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The Croatans were
the only Native Americans to live year round on a barrier island. Other
tribes lived on the mainland and only visited the barrier islands to
hunt and fish, but the Croatans, supported by the bounty of the sea
and sound and the protection of wooded areas, found safe haven on Hatteras
Island. The Algonquins are believed to have been on the Outer Banks
since around 500 A.D.
Native American artifacts are commonly found on Hatteras Island today,
especially in Buxton and Frisco. Archaeologists have pinpointed the
location of an enormous shell midden (shell repository and trash heap)
at Kings Point (now Brigand’s Bay) in Frisco, proof that the native
population was large and that they had a healthy diet of oysters and
clams. Archaeologists now believe that the natives occupied a huge area
starting at about the beginning of the Buxton line and ending south
of present-day Frisco. Much of this area was part of Buxton Woods. The
land under the Cape Hatteras School in Buxton is regarded as sacred
by Native Americans.
Other than archaeological remnants, it is only through the eyes of European
explorers that we know much about the Native Americans who inhabited
the Outer Banks. In 1524 Florentine explorer Giovanni Da Verrazzano,
sailing for France, anchored offshore somewhere between Cape Lookout
and Cape Hatteras and had a friendly encounter with the native Bankers.
All reports of the Native Americans on the island were that they were
friendly to European explorers.
The Spanish explored much of this coast before the English, and their
maps referred to Cape Hatteras as Cape St. John. English explorers mapped
and charted the islands later, and a 1585 English map refers to the
island as Croatan Island. John White’s map of 1585 first names
the cape as “Hattorask.”
John White and 116 colonists landed on “Hattorask” on June
22, 1587, and they encountered the friendly natives prior to moving
on to Roanoke Island, where they set up a colony. When John White came
back to his Roanoke Island colony in 1590 after three years of being
away in England, the 116 colonists were gone, the only connection to
their whereabouts were the letters “CRO” and “CROATAN”
carved into a tree. White assumed this meant the missing colonists had
gone to Hatteras to live with the Croatan tribe, but he was never able
to go there to find out for himself. We may never know what happened
to the “Lost Colonists,” but there are some who believe
that they did indeed go to Hatteras Island to seek help from the kind
natives. Legends of blue-eyed, light-skinned Indians living on the island
suggest a mingling of Native American and European genes. And in the
1990s, an archaeologist found a 16th-century English signet ring during
a dig in Buxton.
European settlers began making their way to Hatteras Island in the 1700s.
These were primarily people of English descent moving to the island
from colonies on the Virginia and North Carolina mainland. It appears
that Kinnakeet, now Avon, was the first area to be colonized. The first
land grant on the island was at Kinnakeet in 1711.
In the colonial period the island was part of Hyde County and was collectively
called the Hatteras Sand Banks. The banks were divided into three sections:
Cape Hatteras Banks (from old Hatteras Inlet on what is now Ocracoke
Island to the cape); Kinnakeet Banks (from the cape to Chicamacomico
Banks); and Chicamacomico Banks (through Chickinacommock, or New Inlet,
on Pea Island). At this time the banks were heavily forested with live
oak and Atlantic white cedar, locally called juniper.
The early settlers only sparsely populated the island. They lived a
subsistence lifestyle, gardening, fishing, hunting and raising livestock
to provide food for the table. Windmills used for grinding corn bought
on the mainland were spotted at Kinnakeet as early as 1723. The islanders
also probably did a lot of beach combing. The major shipping routes
between Europe, the Caribbean and the New World ran right past Hatteras
Island on the Gulf Stream and Labrador Current. Cargo lost overboard
or ships wrecked on the island’s dangerous shoals would wash up
as bounty for the Bankers.
The 1700s were hard on the Croatan Indians, by then called the Hatteras
Indians by the new settlers. The Hatteras Indians were attacked by warring
tribes, the Corees and the Machapunga, in 1714, and in addition they
had no defenses against the Europeans’ diseases of smallpox and
tuberculosis. The native Outer Bankers were reduced to poverty and sickness,
and by 1788, the natives had all but disappeared.
By the end of the Revolutionary War, which did not bring much action
to Hatteras, settlement was growing on the island, but still the population
was sparse. More people were moving over from the mainland, and some
new residents were shipwreck victims who decided to stay on the island.
Longtime island names like Austin, Oden, Gray, Etheridge, Willis, O’Neal
and Scarborough all reportedly owe their Hatteras heritage to shipwrecks.
