NC Core Sound, Sea Level, Atlantic, Cedar Island

     Today we are moving northward along the inland side of Core Sound NC, along a sort of peninsula whose end defines the boundary between Core Sound and Pamlico Sound.  Every now and then you can catch glimpses of North Carolina's Outer Banks, thin ribbons of sand a few miles out to sea.

     We pass towns with names like Marshallberg, Davis, Sea Level and Atlantic.  These are small fishing towns, many of which found their origin in the early 1700's as camps.

     Everywhere you look are boats.  Not the pleasure craft - not yachts or sailboats, but working boats of many shapes and sizes.

     In fact it seems that about every house has a working boat of some type or another either in the yard or in a creek or inlet alongside the property.

     The boat building skills that developed on Harkers Island were passed along to these areas; most of the boats you see here were built by locals - and in many cases by the person who it belongs to.

     There are a few smaller trawlers sprinkled in the mix.

     But for the most part they are smaller craft.

     At first glance it appears that fishing in this area is thriving.

     But upon closer inspection you see that most of the boats are in sad repair - many of them look barely seaworthy.

    Everywhere you look are piers and docks that "used to be."

     Nets that cost two thousand dollars and up are left carelessly lying about - some of them in rapid decay.

     You begin to notice the stores - the infrastructure.  Most of it is in one stage of decay or another.

     PRain water now leaks through windows and roofs of places that not long ago were hubs of social activity.

     Small towns with populations of a few hundred have thirty, forty, even fifty houses sitting vacant.

     And then there are the fisheries - packing houses that were busily supplying seafood for much of the nation - decaying and falling into the sea.

     One thing I alway like to do is to find spots where locals hang out, especially in the mornings,and sit quietly editing photos while they chat.  In these areas the conversations are mostly about what used to be and about who else is closing up shop or moving out.

     I listened to a tale this morning of the area's last open fishery.  The owner had bought 50,000 lbs of clams from locals and shipped them to a fellow in Buffalo NY. The guy in Buffalo said they were spoiled and he wasn't paying for them.  

     Now, these people have been dealing with seafood for centuries, and they know the clams weren't spoiled.  But according to the conversation that represents at least $15,000 out of the fishery owner's pocket - money that may put him under for good.

     Sometimes I hear things so funny that I have to fight from laughing out loud.  This morning the conversation ran to a local fellow who has just discovered that his second child - like his first - is autistic.

     "I guarantee you what it is" said one fellow in his deep brogue.  "Its that woman he married - she's from Pennsylvania and there is lots of inbreeding going on up there."

     Having grown up next door to Pennsylvania in Ohio, it was all I could do not to laugh.  When we grew up everyone said the inbreeders were in West Virginia.  I wonder where West Virginians think the inbreeding is going on?

     The sign post at the top end of NC State Rt. 70 seems to say it best.

     You don't have to look far to start noticing the once proud working boats that are grounded and in decay - little more than heaps of trash now.

      During our recent visit to Harkers Island we saw how much work it takes to build these craft.  After having just seen all of the work it takes to make these boats, we can just glimpse the pain that the folks who built and operated these boats feel.

     In the midst of it all is a great rustic beauty.  Spring wildflowers are in full bloom.

     A few of the boats are still operating.  But selling their product is another issue altogether.  In one town five fisheries have closed and only one remains open - and that one only operates a couple of days a week.

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     Moving still further north we cross a long causeway across Thorofare Bay.  There are trenches of water along both sides of the causeway where the dirt was taken to build them.  Elevation of this road?  About three feet.

      We arrive at Cedar Island, which many believe was the location of the lost colony of Roanoke back in the 1600's.

     Of an interesting note - early settlers mistook the islands lush population of juniper trees for cedars - hence the island is misnamed.

     We meet Rodrick Emery, who in June will have lived on this island for 86 years.

     Rodrick tools around the island on his bike and takes a constant ribbing from his fellows for his penny-pinching ways.  Maybe riding his bike a few miles every day is why he remains so spry at his age.

     But if you want to know about what has happened here since the 1920's, Rodrick is the man to ask.

     It seems that German U-Boats sunk several oil freighters just offshore here, and Rodrick says you could see them burning like huge flares for many hours.  All of the shores of the island were covered with a heavy oil slick.

     Then in the 1960's the military decided they needed this spot for radar tracking stations to use for the Apollo Spacecraft launches down in Cape Canaveral Florida.  So, they confiscated over half of the island and pushed the residents off.  They have since torn down most of the installations, and according to Rodrick they wanted to put in some canals for ease of access.  But, another federal agency is fighting them on it, so it has been let go for now.  Now huge tracts of land are supposedly a "nature preserve." But there are no trails, no access to the land and no one gets any benefit from that 300,000 plus acres.

     Rodrick pities those with cars - with the loss of the fishing industry all four gas stations that used to be on the island have closed.  Now residents have to drive twenty to thirty miles to get gasoline for their cars.  There is talk of a small country store getting gas pumps, but right now they are hung up on regulations.

