The Currituck Outer Banks was once a beach land wilderness inhabited by indigenous Poteskeet people before being explored by the Spanish and claimed by the English. Early settlers made a hardscrabble living by small-scale fishing, farming, processing whales, and salvaging shipwrecks. Life changed in 1828 when an inlet closed, and thousands of ducks and geese descended upon the sound's waters. Locals took up wildfowl market hunting. Northern sportsmen bought marshland acres and built exclusive shooting clubs. The most ostentatious, the Whalehead Club in the heart of Corolla, embodies that golden era, which lasted 100 years. The area became more than a hunting destination when the first lifesaving station was built at Jones Hill to mitigate the loss of life from shipwrecks. Further shoreline protection came when the red-bricked Currituck Beach Lighthouse was completed in 1875. By 1970, extreme isolation and a population that fell to 15 people allowed wild horses to flourish. In 1984, a controversial paved road to the northern beaches encouraged rapid development and put the Corolla area on the map as a sought-after vacation destination. --Amazon.com.

Painfully remote in the time of the Wright brothers, today the Outer Banks famously welcomes millions of visitors each year. The journey from early isolation to popularity is recalled with remarkable insight by Ernie Bowden, a sixth-generation Outer Banker. On any given day, Ernie was a sailor, cattle baron, salvage specialist, hunter, fisherman, legal expert and elected official all at once. Born just after the end of World War I, his memories stretch from the isolation of the early twentieth century through the glamor of the world-famous duck clubs of the area and the storms that have shaped its modern-day geography. Aided by author Clark Twiddy, Ernie tells the tales of a unique life spent in this unique place.

Before sleek factory boats dominated Currituck Sound, locals piloted these waters in hulls made by hand. Some still can be seen today--beautiful works of art designed for the utility of travel, fishing, hunting, scouting and touring. They figure prominently in recollections of a bygone sportsman's paradise, and native storyteller Travis Morris offers this engaging collection based on anecdotes, interviews and detailed craft descriptions. It's an insider's history of Currituck's boating heritage featuring the famed Whalehead Club, an accidental run-in with the Environmental Protection Agency and a harrowing U.S. Coast Guard rescue.

Painfully remote in the time of the Wright brothers, today the Outer Banks famously welcomes millions of visitors each year. The journey from early isolation to popularity is recalled with remarkable insight by Ernie Bowden, a sixth-generation Outer Banker. On any given day, Ernie was a sailor, cattle baron, salvage specialist, hunter, fisherman, legal expert and elected official all at once. Born just after the end of World War I, his memories stretch from the isolation of the early twentieth century through the glamor of the world-famous duck clubs of the area and the storms that have shaped its modern-day geography. Aided by author Clark Twiddy, Ernie tells the tales of a unique life spent in this unique place.

Loosely autobiographical, thirty vignettes make up this collection that features a wide range of equine stories, each sharing a sense of love, loss, and survival.

From January to July 1942, more than seventy-five ships sank to North Carolina's "Graveyard of the Atlantic" off the coast of the Outer Banks. German U-boats sank ships in some of the most harrowing sea fighting close to America's shore. Germany's Operation Drumbeat, led by Admiral Karl Donitz, brought fear to the local communities. A Standard oil tanker sank just sixty miles from Cape Hatteras. The U-85 was the first U-boat sunk by American surface forces, and local divers later discovered a rare Enigma machine aboard. Author Jim Bunch traces the destructive history of world war on the shores of the Outer Banks.