The residents lived on the soundside of the island, in small villages
oriented toward the mainland and away from the harshness of the ocean,
surrounded by healthy stands of trees that protected them from the elements.
The Bankers were farmers, mariners and livestockmen. They fished for
their own sustenance, but commercial fishing wasn’t a viable trade
at the time. They also cut trees and exported them for use in building
houses and ships.
Unfortunately, the combination of logging and allowing livestock to
run freely all over the island destroyed much of the island’s
natural vegetation, leaving great bare spots of sand. The sand blew
freely in the constant winds and, at Kinnakeet, began to form great
migrating sand dunes that could be quite destructive to property and
any remaining plants.
In the late 1700s shipwrecks were common off the North Carolina coast,
particularly at Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras. Two strong ocean currents,
the cold Labrador Current and the warm Gulf Stream, collide near Cape
Hatteras, and sail-power vessels had to draw close to the Outer Banks
to hitch a ride on either of these currents. This should not have been
a problem except that the winds and storms so common to the Outer Banks
often drove the ships ashore or landed them on shoals. Plus Hatteras
Island was so flat with no visible landmarks that ships often didn’t
realize where they were until they were running aground on its shoals.
So many shipwrecks occurred off the Outer Banks that salvaging the beach
for loot was a viable occupation. Eventually, to keep order among salvagers,
wreck districts were established to keep track of the numbers of wrecks,
and vendue masters were hired to handle the sale of salvageable goods.
In 1773 a teenager named Alexander Hamilton was a passenger on a ship
that nearly sank off Cape Hatteras, and he experienced first hand the
danger of the cape’s dreaded Diamond Shoals. Seventeen years later,
when Hamilton was the second-ranking member of George Washington’s
cabinet, he still heard terrifying tales of shipwrecks at Cape Hatteras.
In 1789 Hamilton, who is reputedly the one who coined the moniker “Graveyard
of the Atlantic,” urged Congress to investigate the possibility
of establishing a lighthouse on the Hatteras Sand Banks. The lighthouse
wasn’t authorized until 1794, and it wasn’t constructed
until 1802. Mariners were not impressed with the lighthouse, which they
said was not sufficiently bright or reliable.
In 1812 shipwreck victim Sarah Kollock Harris found herself on Kinnakeet
Banks in contact with the native residents. Harris, the wife of a North
Carolina judge, had this to say about the Hatteras islanders: “The
wretches on this island are a disgrace to humanity. I could not have
believed that so much depravity was in human beings. Exulting in the
calamity which has thrown us among them, though pretending to sympathize
in our distress, they would steal the wet clothes which we took from
our backs and hung out to dry, and everything belonging to us which
they could lay their hands on.” Let’s hope she just ran
into a few bad seeds.
In an 1846 hurricane, a new inlet opened on Hatteras Island, which caused
Hatteras Island to separate from Ocracoke Island. Another inlet was
also formed to the north — Oregon Inlet, which separated Pea Island
from Bodie Island.
Hatteras Inlet brought prosperity to Hatteras Village and doom to Portsmouth
and Ocracoke. The new inlet was deep and navigable, and the steady stream
of maritime traffic that had always used tricky and unreliable Ocracoke
Inlet began to use Hatteras Inlet instead. This brought new work for
the people in Hatteras Village as pilots, mariners and boat builders.
Island residents also found work in exporting lumber. They cut trees
to build boats and houses and to sell. Before the Civil War, live oak
was in demand for building Yankee Clippers.
The 1850 census provides a clue as to how many people were living on
the Hatteras Sand Banks: Buxton - Cape Hatteras: 661 people, 84 of them
slaves; Kinnakeet: 318 people; Chicamacomico: 206 people. This meant
almost half the population lived around Buxton, west of the cape. There
were two new lighthouses on the Outer Banks, a replacement for the old
one at Cape Hatteras and a new one south of Oregon Inlet. At this time,
present-day Rodanthe and Waves were known as Chicamacomico, Salvo was
Clarks, north of Avon were Little Kinnakeet and Scarborotown, Avon was
Big Kinnakeet, Buxton was The Cape, Frisco was Trent and Hatteras was
Hatteras.