     Rodney is no fan of regulations - he talks about how the fishing industry has been hurt so bad by laws piled on top of laws that Rangers and Fish and Wildlife management folks now outnumber fisherman by a margin of two to one.  Between largely unregulated imports of seafood, the tough restrictions on US fishermen and the problems that poorly designed laws have caused there isn't much way for a fellow to support a family from the sea anymore.

     For instance, he says, all manner of restriction has been put on harvesting large predator fish. This has just about wiped out the populations of smaller fish and other species like squid.  And with all of the fisheries shut down, he figures that the era has passed.  It would take too much to get the industry back up and going.

     They were talking about one young fellow who inherited twenty thousand dollars from his mother last year and spent most of it on crab pots.  Those "in the know" hate it for this fellow, because they "know" the game is so rigged against him that he won't be able to make a living.  They respect that he wants to carry on a tradition, but wish he had spent his money going to school somewhere and learning a viable trade.

     How long will it take until the expansion of the "McMansion" areas to the south take over these areas too?  There are mixed feelings, and while land owners would like to be able to get out they also don't want to let go of what was not that long ago.  

     But, remember, these people have been wresting life from the sea for several centuries now - they are very creative people and of a hardy stock.  Given the least opportunity they will make something work - I wouldn't be against them just yet.

     Today's "Faces in the Crowd" photos - the first is of a rather cantankerous fellow who dissuaded me from taking photos at one of the abandoned fisheries.

     And after his bleating and thrashing about, there was no way I was going to risk anything with this guy.

     Which brings us to today's parting shot.

     I guess the yacht clubs are already moving in.

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Have a great day !!

David

NC Harkers Island, Decoy Carvers, Core Sound Museum, Cape Lookout National Seashore

     This is the second entry on Harkers Island - if you missed the first article, please Click Here. 

     Harkers Island's population grew considerably in 1899 when a violent hurricane came through this area.  Shackleford Banks, which is the island that runs parallel to the coast just south of Cape Lookout was on the eye of the hurricane.  There had been a whaling and fishing village named Diamond City that sat atop a 40 dune.  The hurricane wiped out the dune - and most of the town with it. Seeing how vulnerable they were, the majority of the survivors moved to Harkers Island, just across the sound.

     These were not the first people to abandon Shackleford Island though.  The Spanish were here and took off a few centuries earlier.  Just as we saw When we Visited Cumberland Island, Ga, the only real remnant of the Spanish is the descendants of the horses they left behind.

    Unlike Cumberland where the horses have a lot of dense underbrush to hide in, on Shackleford Island they are pretty easy to spot.  Above is a flier on the wall at the ranger station on Harkers Island, which shows how closely the locals here track these horses.

     Harkers Island still has a lot of that "small town" feel, but it is rapidly being developed.

     Many of the shoreline properties belonged to fishermen or boat builders.  Since regulations and imports have strangled both industries here, many have opted to sell their prime real estate and get out.

     But there are many of the old structures left.  

     Several old fisheries have long shut down - here is one with a for sale sign on it.

     As these properties get sold, one by one, folks with enough money to build a second home or a vacation rental property snatch the lots up and build.   

     As these huge homes are built, property values increase.  As property values increase, taxes go up.  Those who are already struggling from the the loss of their livelihood are forced to sell.  And the cycle repeats - a cycle that has become an old tale in these coastal communities.

      And as we saw on Daufuskie Island in South Carolina, many of those who lived on their lands for subsistence have had their properties literally stolen when they get behind on taxes.  It is not mine to judge whether losing these cultures is a good or bad thing, but it is nice to see pockets of variety after being in so many areas begin to appear generic for their duplication.

     One thing noted here from early times are the winds that blow through this area.  Many places talk about their sea breeze - here it is more often a stiff breeze or fairly windy.  All about the island are trees who have yielded, but not surrendered, to this unrelenting force.

     I really liked this next one - kind of a naturally made umbrella for the picnic table.  You could actually fit several under its sweeping branches.

     This outer tip of the island is the main offices of the Cape Lookout National Seashore. 

     

     From here ferries run out to Shackleford Banks or to the lighthouse.  There are also the archaeological remains of several long gone settlements out on these banks.

     About a quarter of the ranger station serves as a visitor center, museum and theater.

     I highly recommend the video that is played here - it is the best of any National or State presentation I have seen.  It is narrated by Meryl Streep and covers the geography and a bit of the history of the area.  It is really a work of art - I went back to watch it again on my second day here.

     Next door is a great community museum.

     You can tell the museum was put together by a number of talented people who really care about the heritage of this area.  It includes a large conference hall that is used for teaching local crafts and promoting local art.

     This is a view from an upper balcony - two levels further up is a catwalk from which you can look out over the sound.  I didn't have time to go into the quilt making in this area, but it is the best I have seen.  Perhaps this is descended from the skills required to hand weave the nets for the ocean trawlers.

     The story I want to focus on here is ducks - wooden ducks.   Ducks that are made of wood and painted.

     But not the two dimensional kind.  Three dimensional hand carved ducks that are used as decoys to lure ducks in for hunters.

