Outer Banks History

The history of Outer Banks has never been as complete as it is since 1986, when local historian and businessman David Stick donated his personal library to the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

This collection includes more than 100,000 manuscript items, 30,000 books and a great variety of paintings, drawings, photographs, pamphlets, maps charts and periodical serial runs, complemented with actual prints, audio and video resources to facilitate the study of this historical heap.

His extensive private collection is nowadays in the core research facility in the Outer Banks History Center, which opened in 1988 and located in Manteo, the town seat of Dare County, North Carolina, with a total population of 1,052, as of the 2000 census.

Outer Banks history can be traced back to the early 1500’s when Amerigo Vespucci, anchored in North Carolina on board "Bight of Hatteras", the ship after which Cape Hatteras was named. First settlers embarked on Roanoke Island. From 1524 to 1588 Spanish and French explorers, seeking gold frequently visited the Outer Banks’ shore.

In 1584, Queen Elizabeth I issued a charter to Sir Walter Raleigh to establish the first British colony in North Carolina. The two settlements attempts on Roanoke Island were unsuccessful and shortly after the first settlers disappeared without, a trace originating the legend of the "Lost Colony".

However, Virginia Dare born on Roanoke Island became the first English child born in America, and later an important part of the lore surrounding the lost colony, that was never found, even after the settlers arriving to Jamestown tried to find it in 1607.

On a side note, "The Lost Colony" became a drama when the Waterside Theatre on Roanoke Island ran the first performance of this historic event taken to stage on July 4, 1937, commemorating the 350th anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare, scheduled as a one-time event, but played successfully for over 60 consecutive summers.

Back to Outer Banks' history, in 1663 eight noblemen, known as the Lords Proprietors, were rewarded for their support of King Charles II, receiving a charter for land in the region, and a new colony was founded. For nearly a century, the area was engaged in political and religious issues holding the Albemarle Rebellion (1673-1689), the Quaker Epoch (1691-1706), and the Cary Rebellion (1704-1711).

Outer Banks was the scenery of pirates during the 18th century, including the infamous Black Beard. The land of beginnings, as it was later called, witnessed numerous confrontations with the Indians between 1710 and 1718, so the English Crown decided to resume direct rule of the colony in 1729.

Under Royal British control, all the North Carolina regions prospered, but North Carolinians soon joined other colonies in resistance to British policies and contributed to the defeat of British military power in the War for Independence between 1776 and 1783.

From 1784 and 1800, North Carolina progressed as the federal system was formed in the new nation, and early in the 19th century, Outer Banks and the surrounding regions became a quiet area, except for the increasing number of vessels lost at sea, becoming later the so-called "Graveyard of the Atlantic"

During the Civil War in 1861, northern forces invaded the Outer Banks' coast and captured Fort Clark and Fort Hatteras. Early the next year, Roanoke Island was captured by the Burnside Expedition. The first battle between ironclad ships was held between the USS Monitor, a Union ship, and the Virginia, a Confederate ship.

After the Civil War, there are no particular events recorded around this area. December 17, 1903, a new page was written in Outer Banks' history: Wilbur and Orville, the Wright Brothers made the first successful airplane flight from a sandy dune in Kill Devil Hill, currently the largest incorporated municipality in Dare County.

From 1916 to 1919, North Carolina felt the effects of the World War I, and the waters of the Outer Banks were filled with German submarines and yards. Several cities were converted to building vessels, including Elizabeth City and Wilmington at Morehead City.

In the Outer Banks' coastal zone, German submarines sank the Diamond Shoals Lightship and the Mirlo, a British tanker which crew was rescued by members of the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station. Once the war was over, tranquility returned to the zone.

In 1930, workers in the Kill Devil Hills planted hearty grasses on the dune from where the Wright Brothers placed the area in history, and constructed the actual Wright Brothers Memorial, an impressive structure, which is visible for miles. "The Lost Colony" was performed for the first time in 1937 at Fort Raleigh in Roanoke Island.

During that same year, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore was established and Fort Raleigh was designated as a National Historic Site, all these events making the area an important tourist attraction of the present.

World War II brings again German submarines patrolling Outer Banks and the coastal North Carolina waters. San Delfino, another British ship, was sunk north of Diamond Shoals. On May 14, 1942, the HMC Bedfordshire was torpedoed and sunk during the height of the German submarine campaign.

Because of the active German hunting ground around the area between 1942 and 1944, Outer Banks received the infamous name of "Torpedo Junction" being usual to see German U Boats burning merchant ships or torpedoing British vessels, their favorite target. The bodies of the crew on board sank ships during the World War were subsequently found and buried in the British Cemetery on Ocracoke Island.

This cemetery is a memorial to the Royal Navy, with bronze plaques on concrete crosses, surrounded by a white picket fence and a plaque with the words of Robert Brooke: "If I should die think only this of me that there's some forever corner of a foreign field that is forever England"

After the war, Outer Banks began its development as a tourism industry, featuring many international destinations replacing former activities from the colonial times, including fishing and hunting. Soon after the National Park System took control over the pristine coastline to guarantee its preservation until today.