Among the affluent planters of the Albemarle, the custom evolved of vacationing in summer at locations such as Nags Head. A distinctive English dialect, called the Ocracoke brogue-featuring the unusual pronunciation of the vowel "i" as "oy," leading to the nickname "Hoi Toiders" for those who speak it-developed and remains as a reminder of the remoteness of past Outer Banks communities. Generally removed from the mainstream, Outer Bankers lived a subsistence lifestyle that combined fishing, the salvaging of shipwrecks, piloting of vessels through inlets, and waterfowl hunting. The importance of this part of the Outer Banks to shipping and travel can be seen later as well, in the construction during the early national period of the Ocracoke Lighthouse, operational in 1819.ĭuring the nineteenth century, the Outer Banks remained remote, physically and culturally isolated from mainland North Carolina. The inlets and isolation made the Banks attractive to pirates and smugglers famed pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach) met his death in the sound waters off Ocracoke, one of his bases of operation. In the eighteenth century, probably the most strategic and most heavily populated area of the Outer Banks centered around the islands of Ocracoke and Portsmouth, where colonial shipping found entrance into the southern Pamlico Sound and on to coastal towns like Bath. After the English failed to establish a permanent settlement at Roanoke Island in the 1580s, few Europeans showed interest in the Outer Banks for the next century and more. Conflicts with Europeans, combined most likely with disease, led to the virtual disappearance of Native American tribes on the Outer Banks by the seventeenth century.ĭuring the colonial period, European settlement on most of the Outer Banks was sparse. Native Americans on Hatteras Island befriended explorers Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe in their reconnaissance mission for Sir Walter Raleigh. Many place names, such as Hatteras, Ocracoke, Kinnakeet, Chicamacomico, Manteo, and Wanchese, bear testimony to these early residents. The first inhabitants of the Outer Banks were Native Americans. Once largely uninhabited except for small villages, the Outer Banks are now a popular tourist destination and the permanent home of increasing numbers of residents. Windswept and remote, the islands were sparsely populated until the paving of roads, the construction of bridges such as the Herbert Bonner Bridge in the 1960s, and the institution of large-scale ferry service between Ocracoke and the mainland and Ocracoke and Hatteras islands. The topography of the Outer Banks is constantly changing, as inlets open and close and beaches narrow and widen. Other North Carolina sounds include Core Sound, Croatan Sound, Currituck Sound, and Roanoke Sound. The state's first permanent settlements were made along its northern shore. Albemarle Sound, the second largest (some 50 miles long and 5 to 14 miles wide), was named after George Monck, duke of Albemarle, one of the Lords Proprietors of the Carolina colony. It is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a part of the Outer Banks and drains into the Atlantic Ocean through Hatteras and Ocracoke Inlets. Pamlico Sound, the largest sound on the East Coast of the United States (and some say the world's largest), is 80 miles long and 15 to 30 miles wide.
OUTBANK NC SERIES
More than 175 miles long, they are separated as much as 30 miles from the mainland by a series of shallow sounds. The Outer Banks are a chain of barrier islands that skirt the coast of North Carolina from the Virginia border to Cape Lookout through Currituck, Dare, Hyde, and Carteret Counties.
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