The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1958-04-18

Thursday, April %, next week,
will be a red letter day in the
history of this coastland, for on
this day will be held two ceremon-
les formally dedicating the Cape
Hatteras National Seashore, and
recognizing a number of those men
whose coursage, vision and energy,
made this great park possible for
our state.
Two ceremonies will be held, the
first at Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
at 1880 pm. The second will be
held at Coquina Beach, Bodie Is
land at 2:30 pm. At the Cape Hat
teras ceremony, a bronze PLAGUE
viii be unveiled commemorating
the initial gift of 2,700 acres of
land at Cape Hatteras by the fam
lily of Henry Phipps.
Attending the ceremonies with
Conrad L. Wirth, Director Of the
National Park Service will be Gov
ernor Luther Hodges of North
Carolina, Hon. Lindsay Warren
who as Congressman introduced
the legislation authorizing the
park, and many other notables.
The dedication will be by Roger
C. Ernst, assistant Secretary of
the Interior. Also attending will be
Paul Mellon, of the family which
donated a million dollars to buy
land for the park, Congressman
Herbert c. Bonner, and Admiral H.
C. Moore, commandant Fifth Coast
Guard District. Raymond R. Guest,
a representative of the Phipps
family will unveil the tablet at
Cape Hatteras.
The establishment of a seashore
park was first advocated in the
early 1920's when w. o. Saunders,
Elizabeth City newspaper publish
err came out with bold headlines
and maps advocating making the
entire coast of North Carolina a
great state park. 1t was an idea
bold in conception for its time;
it found but a few people with suf-
ficient vision or interest to grasp
its possibilities and it's worth to
the people. 1t also faced a tremen-
dous barrier in lack of sufficient
state funds to finance such project.
When Lindsay Warren got to
Congress in 1924 powerful advo-
cate was added to the cause, and
by thesearly 1930's he had enlisted
strong support in Congress. For
nearly ten years thereafter, gov
eminent aid went into the project,
first into reclamation projects, or
the restoration of beaches which
had been damaged by erosion.
In 1941, during the administra-
ton of Governor Broughton, the
State of North Carolina spent its
first funds in an effort to acquire
land for the park. A commission
of patriotic North Carolinians gave,
their efforts to the cause. An early
and staunch advocate who put in
a lot of hard work in behalf Of
the park, and who enlisted the in
terest of the Phipps family is
Frank Stick, who pioneered since
1920 in developments of superior
beach colonies on the Dare Coast.
The seashore park has met with
opposition, mostly from people who
feared the loss of profits from
real estate. Those opponents of the
park, sometimes by misrepresenta-
ton of the actual possibilities OF
the park, aroused opposition among
other citizens. But most of them
have come to see that the Sea-
shore Park has hurt nobody; that
on the other hand, it has made
possible the development of many
profitable business enterprises
which cater to an ever growing
number of tourists from across the
nation who are annually attracted
here through the advertising and
promotion that has resulted for
this area following the activities