Dare County by Angel Hendrix Fall 2000

Dare County is located on the northern coast of North Carolina. Founded in 1870, it makes up most of the outer banks including Hatteras Island, Nags Head, and Kitty Hawk. While also including Roanoke Island, and a small part of the mainland (Stick). The population of this area is 29,000 permanent residents, but can reach can reach up to 250,000 in peak tourist months. Dare County is 383.5 square mile total (Welcome to Dare County). Dare County is rich in history, home to many wildlife sanctuaries, and the attractive beaches and laid back lifestyle make it one of the largest tourist attractions on the East Coast.

The first New World settlement occurred in 1587 on what is now Roanoke Island. This colony was lead by Sir Walter Raleigh and consisted of 112 English men, women, and children. The Native Americans living in this area at this time were already tired of Englishmen due to Ralph Lane's attack on their villages despite their friendliness and willingness to help the new arrivals. So contact with the Native Americans and this new colony was minimal, at least in the beginning. On August 18, 1587 the first child of English parents was born in the New World. Her name was Virginia Dare; Dare County would later be named in her honor. This colonies mysterious disappearance still baffles historians today (Stick). This area remained fairly quiet, with the exception of Manteo, until the 1830's. During this time plantation owners bought 200 acres of land in Nags Head after noticing the potential for vacation this area presented. By 1850 Nags Head was a prospering resort with the building of a massive hotel called the Nags Head Hotel. This was the beginning of a booming tourist industry we still can enjoy today (Stick 55-58).

The thriving tourist industry, along with commercial fishing, has been the counties primary income source. Until the 1940's commercial fishing was the most prominent industry in Dare County; even now it is second only to tourism. The primary animals caught in this area for commercial use throughout the years have been whales, porpoises, turtles, terrapins, oysters, clams, shrimp, crabs, and seaweed. Like so many other professions large fishing operations are taking over the small fisherman which used to consist of one to four men. The largest cash product in this industry is crab (Stick 42-46).

As stated the first largest industry in Dare County is tourism. There are many obvious reasons for this, but the most prominent are the Wright Brothers National Memorial, the lighthouses, The Lost Colony production, Jockey's Ridge, the wildlife, the areas calm and laid back lifestyle, and of course the beaches.

Without a doubt this areas claim to fame is the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk. This memorial was constructed in honor of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Two brothers from Dayton, Ohio who are responsible for the first ever successful human flight conducted in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903 (Stick 38-42). Another famous tourist attraction to this area is the two lighthouses along the coast: Bodie, and Cape Hatteras. Before the construction of the seven North Carolina lighthouses hundreds of unknowing ships were sunk as they approached the dark coast of North Carolina.¹ After the government passed an act to light up the coast, the lighthouse constructions began. The first Cape Hatteras light was constructed in 1802, Bodie Island light was later built in 1872 and stands at 150 feet. They eventually had to replace the original Cape Hatteras light. Its replacement stands at 208 feet making it the largest in the nation (Hause).² Jockey's Ridge with its 140 feet sand dunes has been attracting Dare County tourists since the start of the tourist industry in this area. The Lost Colony production in Manteo is credited for bringing the tourist industry to Roanoke Island. Started in 1937 by Paul Green at the Waterside Theater at Fort Raleigh, The Lost Colony is an outdoor drama and is the longest running of this kind in America (Outer Banks Attractions).³ The above mentioned are just a few of the reasons that people have been choosing Dare County as a vacation spot for over 160 years.

Tourism in Dare County has brought with it not only economic development, but also tremendous strain on the ecology of the area. In an effort to preserve the natural resources of the area while also protecting the important tourist industry Dare County initiated the first ever national seashore entitled the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. This area includes south Nags Head all the way to Ocracoke Inlet. It extends 75 miles, 30,000 acres, and forever dedicated to preserving the area's natural state (Cape Hatteras). Other areas set aside to protect the ecology of Dare County are: Nags Head woods-a maritime forest extending 640 acres protected by the Nature Conservancy, Jockey's Ridge State Park-a 140 foot sand dune that extends 400 acres, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge-hunting is off limits in this 6000 acre area that protects 265 species of birds along with all the other wildlife that makes this place home, and Buxton Woods Reserve-a maritime forest that is created to be the largest of its kind in the state at 500 acres (Outer Banks Attractions). These, along with other efforts around the county make Dare County home to one third of the National Parks Services in North Carolina. These areas with their wonderful hiking trails, camp sites, historical sites, bird watching, and beaches to name a few, attract the vacationers while protecting the ecology (Cape Hatteras).

Dare County's beauty has been attracting people since the 1500's when Sir Walter Raleigh sent a colony to Roanoke Island to settle there. Since then it's well known history and famous laid back lifestyle has brought vacationers to this site year round, year after year. All of this has caused great strain to this beautiful area causing the people who live and love this area to initiate the National Seashore preserve to help maintain the original beauty and wildlife. By combining the areas largest economic means with its history while minimizing the environmental effects has kept Dare County a thriving community.

Interesting Tidbits from Dare County

• The lighthouses we enjoy today come with a history of how they have remained constructed on soft sand for over 100 years. Six by twelve timbers were inserted into the ground in an octagon. After a deep hole was made it was then filled with seawater, which is a practiced that has preserved the timbers all this time. Granite was then placed over the octagon, and the bricks were laid one by until the circle tower was erected (Hause).
• In 1902 Reginald Fessenden built two fifty-foot transmission towers, one on Roanoke Island and one in Buxton. These towers were the first to transmit musical notes and eventually human voice over forty five feet. Ten years later these towers picked up the one and only signal received on land from a luxury liner way up north. The station then contacted New York, but was met with complaints for tying up the lines because "everyone knew the Titanic was unsinkable" (Coastal Guide).
• The legend of Nags Head's name comes from land pirates tying lanterns on the necks of hoses and allowing them to parade the coast. The approaching ship's captains would mistake this for ship's lights and come too close to the shore resulting in grounding of the ship. The land pirates would then steal the ship's cargo (Coastal Guide).

Notes

¹ For further information on the shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina see Graveyards of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast, a book by Davis Stick.

² To find interesting stories about lighthouse keepers see Lighthouse Families, a book by Cheryl Shelton-Roberts.

³ Dates and times of the production of The Lost Colony can be found at http://www.outerbanks.com/lostcolony/lostcol2.htm

Works Cited

Coastal Guide. 2000. http://www.coastalguide.com/packet/.

Hause, Eric. NC Lighthouses: Sentinels of the Atlantic. 26 Nov. 2000. http://www.coastalguide.com/packet/lighthouses01.htm.

Outer Banks Attractions. 2000. http://www.outerbanks.com/attractions.htm.

Stick, David. Dare County: A History. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State Department of Archives and History, 1970.

Welcome to Dare County . . . Land of Beginnings. 10 July 2000. http://www.co.dare.nc.us/.

Created November 28, 2000
Updated May 16, 2003