Outer Banks History

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Outer Banks
History

The English moved their colonization efforts farther north and the Outer Banks next appears in
history as the haunt of buccaneers. Spawned by a long series of conflicts with Spain, pirates
eventually became an inconvenience for the English themselves. In 1718, Alexander
Spotswood, Governor of Virginia, put a price on the head of one of the most famous pirates,
Edward Teach, more popularly known as Blackbeard.

Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl took up the chase, which led to Ocracoke Harbor. In
a brief but fierce battle, Blackbeard was defeated and suffered his head being hung from the
bowsprit of the Pearl. Since then the North Carolina coast has remained free of pirates, but not
real estate developers.

Vacationers started to summer in Nags Head area in the mid-Nineteenth Century. But the area
remained remote and desolate, interrupted only by some sharp actions during the Civil War
and ships regularly being wrecked by contrary currents, winds and shoals. Long a source of
revenue to Bankers, shipwrecks eventually led to the foundation of the U.S. Lifesaving Service
which provided income, stability and countless tales of heroism to the Outer Banks.

Of course the Outer Banks’ eternal claim to history is December 17, 1903. On that day the
Wright Brothers, drawn to Kitty Hawk by the steady winds, assisted by locals and crew of a
lifesaving station, launched man into the sky under powered flight. The photograph of that first
flight, shorter than the wingspan of a 747, is one of the most enduring images of the 20th
Century.

The Outer Banks next set of visitors was more infamous. During 1942 and 1944, the area was
a favorite hunting ground of German U Boats. Many a night was lit by the flames of burning
merchant ships, giving the area the name "Torpedo Junction".

The end of WWII was the beginning of the end of the Outer Banks’ historic isolation. Bridges
and better roads now bring around 7 million visitors per year to join the 50,000 odd full time
residents. The area is one of the leading family and nature oriented resort destination on the
East Coast

Indians settled on the Outer Banks over a thousand years ago. In 1585, they were joined by
English Colonists. The settlement didn't go well, and the colonists soon left. They were
replaced in 1587 by another group of colonists (20 years before the Jamestown settlement in
Virginia). Despite producing Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America, the colony
met an uncertain fate. When re-supply ships arrived in 1590, no colonists were to be found.
There was only the word "Croatan" carved into a tree. Their whereabouts remains a matter of
speculation.