New series: Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Gil Gaul dives into newspaper clippings, archives and other sources to reveal the complex story of the New Jersey artist, outdoorsman, developer and speculator who filled miles of Outer Banks beaches with hundreds of houses.
Our Coast
Wharf pilings and sawdust: Visiting Hyde’s lost villages
Drawing from maps created by a teacher and his students, historian David Cecelski aims to get a feel for the lumber mill villages in Hyde County that have long since disappeared.
Edenton’s history ‘an everyday part of life’ for its residents
The Chowan County town of 5,000 boasts one of the largest groups of historic buildings in North Carolina, numerous notable figures from the past and the distinction of creating the state’s the historic preservation movement.
Outrigger club completes second leg of coastal NC trek
Wrightsville Beach Outrigger Canoe Club paddlers recently completed a three-day, 125-mile journey from Swansboro to Cape Hatteras in a traditional oceangoing Polynesian canoe to raise awareness of risks to water quality.
Road to Makatoka: Logging the Green Swamp, 1910-1930
Early 20th century photographs of the Waccamaw Lumber Co.’s operations in Columbus and Brunswick counties also depict an almost Wild West-like society of loggers and lumbermen.
Long a destination, Morehead City on road to change
Historical analysis: Morehead City, incorporated in 1857 and planned around a proposed railroad line connecting the coast to the Piedmont, could see its transportation importance and infrastructure grow significantly in the years ahead.
Tonya Sanders’ love of fishing leads to online support group
The Wilmington native’s Facebook group, Female Fishing Fanatics, is open to all anglers, but is specifically a safe haven for women to be able to post their catches without fear of online harassment.
Petrels ‘little superheroes’ to researcher Kate Sutherland
UNCW researcher and Hatteras Island resident Kate Sutherland studies the chemical isotopes of the feathers from black-capped petrels, a difficult-to-study, endangered pelagic birds species.
Murray Bridges, NC soft-crab industry pioneer, dies at 89
Bridges, who owned and operated Endurance Seafood Co. off Colington Road since 1976, was the second person confirmed to have died from Vibrio in Dare County since July.
The trouble at the Woodville convict labor camp
Historian David Cecelski shares an excerpt about a brief strike in April 1935 at a convict labor camp in Perquimans County from Dr. Susan Thomas’ dissertation that examines the history of the largely African American chain gangs that built public roads in the early 20th century.
Coastal stays have raised $12,000 via Coins for Conservation
Beaufort innkeepers Jay Tervo and Barbara McKenzie have raised more than $12,000 through the program they created to benefit the coastal environment.
Crafty fly fisher Kristi Irvin finds joy in tying one on
The Kitty Hawk resident is no stereotypical fly fisher, but she may have learned a thing or two from some who were.
The migrants in potato fields during the Great Depression
Historian David Cecelski discovers a chapter in eastern NC’s history about the migrant farm workers that harvested crops in the 1930s and ’40s while exploring Farm Security Administration photographs at the Library of Congress.
NC Coastal Federation to recognize conservation efforts
The North Carolina Coastal Federation is recognizing Saturday environmental stewards devoted to protecting the state’s coast.
Red knots make Outer Banks stopover on spring migration
Red knots, which stopover on Ocracoke during their spring migration, have been a source of concern due to the rapid decline of its population linked to a drastic decrease of their food source, horseshoe crab eggs.
Refuge exudes natural diversity, wonders of pocosin lakes
Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge may be “the Yellowstone of the East,” according to Wendy Stanton, who manages the refuge teeming with wildlife that welcomes more than 30,000 visitors annually.
