, 1903, on the dunes of Kill Devil Hill, they flew the first heavier-than-air, power-driven airplane on a sustained and controlled flight. The Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kill Devil Hill, operated by the National Park Service, has a replica of the Wright Flyer, and guides give a dramatic narration of that first flight, which took place right outside the door. The same aerodynamic principles are used today by hang-gliders on Jockey’s Ridge, where soft, sandy slopes climb to 149 feet.

Many hotels, miniature golf courses, and sport fishing operators line a strip of Highway 12 from Nags Head north to Kitty Hawk. Older, less expensive rental bungalows in Nags Head compete with newer developments in Duck and Corolla to the north.

In contrast to these residential and commercial zones, the north and south ends of the Outer Banks are devoted to preserves, woods, and refuges. And it is here, in the marshes along Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic beaches, where nature’s mysteries are profoundly felt. Wild horses roam in the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge at the far northern end, which is accessible only by foot and four-wheel-drive vehicle. The road ends at Corolla, where the Currituck Beach Lighthouse operates as a museum. At the south end, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore offers picnicking and camping on public beaches that are still uninhabited except by terns, gulls, and crabs. Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, across the highway on the sound, hosts 265 species of birds, including snow geese, egrets, herons, and ducks.

Even with nature’s great hold over this scene, however, it was a manmade object that sparked the most intense national interest here on Hatteras during the summer of 1999. Built in 1870, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest and probably best known lighthouse in America, but eroding storms and waves undermined it for decades, threatening to topple it into the sea. In July, 1999, the landmark was cut from its base and rolled to safer ground one-half mile inland.

Several other lighthouses keep a vigil, but on today’s Outer Banks those beams beckon as well as warn. And in the night sky, the moon and a million stars still cast a magical spell over forests, marshes, and waters that hold a special place in American legend.

For information, contact Dare County Tourist Bureau (TravelAmerica Magazine), P.O. Box 399, Manteo, NC 27954; (800) 446-6262; www.outer-banks.com/visitor-info.