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Ocracoke Island: A Magical Adventure

© Stephen Strother

It is hard for me to write about Ocracoke Island, NC because it is difficult for me to write about something I do not completely understand. Although I have visited this place only three times in my life it has had a profound effect on me. It is the effect that Ocracoke has on me that I have trouble comprehending. In some very splendid ways it is different from any other beach location I have ever visited, and yet I feel that there is so much more to Ocracoke than what I currently know.

To fully explain what Ocracoke is like, it is necessary for me to include some introductory information about its location and history. Ocracoke is one of many barrier islands in a chain called the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks are located on the Atlantic Ocean in the northeastern and central coastal region of North Carolina. Each island is separated from the mainland by one of several large bodies of brackish water called sounds. Pamlico Sound is by far the largest of these associated with the Outer Banks. All of the Outer Banks islands are very fragile strips of sand clinging stubbornly to their position off the mainland. They are constantly changing and slowly moving as a result of both the frequent storms that pass through the area as well as the constant erosion and redepositing of sand by the tides. For me there is a mystique to these barrier islands.

The history of the Outer Banks certainly adds to the area's mystique. It was on one of these islands that Sir Walter Raleigh established what was the first permanent English settlement in North America (a settlement now called the Lost Colony since all its inhabitants vanished mysteriously - their true fate is still unknown). The legendary pirate, Blackbeard, also called these islands and the waterways between them his home. He briefly terrorized colonial inhabitants of this area in the early eighteenth century before being killed near Ocracoke. And of course Orville and Wilbur Wright took their legendary first flight (effectively giving birth to modern aviation) from a sand dune at Kitty Hawk, NC on Bodie Island.

Finally there is the nature of the Outer Banks which adds to the mystique – the pounding surf, the constant and usually gentle breeze, the salt marshes, the Pamlico, Albemarle, and Currituck Sounds, the sea gulls, the sea turtles. I could go on forever.

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