Hatteras Island played a large role in the early Civil War. Both the
North and the South recognized that whoever controlled Hatteras Inlet
would control the sounds, rivers and seaports of North Carolina. In
1861, Confederate troops quickly erected two forts to protect Hatteras
Inlet, the only North Carolina passage that could admit large, ocean-going
vessels. Forts Hatteras and Clark, on the eastern bank of the inlet,
were completed in July of 1861. Only a month later, Federal forces under
General Benjamin Butler appeared and bombarded the forts. In only one
day of fighting, the Federal forces had control of both.
The Union forces pillaged the island, taking livestock, produce and
whatever they could from the islanders to stock the forts. Many islanders
fled to the mainland, but others stayed behind. To keep the Federals
off their backs, really just for ease of living rather than support
of any cause, 111 islanders claimed loyalty to the Union. Because of
their loyalty to Union, North Carolina cut off all supplies and trade
between Hatteras Island. But the islanders’ weren’t starving.
Many of them found jobs working for the Union soldiers.
The visiting soldiers marveled at the native Outer Bankers. “The
islanders mingle little with the outside world. Apparently indifferent
to this outside sphere, they constitute a world within themselves,”
wrote one. Another wrote: “Most of them were born here, never
saw any other locality and all are happy. There are women here who have
never wore shoes. The people seldom see money, indeed they have no use
for it.”
After the Civil War, Hatteras Village, because of its deep inlet, grew
to be the second leading port in North Carolina, next to Wilmington.
The inlet served the inland communities of New Bern, Washington, Edenton,
Elizabeth City and Plymouth. It was a prosperous time that sparked the
building of many of the historic homes in Hatteras Village. Residents
of the other villages sailed to Hatteras Village for their supplies.
In 1870, Dare County was formed and included Hatteras Island, which
had previously been a part of Hyde County.
Despite the lighthouses to help keep ships on course, wrecks were still
happening in alarming numbers off the Outer Banks. In 1874, the first
seven Life-saving Stations were built along the N.C. coast, including
one at Chicamacomico and one at Little Kinnakeet. That same year, a
U.S. Weather Station was also established at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
Later, new Life-saving Stations were establsihed at Oregon Inlet, Pea
Island, New Inlet, Gull Shoal, Big Kinnakeet, Cape Hatteras, Creed’s
Hill and Durants (Hatteras Village). The Life-saving Stations, in addition
to lighthouses, weather stations and post offices, provided jobs with
steady pay, and the islanders scrambled to get them. The Life-saving
Stations got the island’s first telephones in 1885.
Commercial fishing was also becoming a profitable occupation as the
locals began to figure out ways to export their catches off-island.
People realized that fishing could be a source of income, not just a
means of getting food on the table. Islanders fished for finfish, oysters,
clams, scallops, turtles, seaweed, whales and porpoises. Porpoise fishing
was quite lucrative for a number of years, and there was a porpoise
factory in Hatteras Village from 1885 to 1891.
The locals also worked as market hunters, selling ducks and turtles
on the market to New York City. When wealthy sportsmen discovered Hatteras
Island’s incredible hunting potential (a good day’s kill
was 40 to 50 ducks and geese), they built hunt clubs along the banks.
One of the largest was the Gooseville Hunt Club on 1,500 acres near
Hatteras Village, but there were others scattered around the island.
The locals worked as caretakers at the clubs and took the people hunting
for birds and sometimes wild boar. They carved decoys out of old Life-saving
Station telephone poles and driftwood and made sink boxes, skiffs and
push poles. The Migratory Bird Act of 1917 changed all that, however,
outlawing market hunting and placing restrictions on the number of birds
shot in one day.
Schools built in the villages helped increase literacy along the banks.
Each village had its own schoolhouse attended by children of all ages.
Schools, churches and the occasional general store were the centers
of island social life. All of the island’s small schools consolidated
in the 1950s in Buxton.
Cars came to the island around 1915, the same year the Life-saving Service
became the Coast Guard. A doctor came to the island in 1923 to work
at the Navy radio station and give medical assistance by radio to men
at sea. This one doctor, Dr. Folb, also served the people in all six
villages and the eight Coast Guard stations. The main cases he dealt
with were tuberculosis, typhoid fever, typhus fever and diphtheria.
Throughout the history of the island, there are legendary tales of several
midwives who assisted in the births of all the local babies.
