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Consilience
Figure 2: Boat arriving in Nags Head with summer residents (date unknown). Source: Outer Banks History Center into the [military] service‖ (Interview, 2010). The North Carolina compulsory school law was not enacted until 1914, when all Nags Head children were required to commute to the nearby school established in Manteo. Because of its early isolation, Nags Head‘s body of knowledge was very specific to the town and its immediate maritime environment. Most Outer Bankers knew how to fish, hunt, grow food, cook, raise animals, brew home remedies, and generally sustain themselves with minimal outside assistance, except for the rare visit to a doctor in Manteo, located across the Roanoke Sound. Knowledge about these basic and general practices was passed orally within and among households with relative ease (Jones & Glass, 1987). By the early 19th century, summer residents began arriving regularly. As these early tourists trickled in, marked divisions began to form between the permanent and summer residents. Interviews with members of both groups underscore the existence of that divide. According to one summer resident, ―[The year-rounders] were friends. But they weren‘t social friends…we were very careful to stay on the right side of ‗em‖ (Interview, 2010). Trust was already in a form of breakdown at this early stage. One element that served to bring the two populations together, however, was manual labor, as when more manpower was needed to accomplish certain tasks, such as hauling in fish nets. Another summer resident remembers having only her parents around to talk to when her family first visited Nags Head, because interactions with permanent residents rarely occurred. Eventually, however, she was able to get to know local fishermen by helping to pull nets in on the beach (Interview, 2010). For most people, these minimal interactions were insufficient to foster a real connection. Instead, because of their long stays, summer residents formed strong bonds among one another and were able to reestablish those relationships each summer. The first paved road between the Northern Outer Banks and the more southerly region where Nags Head was located was completed in the early 1930s. The paved road from Manteo to Nags Head was finished a few decades later. One