A little history about the Outer Banks:
The Outer Banks stretch for more than 90 miles along North Carolina’s Atlantic coast, from the border of Virginia to the north, down to Ocracoke and Portsmouth Islands in the south. In between lie the year-round homes of some 45,000 residents – and of course, a summertime beach paradise for nearly a quarter-million sun-seekers every week.
It’s the remoteness, or at least the remote feel of the islands that make them such a special place to visitors and locals alike. Basically just large sand bars off the coast, and in places less than half a mile wide, the Outer Banks offer both family entertainment and wild, isolated beaches.
The Outer Banks have been populated by native peoples for thousands of years, and were first settled by Europeans in the late 16th century. The first permanent English settlement in North America was on Roanoke Island – a settlement that later disappeared almost without a trace. The only clue ever found among the abandoned and descaying dwellings: the word “CROATOAN” – a neighboring Native American Indian tribe living in the woods of Hatteras Island – carved into the trunk of a tree.
It wasn’t until the early 1700s that Europeans attempted to settle the Outer Banks again, but during that time, ships exploring the region’s coast wrecked with alarming regularity on the shifting sands that are today known as the “Diamond Shoals,” and more ominously, “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.” Several Spanish galleons are known to have gone down off the coast of the Outer Banks, and it is thought that horses that swam ashore from the wrecks are the ancestors of the wild ponies that roam today’s Currituck National Wildlife Refuge, and those cared for by the Park Service on Ocracoke.
The volume and value of the sea trade made the Outer Banks a favorite haunt for pirates, including the infamous Edward Teach—better known as “Blackbeard”—who was caught and beheaded off Ocracoke Island in 1718.
The Outer Banks played an important role in protecting the North Carolina coast during the Revolutionary War, its shallow and treacherous inlets making it impossible for large British warships to pass. After the war’s end, the new government recognized the need for lighthouses to protect shipping in the dangerous waters off the Outer Banks, and soon erected lighthouses at Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke, both of which have been replaced over the years. The current Ocracoke light was built in 1823, and the Cape Hatteras light in 1870.
During the Civil War, most of the Outer Banks were occupied early on by Union troops, while Confederates held out until 1862 on Roanoke Island, where a settlement of freed slaves was established. The famous battle between the ironclad warships, the Monitor and the Merrimack took place off nearby Hampton Roads, to the north in Virginia, and the Monitor was later caught in a storm and sunk off Cape Hatteras.
By this time, the Outer Banks was already well-established as a beach escape. Vacationers had been coming to the Nags Head Hotel since the late 1830s, and soon thereafter, wealthier visitors began building summer cottages. The Outer Banks was also a premier hunting destination, with famous clubs like the Whalehead Club and the Pine Island Club catering to the well-to-do.
The Outer Banks were also made famous by early experiments in radio and in flight, most notably by the first successful powered flight by the Wright brothers at Kill Devil Hills – though Kitty Hawk, where the brothers first came ashore on the Outer Banks, is the place we’re more familiar with from the history books.
During both World Wars, German submarines made the already dangerous Outer Banks coastline even more dangerous, sinking numerous ships. Between the wars, however, the modern Outer Banks tourist trade really began to thrive when bridges first linked the islands to the mainland and its beaches became accessible by car. More and more hotels, restaurants and vacation homes sprung up in a wave of tourist development that hasn’t slowed since. Today, while there are more vacation homes and tourist destinations than ever, much of the Outer Banks is a protected part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which helps to retain the natural beauty and isolated feel that make the islands so popular with millions of visitors each year.