A native Hatteras Islander, Con Farrow, remembered the 1920s on the
island in a 1976 interview. He said the islanders had no radio, no TV
and little communication with outside world but they were happy. They
lived in tune with the natural world: “You could listen to the
ocean’s roar and tell pretty well what direction the wind would
be the next day.” Everyone had a garden, hogs and knew how to
fish. Animals roamed freely. Access to food, building materials and
clothing was difficult. Medical care was nonexistent and education was
hard. The islanders were self-sufficient. They all went to church and
depended on each other’s support. There were no taverns and no
need for police. No one had electricity. Hatteras Village got electricity
in the mid-1930s, but the rest of island had to wait until the early
1950s.
The Great Depression was a very grim time on Hatteras Island. Livestock
was dwindling, hunting laws were strict besides there being a shortage
of waterfowl, shipwrecks were rare, boat building was nonexistent and
maritime traffic was slow because of better ports at Wilmington and
Morehead.
About the same time, a group of people introduced an idea to give new
life to the Outer Banks. These people proposed establishing a national
park, the first national seashore, on the Outer Banks, including Hatteras
Island, to draw tourists to the area. At first everyone supported the
idea, especially the poor residents of Hatteras Island.
To protect the area that would be the park, the powers that be brought
in Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps to build a protective barrier
of dunes along the oceanfront. In 1935, the N.C. General Assembly, in
an effort to protect their newly formed dunes, outlawed free-roaming
livestock, which was a blow to the residents’ way of life and
made them suspicious of the new park. In June 1935, 999 acres, including
Cape Point and the area around Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, were donated
as the nucleus for the national seashore park. In 1937 the park was
established and a committee began searching for more land donations.
The next year, 1938, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge was established
on the northern end of the island. But all plans for the park were put
on hold with the advent of World War II.
In 1942 Germany sent its U-boat submarines to the poorly guarded Eastern
Seaboard of the United States. During the first half of 1942, the German
subs sank more than five dozen vessels in N.C. waters. Cape Hatteras
earned the moniker “Torpedo Junction.” Burning ships, gunfire,
oil-polluted waters, debris and dead bodies washing up onshore were
common sights for the locals.
By the time the war was over, the idea for the national seashore was
dead. Oil companies came to Hatteras Island and began buying up rights
to drive test wells. The islanders’ hopes for the park switched
to dreams of becoming rich off the oil prospects. However, the oil companies
found nothing and moved on. But a North Carolina Representative reactivated
the park project when an anonymous donor gave $618,000 for the cause.
The park was finally established in 1953 and dedicated in 1958, preserving
more than 60 percent of the island, though many locals felt they were
forced to sell their land and not paid nearly enough.
The island’s paved highway, N.C. 12, was not completed until 1952.
Until then, people drove down the beach or on sand trails on the “inside”
of the island. The paved road changed the island, making it easier for
its residents to travel between the villages and to the consolidated
school in Buxton. It also made it easier for visitors to come in. After
a brief ferry ride across Oregon Inlet, Hatteras Island was open to
more than the most intrepid visitors for the first time.
When the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge was completed in 1963, Hatteras Island
was changed forever. Vacationers have been streaming onto the island
ever since. The first large-scale development, Hatteras Colony in Avon,
was planned in 1962 by a Northern developer who heard that the bridge
was coming and saw an opportunity. He bought 38 oceanfront lots at a
price of $150,000. Forty years later, the island is experiencing its
biggest real estate boom ever, making millionaires out of investors,
most of them not local. Hatteras Island is no longer just a vacation
paradise, it’s also a real estate investor’s dream.
The native islanders have mixed feelings about the easy accessibility
of the island. On one hand, their isolation has been invaded. The older
the resident, the more harsh the sting of change seems to be. On the
other hand, bridges and roads provide opportunities the island has never
before known. Young people no longer have to move away to make a living.
Jobs are plentiful most of the year. Medical facilities and services
are available that weren’t dreamed of in years past.
As you tour Hatteras Island try to appreciate all of its past. We’ll
try to take you there by showing you where to look and providing the
old photographs, facts and memories to make it seem real.
We
couldn’t possibly fit all of the history of Hatteras Island in
this site — and we haven’t tried to. Much of the material
for the historic tour sites came from Hatteras Islanders who have spent
a lifetime, or a significant portion of one, on the island. They shared
their memories about the places you will see along the way. Other information
came from the countless books that have been written about Hatteras
Island. Local bookstores and gift shops and the Hatteras Village Library
can steer you to books of local interest. Another way to learn more
about the history of the island is to take the Hatteras Bus Tour with
local resident Danny Couch. Couch is a sincere history fanatic and his
tours will teach you much about the island.
Have
fun, and thanks for answering the call of this island and getting to
know it better. |
