Little-known stories of North Carolina’s celebrated barrier islands, with photos included. The history of North Carolina's Outer Banks is as ancient and mesmerizing as its beaches. Much has been documented, but many stories were lost—until now. Join local historian Sarah Downing as she reveals a past of the Outer Banks eroded by time and tides. Revel in the nostalgic days of the Carolina Beach Pavilion, stand in the shadows of windmills that once lined the coast, and learn how native islanders honor those aviation giants, the Wright brothers. Downing’s vignettes venture through windswept dunes, dive deep in search of the lost ironclad the Monitor, and lament the decline of the diamondback terrapin. Break out the beach chair and let your mind soak in the salty bygone days of these famed coastal extremities.

The Outer Banks is much more than an idyllic vacation destination. A day at a time through history, it has claimed its place as a colorful region of the Old North State. Author and historian Sarah Downing offers a daily look at the quirky and fascinating stories from the region's four-hundred-year history. During a fierce hand-to-hand battle off Ocracoke Island on November 22, 1718, Lieutenant Robert Maynard killed the infamous pirate Blackbeard with five pistol shots and twenty sword cuts and slashes. On February 14, 1992, a sick seal caught a ride to safety on a Coast Guard patrol boat. Add a salty slice of history a day or a month at time with this celebration of Outer Banks heritage.

Connecting communities from Corolla in the north to Ocracoke Island in the south, scenic North Carolina Highway 12 binds together the fragile barrier islands that make up the Outer Banks. Throughout its lifetime, however, NC 12 has faced many challenges—from recurring storms and shifting sands to legal and political disputes—that have threatened this remarkable highway's very existence. Through the unique lens of the road's rich history, Dawson Carr tells the story of the Outer Banks as it has unfolded since a time when locals used oxcarts to pull provisions from harbors to their homes and the Wright Brothers struggled over mountainous dunes. Throughout, Carr captures the personal stories of those who have loved and lived on the Outer Banks. As Carr relates the importance of NC 12 and its transformation from a string of beach roads to a scenic byway joining miles of islands, he also chronicles the history of a region over the last eighty-five years, showing how the highway and the residents of the Outer Banks came to rely on each other.

A collection of fifteen tales from North Carolina's coast.

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.

Ever since ships began navigating the coast of North Carolina, the area has maintained a reputation for being dangerous. Weather, geography, war, piracy, and human error have all contributed to this dense shipwreck zone. Today, the region that stretches from the Currituck Outer Banks south to Bogue Banks is referred to as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." From the 1585 grounding of the English ship Tiger off the Outer Banks to the 2012 loss of the Bounty, more than 2,000 shipwrecks have occurred in the Graveyard of the Atlantic. The stories behind the shipwrecks illustrate the best and worst of mankind, showing courage and compassion as well as the atrocities of war. This history informs readers about commerce, technology, war, environment, maritime life, and the complexity of the human element.

*National Bestseller* A sweeping account of America's oldest unsolved mystery, the people racing to unearth its answer, and the sobering truths--about race, gender, and immigration--exposed by the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. In 1587, 115 men, women, and children arrived at Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina. Chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, their colony was to establish England's first foothold in the New World. But when the colony's leader, John White, returned to Roanoke from a resupply mission, his settlers were nowhere to be found. They left behind only a single clue--a "secret token" carved into a tree. Neither White nor any other European laid eyes on the colonists again. What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke? For four hundred years, that question has consumed historians and amateur sleuths, leading only to dead ends and hoaxes. But after a chance encounter with a British archaeologist, journalist Andrew Lawler discovered that solid answers to the mystery were within reach. He set out to unravel the enigma of the lost settlers, accompanying competing researchers, each hoping to be the first to solve its riddle. Thrilling and absorbing, The Secret Token offers a new understanding not just of the first English settlement in the New World but of how the mystery and significance of its disappearance continues to define and divide our country.