Outer Banks Lists: Top 10 Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About the OBX

Posted on February 14, 2012

I have a little confession to make. I love lists!

I use all sorts of lists all day long. When I’m done posting this, I get to check this off my list! In fact, here’s a list of some of the lists I love: “To Do” list, grocery list, “Honey Do” list, project list – there are endless potentials with lists. What do you want to know? Like “apps,” there’s a list for that.

We dig all sorts of lists for the Outer Banks, and one of our favorite types is the Top 10! A quick hit that provides great info in a compact format. What’s not to love?!

Stay tuned, we’ll be sharing all sorts of OBX lists, and today we have…

Top 10 Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About the OBX

1. A “Tucked Away” Outer Banks Park

If you’ve been to the Outer Banks, you’ve probably seen (or heard of) most of the parks and recreational areas. Currituck Heritage Park, Duck Town Park,Roanoke Island Festival Park and the list goes on. But there’s a little known park on the Outer Banks you’ve probably never seen. It’s in the 4-wheel drive area past Corolla, close to the Virginia line.

Best parts of the Outer Banks four wheel drive park:

Real bathrooms (not port-a-potties)
Grassy area for kids and pets to run around
Park grills
Trash cans
Boat dock

So, if you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, pack a picnic lunch and enjoy one of the Outer Banks’ lesser known parks.

2. The Martians Have Landed

If you’re ever In the town of Hatteras, you may notice a quite unusual sight. If you look clsoely, you will see a “Martian space craft” sitting quietly along side highway 12. It’s complete with little green men and some spooky creatures peering out from the porthole windows.

3. Winged Horses

The beautiful horses you see around the Outer Banks are from the Winged Horse Extravaganza - a celebration of the 2003 Centennial of Flight. They can be found all along the Outer Banks – not only at places of business, but also in front of rental properties.

4. She Sells Seashells by the Seashore

If you have the opportunity (and time), make sure you head south to check out Ocracoke Island. Once you get off the ferry, you will be driving down a quiet section of highway 12. After approximately 1 or 2 miles, pull off the road and walk over the dunes on the oceanside (on your left as you drive). Most of the beach in this area is desolate and filled with incredible sea shells at low tide.

5. Big Blue

According to the International Gamefish Association, the Outer Banks and the Virgin Islands are the most likely places to catch Atlantic Blue Marlin weighing more than 1,000 pounds.

6. Bird is the Word

More than 400 species of birds have been identified at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, located on the north end of Hatteras Island.

Pea Island Nationa Wildlife Refuge, Outer Banks

7. The Civil War

The War Between the States brought several battles to the Outer Banks. At Hatteras Inlet (August 1861), at Chicamacomico (October 1861) and on Roanoke Island (February 1862), the Federals won their first victories of the war and established control over the Outer Banks. The inhabitants were not strongly attached to the Southern cause, and many took the oath of allegiance to the United States.

8. Pillage and Plunder

Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard the Pirate, lived, pirated, and died on the Outer Banks. Blackbeard was a very successful and flamboyant pirate. He was a tall, intimidating man decorated with cutlasses and pistols. During combat, his beard was braided with ribbons and he wore lit cannon fuses in his hair. He was killed in hand-to-hand combat with members of the Royal Navy at Ocracoke Inlet on November 22, 1718.

9. A House by the Sea

The first cottage built on the Outer Banks was in the 1830′s. In those days, planters from inland counties longed to escape the long, hot and humid summer, which they believed fostered malaria and other diseases. In the 1830s, the first of these plantation owners came to Nags Head and purchased 200 acres of land where he built the very first beach cottage.

10. On Hallowed Ground

The cemetery on Ocracoke island is officially located on British soil. It contains the graves of British sailors washed ashore after the wreck of the HMS Bedfordshire during WW2.

Blackbeards Cannon Lifted from Ocean Floor

Posted on October 31, 2011

Anyone dressing up as a pirate this year? Well just in time for Halloween archaeologists have lifted a 300 year old cannon from Blackbeard the pirate’s ship right here on the Outer Banks coast.

