Road Trip

Destination: Outer Banks, NC

Consider visiting the Outer Banks (OBX) of North Carolina. If you could simply drive south on the beach from Virginia Beach, you could arrive in minutes, but you cannot drive on the Virginia side of a barrier that exists to stop the wild mustangs of Corolla, NC, from traveling up into the Sandbridge area of Virginia. So, you need to travel west on Interstate 64 and then south on state routes and highways, over the Wright Memorial Bridge and into Dare County. You will find it well worth the trip. I am biased. I live in Dare County. We have pristine beaches [1], quaint shops, wild horses, four-wheeling, wreck diving, fishing and history. The area still has a southern, rural feel to it. I live in the town of Nags Head, and recently my brother-in-law, Rick, and his wife visited for the weekend. The wives made reservations to go hang-gliding off of Jockey’s Ridge [2]. Rick and I had a few hours that morning before we had to form the wives’ support team/cheering squad. We grabbed cameras, binoculars and water, and hopped in the Tacoma. The Outer Banks has the nickname “The Graveyard of the Atlantic,” for good reason. Many shipwrecks sit just offshore. After a storm, there is no telling what will wash up. Last fall, a storm uncovered the remains of an unidentified shipwreck and within a month it was once again covered by the sand. Several years ago, a local beachcomber found a cannonball thought to be from Sir Francis Drake’s ship. Drake, an English hero and Queen Elizabeth’s favorite and most successful privateer, sailed back to England in June of 1586 after successfully plundering the Florida coast, and stopped to check on an English colony on Roanoke Island. They lacked food and constantly fought with the native Algonquian people. The group of approximately 100 men pleaded with Drake to take them back to England, which he did. A year later, not to be deterred from what he viewed as a great business

[ by craig jones ]

The string of peninsulas and barrier islands, known as OBX, offers a quiet escape with much to see and do

[ PHOTOS by Rick Blanton ]

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opportunity, Sir Walter Raleigh sent out another colony consisting of 119 men and women. To this day what happened to this Lost Colony remains a mystery. You can walk the grounds where their settlement stood and during the summer months, attend an outdoor play that tells their story, aptly named “The Lost Colony.” In March of this year the latest shipwreck, the Ocean Pursuit, washed up on Coquina Beach [3]. We drove 20 minutes to the beach access on-ramp, across from Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. To drive on the beach, you need a four-wheel drive vehicle with slightly deflated tires and a permit, easily obtained online. We drove south and came upon a closed-off area protecting sea turtles. We gladly walked the half-mile along the beach to the wreck.

Buried deep in the sand we saw the 72-foot-long scallop boat with signs posted to stay off her, and that she was private property. In the 1700s, early settlers here had no qualms with exercising the “finders-keepers” rule when it came to items washed ashore. Some took it a step further. Legend has it the name “Nags Head” came from land pirates who would walk their horses on the highest sand dunes, situated a distance back from the shoreline. They would hang a lantern from a horse’s neck, giving the impression to a ship captain that the light was on a boat safely anchored near shore The unsuspecting captain would sail his ship much closer to shore than he intended, hitting the shoals and losing his precious cargo, providing easy pickings for those on the beach. Rick photographed the Ocean Pursuit and we headed back to the truck. In the early stages of World War II. German U-boats patrolled the North Carolina coast, searching for easy prey and by July 1942, caused more than 5,000 lives lost. Because the government kept this aspect of the war quiet, most Americans had no awareness of the carnage created by the U-boats. We have people still living here today who remember the sounds of guns and sights of ships ablaze, and combing the beach finding oil spills and various ship accouterments. Near the Hatteras Lighthouse, you can visit a small British cemetery with two unknown British seamen whose bodies washed ashore. They came from different ships sunk a year apart by U-boats. You can also visit a gravesite further south on Ocracoke Island. The United Kingdom owns both and every May, the British government holds a formal memorial at both sites. The German navy paid a price. A U-85, a type VIIB German submarine sits on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, 15 miles northeast of where I stood. It was running on the surface when the destroyer USS Roper sank it on the night of April 14, 1942, with no survivors. Four other German U-boats sit at the bottom of the Atlantic. Back in the truck, we headed to Buffalo City, but first we stopped for breakfast at my favorite diner and also local favorite—T.L.’s.—located in the town of Manteo [4]. It doesn’t exactly fit the definition of fine dining, but I love it. Try the breakfast in a bowl—fried eggs over potatoes, bacon, cheese and of course, grits. You can also swap lies with the local fishermen. They might just tell you what’s biting and what the fish are feeding on. With bloated bellies, we drove over the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge that stretches over Croatan Sound, and a 10-minute trip to the Alligator River National Wildlife

