The history of Hatteras Island is fascinating, and the residents here remember and honor its history, from storms and shipwrecks to lifesaving heroes and lighthouse keepers. Read on to learn more, but also visit Hatteras’s attractions, where the stories are told in more detail.
The early history of the island is evident in some of the unique names you’ll hear — Hatteras, Kinnakeet, Chicamacomico, Ocracoke. These names are English derivatives of Native American words. The Croatan “Indians,” members of the Algonquin tribe, were full-time residents of Hatteras, and their artifacts are frequently found here. If you are interested in this history, be sure to visit the Frisco Native American Museum in Frisco.
Europeans first came to Hatteras Island in the sixteenth century, starting with Spanish explorers about 1524. English explorers came in 1585. The famous “lost colony” stopped on Hatteras Island in 1587 before settling on Roanoke Island. It’s said the colonists made friends with the Croatans, and some historians believe this is where the lost colonists headed when they left Roanoke Island.
Europeans began settling on the island in the 1700s, mainly moving from inland locations in Virginia and North Carolina. Kinnakeet (now Avon) was the first area to be colonized. In those days, Hatteras was referred to as the “Hatteras Sand Banks,” for it was just a wide expanse of sand with forested areas on the soundside. The arrival of European settlers, in addition to warring among tribes, proved hard on the Croatans. All Native Americans were said to be gone from Hatteras Island by 1788.
Shipwrecks were extremely common off Hatteras Island in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly near Cape Hatteras, earning the waters offshore the name “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.” Alexander Hamilton began pushing Congress for a lighthouse at Cape Hatteras as early as 1789, but it wasn’t until 1802 that a lighthouse was established there. The current lighthouse was built in 1870.
In 1846, the shape of the island changed dramatically when a hurricane opened two new inlets – Oregon Inlet and Hatteras Inlet, separating the island on the north end from Bodie Island and on the south end from Ocracoke Island. Hatteras Inlet, however, brought new prosperity to Hatteras Village as it became a major shipping lane. By 1850 a census indicates that about 1,000 people lived on Hatteras Island.
In 1861, Confederate troops erected two forts to protect Hatteras Inlet — Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark. Only a month later, the Union captured both forts and held control of them for the rest of the war. A small skirmish known as the Chicamacomico Races also took place on Hatteras during the Civil War. You can find two Civil War markers in the parking lot of the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum and another in Rodanthe.
In 1874, the U.S. Lifesaving Service established life-saving stations at Chicamacomico and Kinnakeet on Hatteras Island. Later, they established seven additional stations on the island. The life-saving station crews were responsible for saving lives during shipwrecks, and they performed miraculous rescues along the Outer Banks. The first all-black crew in the nation served at Pea Island.
Cape Hatteras was also a crucial weather-forecasting location along the East Coast. In 1901, the U.S. Weather Bureau built a weather station in Hatteras Village. The building is still there today, and it’s now an Outer Banks welcome center.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the first tourists began coming to Hatteras Island. These were sportsmen who came to hunt and fish. There were several hunt clubs on the island, but these are all gone now.
In 1935, during the Depression, the federal government sent CCC and WPA workers to Hatteras to do work projects, one of which was to construct the extensive row of dunes that lines the entire oceanfront of the island.
The idea for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore came about in 1935, but it took a while for the park to become a reality. For one thing, World War II interfered in the plans. During the war, German U-boat subs sank more than five dozen vessels in N.C. waters, many of them off Cape Hatteras, which earned the moniker “Torpedo Junction.”
After the war, life was slow on Hatteras, though recreational fishing was picking up, which brought in a new crew of visitors. There was a ferry across Oregon Inlet, but the island did not have a paved road, so tourism was not exactly booming. North Carolina Highway 12 was finally constructed and paved in 1952.
In 1958, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore was finally established, and then more and more people began lining up to take the ferry to Hatteras Island. In 1963, the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge was completed, and Hatteras Island changed forever — vacationers have been streaming onto the island ever since. Hatteras Island now sees more than 3 million visitors every year. |