The eight-foot-long cannon was covered in sand and ocean debris called “concretion,” which will take archaeologists and students at East Carolina University as many as eight years to crack through before getting to the metal cannon. So far 12 cannons have been lifted from the ship including bits of rope, lead shot, gold dust, wine glass stems and leg shackles they have brought up with them.

They have been bringing up pieces of the ship since 1997 and are expected to be finished sometime in 2013. Artifacts can be found in various museums around North Carolina and all around the United States. It is the largest archeological project in the country.

Divers began preparing the ship weeks ago for the crane that eventually pulled the cannon to the surface. The sand-encased cannon will be taken to the Beaufort Maritime Museum for public viewing, and then moved to East Carolina University where researchers will work on it.

Maybe Blackbeard has some hidden treasure down there? Fun OBX fact… next time you are in the area make sure you check out all the spots around town where there are known shipwrecks or sunken reefs. There are a ton! If you are an adventure junky you can even go scuba or snorkeling down and see the wrecks. Lots of OBX’ers spearfish around the vessels because the fish hang out near structure. Don’t do this unless you have experience though because the ocean can be a dangerous place if you don’t know what you are doing. There are also restrictions on fishing on some of the wrecks so be careful!

http://www.wavy.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=11212

Hooray for Arrr-cheology! More articles from Blackbeard’s ship recovered

Posted on June 1, 2011

Blackbeard- Edward Teach

Yo, ho, ho a Pirates life for me! Its always awesome to see pieces of history pulled from the bottom of the Atlantic. Underwater archaeologists continue to search for wreckage of Blackbeard’s famous ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, believed to have run aground in the shallow waters of Beaufort, North Carolina over 300 years ago. Days ago in just 20 feet of water divers found the 3,000 pound anchor, belonging to the Queen Anne’s Revenge. The site has already yielded more than 250,000 artifacts, including cannons, gold, platters, glass, beads, shackles and rope, according to the state.

The ship is giving up more than just treasure, it is also revealing many of Blackbeard’s terrorizing tactics and arrays of improvised weapons. The wreckage has yielded multiple cannons believed to have shot canvas bags full of glass, nails, spikes and bolts. Blackbeard was believed to have tried to win battles without fighting at all. In true pirate fashion, he wanted to take over vessels by eliminating the crew while keeping the boat from being damaged.

Conservation of the anchor and other artifacts may take years but for now it is just a great day in history and hopefully there will be many more. We are excited about the discovery but we ran across theghostofblackbeard on twitter and he didn’t seem to happy about it. Funny, he has been running around the OBX lately.

More Secrets of Blackbeard’s Shipwreck Revealed

Posted on March 2, 2011

Queen Anne's Revenge - Blackbeard

Yo ho ho a pirates life for me!

After 14 years of digging, archaeologists are certain they’ve discovered the famous Blackbeard flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, just off Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks. After discovering Blackbeard’s sword off the North Carolina Coast, researchers believe they have found more clues about what happened to Blackbeard, his crew, and his ship.

Archaeologists say there is no doubt that what they have been diving on since 1997 is the Queen Anne’s Revenge, officially identified as shipwreck 31 CR 314.

“Absolutely” is what the QAR Project Director and Archaeologist Dr. Mark Wilde-Ramsing says. “There is no question that this could be any other ship.”

But how it got there is still a mystery. Some believe the pirates may have ran the ship aground on purpose. The debris field encompasses an area approximately 90 x 200 feet with a north-south orientation. Finding bits and pieces of the wreckage, coins, navigational instruments, pewter ware, intact bottles, lead shots of many sizes, small arms and gold dust, to name a few, there is still something missing…bodies.

“Everybody got off,” said Sr. Wilde-Ramsing. “We are not finding any human remains and actually there is very good evidence that they got off because we are not finding any clothing.”