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Refuge. As we drove through the refuge to where Buffalo City once stood, we hoped to see black bears; evidence of the bears is seen by the scratches on the Buffalo City post [5]. Buffalo City emerged shortly after the Civil War as the project of carpetbaggers, excuse me, entrepreneurs, from Buffalo, NY. A huge logging operation, it had houses, a general store, post office and churches in addition to the lumber mill and logging equipment. It had a train running through the center of town to haul the logs to the nearby Milltail Creek from the 160,000 acres of cypress and juniper trees. Slowgrowing giant cypress trees can reach heights of 150 feet and live for centuries. There is a cypress tree along the Black River that scientists say is over 2,000 years old. In 1907, Dare Lumber Company took over the logging operation. The workers and their families lived there. At its zenith, Buffalo City, with a population of 3,000, was the most populous town in Dare County. Eventually, the land gave out. I often wonder what the two loggers thought when they cut down the last giant cypress. On January 17, 1920, the establishment of prohibition created another line of work. Stills producing moonshine became plentiful. Buffalo City’s surrounding area was, and still is, known as East Lake, and the moonshine became known as the highly reputable and sought-after East Lake Corn. The work paid better than a dollar a day, and it wasn’t as back-breaking as lumber work, but it contained its own set of risks—“the law.” Prominent families live in Dare County today whose grandparents spent some time away in facilities operated by the government. They transported moonshine using the same route and barges that carried the lumber. Milltail Creek [6] leads to Alligator River, crosses Albemarle Sound to Elizabeth City and then points north. Legend has it that jugs of moonshine still sit at the bottom of Milltail Creek, jettisoned when “the law” showed up unexpectedly. Nothing remains of Buffalo City except for overgrown shrubs and small trees. However, you can still find parts of old docks and metal from the railroad track that ran through the middle of town. At the end of Buffalo City Road, you can park your vehicle and put your kayak into Milltail Creek. Enjoy the beauty and peacefulness as you paddle north towards Alligator River, following the same course that the boats carrying lumber and then moonshine traveled years ago. Perhaps you will come across a jug that has freed itself from the muddy bottom. Not far from Milltail Creek, we spotted a black bear sitting on the roadside and a female with her cubs in a far-off field. Their ancestors walked these same woods. Hopefully, their offspring will roam these same woods forever. I could spend hours driving through Alligator River Refuge, but the wives required our presence at Jockey’s Ridge State Park. When leaving for a day trip to the Outer Banks, when asked your plans, perhaps simply say you’ll enjoy a beach day, maybe do some fishing off one of the piers. No need to say you will be searching for a ghost town, gators, bears and moonshine jugs on the bottom of a certain creek you know. They might just think you’ve been popping the cork on a jug of East Lake Corn.

Craig Jones grew up in Norfolk, graduating from Norview High School and then Old Dominion University where he enrolled in the ROTC. After 22 years in the United States Army, Craig retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Craig and his wife currently reside on the Outer Banks of North Carolina where he is writing a screenplay about a family of moonshiners living in Buffalo City.

Kitty Hawk Kites/Jockey’s Ridge State Park Carolista Drive, MP12 Nags head, NC 27959 www.kittyhawk.com TL’s Family Restaurant 812 US Hwy 64 Manteo, NC 27954 www.facebook.com/TLsFamily-Restaurant-SpecialsPage-277025989308959/