The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1954-01-15

who saw the Cape and its ada
cent beaches must have wished
otherwise. For many who did
were dashed upon its beaches in
open boats from wrecked ships
or washed up by the waves. In
300 years there have been more
than 600 recorded wrecks north
and south of Cape Hatteras along
the outer banks, the outlying is
lands of shifting sand on the
North Carolina Coast.
Alexander Hamilton ordered a
lighthouse built at Hatteras in
1876; it was replaced in 1870 by
the tallest brick lighthouse ever
built in North America, 1913 feet.
And there is a LORAN station
here today, providing ships at sea
with accurate long-range naviga-
ton, an electronic system created
in World War H. There have been
only two wrecks on these shoals
and beaches since World War II.
This LORAN station is a SYM
Dol of the changes that are COM
ing along the beaches that stretch
$50 miles from Cape Henry, in
Virginia, to Ocracoke Inlet, 81
miles southwest of Hatteras. A
hard-surfaced road has been built
all the way to the village of Hat
teras, beyond the Cape.
For once the National Park
Service has come ahead of tour
lists. 1t is beginning to create the
Cape Hatteras National Seasnore,
a recreation area project. 1t has
acquired nearly 70 per cent of
the land reaching south of Mays
Head to the tip Of Ocracoke Is
land. 1t will begin the organiza-
ton essential before tourists can
| come to Cape Hatteras in any
numbers.
Cape Hatteras is people and
fauna and wild life as much as
sand and sky and sea. 1t has
seven villages named Rodanthe
Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton
Frisco and Hatteras. TIL G
1000 people in these five ham
lets have lived apart from the
American world for 200 years
These towns have no govern.
ments, no policemen, no "authori
ties except those of Dare Coun
ty. And the county seat is way
back at Manteo behind two fer.
ries. (Now only one ferry and e
bridge.) For generations the PEG.
pie earned their living fishing
from plundering the shipwrecks
and from the payroll the Coast
Guard stations brought.
In the future they will earn
their living from fishing and
form tourists. The Coast Guard
stations are vanishing and there
are no more wrecks.
The National Park Service will
assist in this transition. 1t has
acquired no land in the towns
or adjacent to them; plenty of
room is left for the establishment
of various tourist enterprises. But
much of the land is forever pro-
tected. It is time. Few spots along
the coastlines of the United States
have escaped the inevitable scars
of the competitive tourist indus
try. Less than l per cent of the
coastline has been preserved for
public ownership.
Cape Hatteras is still an I'M
spoiled island. It's beaches are
spectacular but not very safe for
swimming. 1t is a bird sanctuary.
At this time of year you can see
gray Canadian geese, black ducks,
and white swans and herons feed
ing in the marshes. 1t has fas-
cinating combination of fauna
trees from the North such as
scrub pine, live oak, holly, and
cedar; and trees and plants from
the South, such as orange and
grapefruit, yucca, palmettos, and
Spanish moss. AnG the sea, where
porpoise swim in inlets between
the islands, yields marlin, sail
fish, bluefish, rock fish, and chan
mel bass.
The work of preserving this
island sanctuary has begun. 1t
will take the National Park Ser
vice several years to organize this
remote, unknown, and beautiful
section of the United States, this
country that has only one dimen-
sion, the horizontal strips of flat
land, ocean vastness, and an inn
mense and inspiring sky.
| MsTSAH AeR
~ IN ~ N