And beyond this we saw the open Countrey rising in height above the sandie shore with many faire fields and plains … as pleasant and delectable to behold, as is possible to imagine.
Report of
Giovanni da Verrazano
to King Francis I of France,
July 8, 1524
In 1961, Governor Terry Sanford made a plea to the citizens of North Carolina to raise money to save the USS North Carolina, the world’s first modern battleship, from the scrap heap. As a ten-year-old fourth-grader, I took pride in joining thousands of other schoolchildren all over the state in contributing our nickels and dimes to help bring the great battle wagon to its permanent home on the North Carolina coast at Wilmington.
I well recall the sense of pride and awe that overwhelmed me when I first visited the North Carolina after she was dedicated as a war memorial in 1962. Little did I know that, some three decades later, I would be appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to the commission which oversees the operation and maintenance of the majestic ship.
It is with the same sense of pride and awe that I regard the North Carolina coast, the land from whence my grandparents, their parents, and their grandparents came. Indeed, North Carolinians from Manteo to Murphy and people the world over have for centuries been awed by and proud of the North Carolina coast—a land of incomparable natural beauty and great historic significance.
Despite the lavish praise conferred upon the area by the great European explorers of the sixteenth century, the North Carolina coast remained the Rip Van Winkle of the Atlantic seaboard in terms of development until the second half of the twentieth century. During the intervening three and a half centuries, the other Atlantic states witnessed the birth and growth of the great American cities, ports, and resorts along their shores, while North Carolina, because of its unique geography, saw its beautiful barrier islands preserved in their natural state. Treacherous offshore shoals, shallow sounds, and hundreds of nooks and crannies along the irregular North Carolina coast won it dubious acclaim as a pirate haven and a graveyard for ships.
But the centuries of isolation and relative obscurity have now proved to be a blessing. Whereas much of the Atlantic coastline displays the telltale signs of rampant, unplanned development, the North Carolina coast has been largely spared the engineering nightmares evident on the coast of the states to the north and south.
Millions of people travel to coastal North Carolina annually to enjoy the land which has enchanted visitors since the early European explorers. Much of the attraction lies with the unspoiled conditions. Tourists from throughout the United States and from distant parts of the globe revel in the miles of majestic, uncrowded strand, the vast public parks and wildlife refuges, the multitude of family-oriented resorts, and the historic cities and towns, all of which seem to exist in harmony with the natural forces at work on the slender barrier islands and along the sounds, creeks, and other estuaries.
North Carolina possesses the sixth-largest coastline in the United States, following only Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, and California. Its 301-mile-long coast comprises more than a fourth of the total coast of the original thirteen English colonies. Accordingly, the vast size of the North Carolina coast has necessitated the publication of two volumes of tours.
This volume contains thirteen tours of the lower coast—tours of the barrier islands lying south of Ocracoke Inlet and the portion of the mainland south of the Neuse River.
In July 1524, the famed Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazano became the first European to explore the coast of North Carolina when he came ashore somewhere between Masonboro Island and Bogue Banks. His narrative on the lower North Carolina coast is the earliest known description of the shores of what is now the United States.
It is not surprising, then, that the lower North Carolina coast is steeped in history and legend. Over the past fifteen years, I have traveled extensively over the backroads of this unique region to collect stories and bring coastal history to life.
Too often, coastal visitors in a hurry to reach the beach resorts speed by fascinating towns, historic sites, and natural areas without understanding their significance, without partaking of their beauty and charm, and without sampling their briny flavor. And even at the beach resorts, there are intriguing backroads with stories that have either been neglected by historians or forgotten as the region has grown more sophisticated.
As you travel the backroads on these tours, please remember that change is a watchword along the coast. While I have taken great care to make the information presented herein as accurate as possible, road numbers change, roads and bridges are rerouted, and historic buildings and other landmarks vanish almost overnight.
This book and its companion volume on the upper coast are not meant to be exhaustive histories of the North Carolina coast. Nor have they been written to provide details on lodging, dining, and shopping facilities. Such information changes constantly and is available from the sources listed in the appendix. Rather, the purpose of these volumes is to introduce the coastal visitor—whether armchair or automobile—to the places, the people, and the events that have indeed made the North Carolina coast “as pleasant and delectable to behold, as is possible to imagine.”