     The museum has hundreds of locally crafted duck decoys.  This is not an everyday collection - and duck carving is not just an occasional hobby for some.  In 2007, a pair of ducks carved in the 1915 through 1917 era by one Elmer Crowell fetched $ 1.1 million.  In that same auction, 31 old decoys brought a total of $ 7.5 million.

      These carvings encompass a huge variety of waterfowl and use a wide variety of mediums to form them.  Most popular today of course is the wooden duck.

     The Core Sound Decoy Carver's Guild has their own meeting place complete with a training center on the other end of the island, and annual contests are a big deal.  The big contest each December draws upward of 2,500 folks.

     I didn't see much on the history of duck carving on this island, but a few photos suggest that it goes back a long way.

     This is a skill taught to the European settlers by the American Indians.  Remnants of duck decoys over 2,000 years old have been found; remarkable works crafted out of grasses and reeds.  So it would not be surprising if the tradition of decoy building on this island predates European settlement.  There are however records of Europeans tying a live captive duck to a stake to attract other birds.   (Hence the alternate definition of the word "drake" which means a living bait used to lure prey.)

    So this originally was a utilitarian craft - these were necessary implements  if you wanted to successfully hunt waterfowl.  There were no picture books or instructions - what you needed was a block of wood, an axe, a knife and a good eye that could recreate the shape and coloration of the specie you were hunting.

     With all of the boat building on this island, there probably was an ample supply of good pieces of dried wood to use, and with the frequent storms that hit the area there undoubtedly was ample time for fishermen to sit and carve their decoys in preparation for hunting season.

     While there has not been an easily recognized historical figure for this craft in generations past, there is one now.  Meet Wayne Davis.

     Now, I met and talked with Mr. Davis for better than an hour, but most of what I can tell you about him had to come from others.  He is soft spoken and quick to talk about the talents and accomplishments of others rather than his own.  Among many other things, he was the first Fire Chief here on Harkers Island.  (The photos yesterday of the model boat building plant were in his shop.)

     Wayne started making ducks in his early teens - and his first few efforts were not of the solid wood variety - they are what is called "canvas backs."

     These are decoys built with ribbing over which canvas is stretched and painted.  They are not nearly as common as the full wooden variety.

     Wayne built his woodshop on a pond where migrating ducks frequently land.

     It is a peaceful spot, and currently Wayne has a few dozen ducks under construction.  Tupelo Gum wood is the favorite wood - it is dense and yet easy to carve.  It also stands up over time better - it doesn't tend to develop cracks after a few years.  

     Wayne carves and paints over sixty species of waterfowl.  Here is a shelf with some of his miniatures.

     Wayne has made over 8,000 ducks since he started carving in 1957 - quite a number.  He sells his miniatures for under $50, but when they are auctioned many have brought double that.  The value of a decoy, like any piece of art, is tied to the quality of the reputation of the artist.  Other full sized duck's of Wayne's have brought $3,000 at auction.  

     Complementing Wayne's artistry is what I am told is the best buoy painter in North Carolina - his wife of 47 years, Lana.  

     On top of raising three children (7 grands now,) this couple has built a thriving gift shop here on Harkers Island.

     In keeping with the island's nature, much of the gift shop floor displays items of a wide variety that are crafted by locals.

    28 year ago on his birthday, Wayne used about starting a club for local decoy carvers.

     He took action on that thought, and the guild that resulted now attracts thousands of visitors a year to the island.  Last Saturday was a loon carving competition, and there must have been a hundred or hundred and fifty here just for that event.

     The talent of these folks cannot be overstated.  These are pieces of art - one would hate to actually put one in the water.

     As they have grown more artistic in nature, the poses struck have become more diverse as well.

     Most of these are in glass display cases, so the photography doesn't really do them justice.  

     So, where the boat building skill is being rapidly lost, the decoy carving skill is actually being enhanced.  There are a couple of teaching classrooms for the art about the island, and a good number of the island's young folks are embracing it.  

   Upstairs at the local museum, the exhibits celebrate the histories of many of the surrounding towns.

     They have interesting names - Salter Path Sea Level, Atlantic - and each town here has its own unique bits of personality.

     If you want a sit-down meal when you visit Harkers Island, I recommend The Fish Hook.

     There was a restaurant that was open for many years by a beloved local lady who passed on a while back.  After sitting vacant for a spell, it was taken over and reopened by Heather Brushwood of nearby Cape Hatteras.

     Heather's place has the only good Wifi I could find on the island, and Heather took it upon herself to feed me the couple of days I was here.  Having cared deeply for the previous owner of this restaurant, the locals have been a bit slow to respond to a new owner.  But they are starting to frequent it - no one can stay away from awesome food for too long.  I hope the best for Heather and her clan.

     Which brings us to today's "Faces in the Crowd."

     

     This was one of the hand carved and painted birds at the Guild's clubhouse.  

     And today's parting shot - 

Turn-about is fair play, eh?

Click Here if you can contribute a few dollars to help with this effort, and Click Here to email me.

Have an awesome day !!
David