With over half of the artifacts discovered, divers set a goal to find the rest by 2013. Weather conditions determine the dive schedule. It can be calm underwater, yet storms can cause limited visibility. Future dives will undoubtedly answer many questions surrounding Blackbeard and his ships, and confirm the Outer Banks truly is the Graveyard of the Atlantic

Blackbeard’s Sword Discovered Off the North Carolina Coast?

Posted on January 15, 2011

Blackbeard the Pirate

The infamous Mr. Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard the Pirate, is back in the news.

A team of archeologists has been excavating the famed bandit’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge (a converted French merchant ship), since 1997, and Time Magazine is reporting that the team may have discovered Blackbeard’s sword.

National Geographic has pictures online of the recovered objects.

The Time Magazine article offers some interesting Blackbeard facts and a quick synopsis of the buccaneer’s final days:

Blackbeard’s thick mass of facial hair was so menacing that it has been immortalized in history.
Among the first pirates to fly the black flag with bones on it.
Had a habit of lighting fuses under his hat to create a threatening halo of smoke around him.
Abandoned the Queen Anne’s Revenge after blockading the port of Charleston, S.C. in 1717, where he and the crew successfully got ransom from the British colonial government for the town and the residents.
British troops out of Virginia eventually found Blackbeard hiding out in Ocracoke Island along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and after a fierce battle, Blackbeard was beheaded.

At least one historian, Kevin Duffus, has a theory that these famed Blackbeard tales may be much exaggerated, and Blackbeard may not have been a pirate at all.

Blackbeard memorial celebrations still occur on Ocracoke Island.

Outer Banks – Rewriting Blackbeard’s History?

Posted on November 18, 2010

Blackbeard the Pirate?

Blackbeard the Pirate.

Next to Johnny Depp, Blackbeard is arguably one of the most famous (or infamous) pirates the world over. “Pirate” is even in his name. Any Outer Banks history buff worth their weight knows of Blackbeard’s pillaging/piracy and hideout along the OBX coast.

Or do we? Are these facts accurate?

Blackbeard expert, writer, and filmmaker, Kevin Duffus has some alternative ideas. Rather than a murderous Englishman, Blackbeard may have been an upstanding Eastern North Carolina resident who only dabbled briefly in piracy.

Well, that’s quite a different perspective!

ENCToday.com covered a recent Duffus lecture in New Bern, NC where he discussed these alternative historical theories. Duffus felt it appropriate to deliver the lecture in New Bern because the area has strong connections to his theory a highly interested audience. The theater was crowded to standing-room-only capacity…I guess he was right.

Duffus’ lecture discusses the material he presents in his 2008 book, The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate. In total, Duffus has published three books and produced four documentaries, all related to Outer Banks history.

Duffus led the audience through his discoveries that provide a compelling argument to rewrite Blackbeard history. Letters and documents indicate that Blackbeard had a sister named Susanna who lived on property along the Neuse River, that he had a high level of familiarity with North Carolina colonial Gov. Eden and an official named Tobias Knight, and that he had never killed a single person.

“I think his name was James Black Beard,” Duffus said, referring to a sea captain and landowner in the Bath, N.C. area. “I can’t prove it. This is all circumstantial evidence.”

James Black Beard was a neighbor of Eden and Knight. The sea captain supposedly died in 1711, but there is no record of his death. Someone paid the property taxes on his land until 1718, the year the pirate Blackbeard was killed following a battle at Ocracoke. Duffus believes that Beard also had a sister, Susanna Beard Franck.

Duffus pieced together the lives and circumstances of numerous people to come to this conclusion. He also found enough evidence to dispel popular accounts in Blackbeard history and to reconstruct the pirate’s whereabouts for the last six months of his life.

His theory involves a Spanish ship that had sunk off the coast of Florida in 1715, leaving a treasure trove of gold and other riches. At the time, the North Carolina economy was faltering, and Duffus believes that Eden had sent James Black Beard and his crew to retrieve some of the booty. By the time they arrived at the wreck site, the Spaniards had already guarded the area. It is then, Duffus thinks, that Blackbeard turned to piracy. Eden also pardoned Blackbeard in the summer of 1718, Duffus said.

