The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1960-08-19
4 PROJECT INTO
WHICH WENT IL
4 YEARS OF EFFORT
Oregon Inlet. III Years Old. Is
Now Ready to Promise Much
to Our Coasfland
By STEVE WALL


at Wanchese on Labor Day, had
its beginning in March 1916 when
a public hearing on the proposal
was held here in Manteo, after
the late A. H. Ward and Victor
Meekins had waged the initial
campaign in behalf of the project.
While the public hearing was
the first official act in this area
to get the ball rolling, the need
for deeper water in our channels,
basins and especially the Oregon
Inlet bar channel goes back scores
of years.
The vital necessity for improv-
ed channels, from both an econom-
ic as well as military point of
view, was well expressed by the
late Ben Dixon MacNeill at the
hearing.
Mr.. MacNeill, whose ashes were
looSed some months ago to the
surging waters of his beloved
Observation-Disclosures, caught all
ears when he said, 1.-THE inlet is
getting SO shallow that the fish
ermen feel the fish to see if they
rubbed the skin off'n their bellies
coming through the inlet"
Then Ben Dixon took his lis
lenders through factual account
of the losses fishermen suffered
because of the lack of water
depth, boats stranded on the bar
offJshore waiting for high water
while their catch spoiled in the
holds. He also pointed out the
advantages to be gained by open
ing up the only entrance to Pam
leo Sound between Hatteras In
let and Norfolk, how boats could
reach shelter during storms and
how military craft could stand by
for emergency runs to Diamond
Shoals. His audience we'll knew
the import of what he was say
ing because everyone there had
been witness in one way or
another to the dozens of ships
sent to the bottom of the ocean
by enemy submarines with result
ing loss of life and other lives
MANNED for the rest of their days.
Four years later in 1850, the
Congress approved what our sea-
faring people had been asking for
for so long.
The Act is officially recorded
as House Document Number $40,
81st Congress, first session, ap-
proved by the. Rivers and Har-
bors Act of May II, 1850. 1t
authorized a channel ID feet deep
and 400 feet wide from the At
lantic Ocean over the bar and
through Oregon Inlet, thence IL
feet deep and 100 feet wide via
Old House channel to that depth
lin Pamlico Sound; channel IL
feet deep and 100 feet wide from
Oregon Inlet to and including a
burning basin IL feet deep and
200 feet wide and 600 feet long
at Manteo; and side channel IL
feet deep and 100 feet wide from
the Manteo-O Oregon Inlet channel
lin Roanoke Sound to wharves in
Mill Greek near Wanchese, includ-
ing turning basin there 200 feet
square.
The development of the system
of waterways represents a dredg-
ling output of 4,273, 900 cubic yards
of material at cost of 81 300, 900.
Here are the successive steps
by which the project progressed:
THE Old House channel was COM
pleted in July 1857 at a cost of
$50, 900; the channels to Manteo
land Wanchese and respective ba-
sins were completed in March
1860 at a cost of $542, 900, and the
relocated channel at Oregon Inlet
August 20, 1860 at cost OF
$4,000.
The Norfolk Dredging Company
|dredged the Old House channel,
Atkinson Dredging Company the
Manteo and Mill Creek channels,
and basins, and the LaPorte
Dredging Company, the relocated
channel at the inlet.
The ocean bar channel, consid-
erred the most perplexing task
and perhaps the phase of great
lest Importance, was completed this
month in two stages by the Corps
of Engineers hopper dredge Hyde
at a cost of $4,000.
II is interesting to point out
here that nature appears to have
extended a helping hand in the
bar channel phase of the project.
When the Hyde was approximate
ly half finished with the channel,
she was called away for emer-
gency work farther north. Upon
returning to the area a few weeks
later, It was found that the chan
mel was in even better shape than
il was ON her departure. The
depth had increased, the survey
crew found, and the current APP
pcared to be carrying away sand
rather than dumping it in the