Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-25
IN KILL DEVIL HILLS
Wright Brothers Rendezvous
for Machine Testing.
WILD, FASCINATING REGION
Site Was Selected Ten Years Ago
and Is Still in Use.
REMOTE FROM HAUNTS OF MEN
Few Know How to Find the Spot
Must Have a Guide
and Chart.

| MILL DEVIL, y. c.. October aJ.-Few
| of the street-hred people of this county
can imagine the utterly desolate forsak-
en- and vet fascinating spot that the
Wright brothers picked out ten years ago
and have used at intervals ever since for
| their flying machine experiments and
where they are at present making ex-
periments-kitty Hawk and the Kill Devil
| hills. They have come TO be familiar
words enough in these days of aviation
Yet few people would know how to set
about getting there and fewer still would
know how 10 get away if they were sud
denly translated there and left to find
their way out
But enough of getting there. The read
eTS OF Inc Star have already been told
tne route What would he worth while
| were il possible would he TO give an idea
OF the curious charm of the region on a
perfect fall day during lull in the flying
machine experiments. There ale hun
areas or miles of territory like it all up
the Atlantic coast. but the city dwelJer
never sees it and does not know it is
there.
From middle Georgia northward beyond
the mouth of the Chesapeake runs what
is known as 1.-THE inside passage This
Is strip of sheltered water sometimes
half u mile and sometimes five miles
wide, lying just off the main Atlantic
coast line. but protected from the waves
and storms OF the ocean by chain Of
long. low sand islands. Some of these
long islands that almost touch end to
end are mile across. In other places
| they are ten miles across. They are
built up by centuries of wind and wake
out of buff-colored sand. In some places
they are covered with sparse coating
OF native grasses.
Scrubby Forests of Pine and Oak.
In other places gnarled and wind
twisted oaks and pines have taken root
and grown into scrubby forests, huddled
together for mutual protection under the
| lee of a sand hill or Illustrating in the
moisture on the edge of d brackish
marsh
The scenery is identical. yet never
seemingly Just the same throughout the
island chain. Toward the lower part OF
1t, far enough south to be removed from
the full rigor of the northern winter,
come the Kill Devil sands. The region
is Just the same the rest, only per-
haps. more SO. 1t is replica of the
shifting sand desert between Bernalillo
and JameZ. of which some have caught a
fleetins glimpse from the comfortable
vantage point of u car window on the
Santa Fe. There are stretches like it in
the northern Mojave. Over some of the
wastes there have begun to creep, in re-
cent years, sad-coIored coating of ma
tive grass, beach grass, wire grass and
sand burrs that will drive their spines
the home of the chigre and the sand
flea, while down among the dead, dry
wood on the edge of the marshes flour
lshes The microscopic but numerous sea
tick. In the marshes also are moccasin
snakes-the common moccasin and the
| more deadly cotton mouth'-while along
the hot sands of the higher ground one
can frd the big yellow and brown
snakes, weighing as much as ten pounds
each. They are locally known as lazy
snakes fat, sleek and harmless, but in
veterate robbers of hen roosts and raid
ers Of the shore birds nests.
Has Charm of Its Own.
1t would be hard to imagine region
more remote from the haunts of men.
stiller and more burdensomely desolate.
Yet 1t has a charm of it's own. Over the
upland stretches hover on wide and silent
wings the occasional painted ladies'"
though what they find to feed on is
mystery. Very scattered herds of wiry
but tolerably sleek-looking cattle browse
on the scant pasture that looks decep-
lively green when viewed at long angle
but is always dry and scattered under
foot. Most numerous are the bands of
rowing haIf-wild and wholly stunted pigs
that root the sandy soil into 'hogholes''
and make driving in a springless beach
cart torture to be remembered and
avoided.
But after one of the numerous ocean
storms the air is soft and gentle The
bare sand hills take a more brilliant
yellow from the recent moisture, and the
pines and oak forests glow a deeper and
more real green. Eastward out of the
mists that hang over the Atlantic the
white horses plunge shoreward by
So uadrons to break on the beach and
westward the waters of Albemarle and
sheltered water, and the distant shore line
of trees on Roanoke Island sticks up an
inch of indigo ribbon against the lighter
blue of the heavens.
Revolutionized by Gasoline.
How in the world do you reach this re-
mote desert from island or mainland !?
Ask John d. and the Standard Oil Com
pany. Il tell you, gasoline has revolu-
tionized this coast in the last ten years"
said the philosophic skipper of a power
boat And SO it has. Each of the bank
ers along this inland waterway owns
his power boat as farmer owns some
sort of horse and wheeled vehicle far
Their inland. Such boats and such en-
gines. Many of them would be sur
prise to marine architects.
But the jewellers by the sound know
how to run them. Wholly amphibious.
and probably web-footed. looking ike
farmers and acting like sailors they have
a knowledge of the practical features of
marine engines that would shame the
members of a more misunderstanding
boat club. They have the courage of
their convictions, too. You can get a
fight any time for the asking at the viii
laSe store on the respective merits and
oil-consuming qualities of four-cycie and
two-cycle engines. and the advocates of
the old-time make and break look with
contempt on the deVotees of the jump
a spark system. Likewise they know
practical things. \ young engineer that
looks though he ought to be earning
a living stacking hay will unscrew
hot spark plug from a refractory engine
and maltreat it with hammer file and
pincers as wealthy amateur would
never dare to do and will make it go in
the end. though the theory of the thing
! might have taken two pages of a text
book for explanation.
Know the Shadows and Depths.
..r,lx.