Blackbeard the Upstanding Citizen!? Doesn’t really have the same ring to it.

Outer Banks Pirate Bones?

Posted on June 11, 2010

Archeologists in North Carolina are ready to release their grip on a Colonial-era resident who may have been a surviving member of Blackbeard’s pirate crew.

A Superior Court judge ruled the bones found in 1986 should be returned for reburial to the man’s descendants. Raleigh researcher and Outer Banks historian Kevin Duffus thinks the bones are the remains of Edward Salter, a former member of Blackbeard’s pirate crew who died 275 years ago.

Salter escaped being hanged after Blackbeard’s death and became a barrel-maker and respectable member of the colonial port town of Bath.

Duffus has sought genetic testing on the bones to confirm his theory.

Blackbeard Anniversary Celebration on the Outer Banks

Posted on December 8, 2009

The thunder of a cannon sounded across Teach’s Hole on Ocracoke Island as a crowd dressed in pirate garb gathered to celebrate a solemn anniversary, the death of Blackbeard the Pirate.

The second Annual Blackbeard Pirate Memorial was held on Nov 22nd. Re-enactors were there to act out the story of the ruthless pirate. The event is held on the same date of Blackbeard’s death, which happened almost 300 years ago.

There were about 15 pirates at this year’s event, all dressed in authentic pirate attire, including cutlasses and flintlock pistols. They stayed, appropriately enough, at Blackbeard’s Lodge on Ocracoke’s Back Road, where on Saturday night they watched the Disney movie “Blackbeard’s Ghost.” There is also a replica ship, which took some 10,000 hours to build.

Pirate Bones?

Posted on May 19, 2009

pirate-skull-crossbones Kevin Duffus, Blackbeard historian and author, is attempting to reopen a 274 year old estate of a man from Beaufort County that he thinks was a member of Blackbeard’s pirate crew.

Duffus believes the crew members’ bones are stored in a box in Raleigh, and says that he will need access to the estate to clarify if the man was in fact part of Blackbeard’s crew. Edward Slater is the possible crew member’s name, a landowner and merchant who died in 1735.

With a little help from Slater’s descendants, Duffus is planning to run a series of DNA tests to determine whether or not the bones are of Edward Slater. If the bones prove to be Slater’s, history could be rewritten. Duffus believes that if the bones are in fact Slater’s, this will prove that not all of Blackbeard’s pirates were murdered in Williamsburg, VA, as popular history states.

State officials have neglected to recognize Dufus’ petition to be named executor of the estate. State law provided that the state archaeologist is required to preserve human remains that are in state custody. Brian Blount of Springfield, MO, is supporting Duffus’ suggestion, and is considered Slater’s grandson times seven. He testified in court in support of Duffus’ petition. Supporters of this petition will also help support a fund to pay for the DNA analysis, which is estimated to cost about $1200.

Blackbeard’s Ship Found Off the Coast of the Outer Banks?

Posted on April 23, 2009

Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard the Pirate, is quite possibly the most famous pirate that ever roamed the earth. PBS aired a show last night at that discussed the life of Blackbeard and his journeys pillaging at sea.

There was a time during his reign of terror that he commanded four ships that consisted of a crew 400 strong. The crews were unrelenting, pillaging ships all across the Atlantic. Many of these vessels were terrorized in American waters. In the year of 1718, Blackbeard blockaded the city of Charleston, which had great impact of the city’s economy. Eventually, the pirate was caught and beheaded off the coast of the Outer Banks.

A marine archeology team recently discovered what they believe is Blackbeard’s sunken flagship, The Queen Anne’s Revenge, off the OBX coast. They are hoping that this discovery will help answer some long enduring questions about Blackbeard’s life and death. Check local listings for details and scheduled reruns.