N.C. ferries told to implement new toll system in 2027

Part 1 of a Series

North Carolina’s General Assembly has gone off and done it again – “a’messin’ where they shouldn’t ‘ve been a’messin’” – borrowing from the lyrics of the hit song written by Lee Hazlewood in 1965 and performed by Nancy Sinatra…“These Boots Are Made for Walkin.’”

 

The new state budget includes a requirement to charge tolls on all state ferries, effective Jan. 1, 2027. 

Eliminating the “free state ferry” routes in eastern North Carolina is not only a bad decision, the start date appears to be totally unrealistic.

The ruling, if left unchanged, puts the State of North Carolina on a course to encounter a huge “train wreck at sea.”

Coastal community leaders and local elected officials are pleading for at least a one-year extension. It’s a reasonable request, given all the hurdles that the N.C. Department of Transportation and its Ferry Division must jump over to meet an arbitrary deadline established by the General Assembly.

 

This is a complicated ball of wax, with many tentacles to boot. North Carolina got into the ferry business in 1947, when it began taking over private ferry services. The system has grown steadily over the years, and now North Carolina has the second-largest state-operated ferry system in the nation, serving nearly 2 million passengers a year, trailing only the State of Washington.

 

Today, North Carolina maintains seven regular ferry routes that routinely transport both passengers and their vehicles. 

Three have tolls: Cedar Island-Ocracoke; Swan Quarter-Ocracoke; and Southport-Fort Fisher.

Four do not: Hatteras-Ocracoke; Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach; Currituck-Knotts Island; and Bayview-Aurora. This will change when these routes will implement tolls in 2027. 

Legislators wrote the ferry tolls language into the $34 billion budget bill that was passed July 2, 2026, and signed five days later by Gov. Josh Stein.

There are all sorts of contradictions at play here, and an editorial in the Carteret (N.C.) County News-Times on July 8 touched on a number of them.

Additionally, Gareth McGrath of the Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News, pointed out that the state ferries have traditionally been regarded as an extension of the state’s transportation network – “maritime highways that play the same role for local residents and the coastal economy as traditional asphalt roads and bridges do in the rest of the state.”

Coastal residents and officials assert that the ferries are “vital to small, isolated communities where waterborne transport is the only way to get around,” McGrath said.

They say the ferries are “an extension of the state-run road system that happens to travel over water instead of land, and the ferries should be supported by the state gas tax and registration fees just like other parts of North Carolina’s highway network,” he added.

 

Strong objections were raised by coastal legislators Sen. Bobby Hanig of Currituck County (show above) and Sen. Norman Sanderson of Pamlico County (shown below), but their voices fell on deaf ears.

 

The News-Times editorial pointed out that Sen. Vicki Sawyer of Iredell County argues that the ferry system serves only a small percentage of the state’s population.

 

The editorialist said that Sen. Sawyer lives in the Piedmont, in a “county that is surrounded by major metro markets, predominantly Charlotte-Mecklenburg, where the state has been investing tax dollars to incentivize large multi-national companies to locate in that region.”

“So, her complaint that the state is using taxpayer funds to underwrite the operations of the state’s ferry division is hypocritical – ‘taxpayer support for me but not for thee.’”

Sen. Hanig said the tolling requirement was adopted with “no plan” for implementation, and it’s going to “a bunch of hiccups,” in getting it done.

Boone celebrates ‘Doc Watson Day’ Aug. 14

Updating a previously published column:

Born in 1923, the late Doc Watson became one of North Carolina’s music industry trailblazers.

Raised in Watauga County’s Stony Fork community near Deep Gap, Arthel Lane Watson, was the son of farmers General Dixon Watson and Nancy Annie Greene Watson. Both parents were musically inclined. He directed the local church choir; she was a talented gospel vocalist.

Arthel suffered a rare eye infection as an infant that caused him to go blind. He would later say: “I’d think learning to play the guitar would be very confusing for sighted people.”

He got the nickname Doc early in his career. During a live radio show performance, the announcer suggested that “this musician named Arthel needs a nickname.”

Someone in the audience shouted: “Call him Doc!” – as in Doctor Watson, the sidekick of detective Sherlock Holmes of Scotland Yard (fictional characters created in 1887 by British author Arthur Conan Doyle).

Obviously, the name stuck with Doc Watson for his entire life. (He died in 2012, at age 89.)

The North Carolina House of Representatives wants the state to recognize “Doc Watson Day” every March 3 (his birthday). 

Legislation was introduction in 2023 to applaud Doc Watson as “a guitarist, banjoist, singer and songwriter of bluegrass, country, folk, roots and gospel music, renowned for his fingerpicking and flatpicking skills.”

“Doc Watson’s musical career spanned more than half a century and is most positively identified with his promoting and preserving Appalachian and old-time folk music,” the bill sponsors wrote. 

(The proposal sailed through the House, with a unanimous 107-0 vote. The Senate has yet to consider the bill.)

Doc Watson won seven Grammy Awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

David Holt of Gatesville, Texas, who accompanied Doc Watson on stage from 1998-2012, commented: “If I had to choose one mentor who I have learned the most from it would be Doc Watson. I consider him my ‘musical father.’”

 

“Doc Watson was an American folk legend who left an amazing legacy of music and stories. Hailed as one the country’s greatest folk musicians, Doc carved an indelible mark into American music and culture,” Holt said.

“To be recognized as a national treasure by President Jimmy Carter, honored with the National Medal of the Arts by President Bill Clinton and given an honorary doctorate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill attests to him being a fine musician and entertainer,” he said.

“Doc Watson received these accolades not only for his talent but for the honor, integrity, humility, grace and dignity that he displayed throughout his long and distinguished career. While there are many, many great guitar players and singers; there was only one Doc Watson,” Holt concluded.

Doc Watson married Rosa Lee Carlton of Deep Gap in 1947. Her father, Gaither Wiley Carlton, was a big-time fiddle player. He and Doc hit it off, and they often performed together.

Doc and Rosa Lee had two children. Daughter Nancy Ellen Watson was named “within the family,” but son Eddy Merle Watson was named after music industry titans who Doc admired most – Eddy Arnold and Merle Travis.

The boy went by Merle Watson. He was the heir apparent who died too young. Merle was 36 when he was killed in a tragic tractor accident in 1985. It was a bizarre occurrence. Merle was driving a farm tractor when he lost control of the vehicle on a hillside. It rolled over and he was crushed to death beneath the tractor.

Doc had nurtured Merle, and the father-and-son duo had performed together for many years. Merle was a gifted guitarist and banjo player. They had perfected their act and routine, much to the delight of the audiences they entertained.

 

Their faith and love led Doc and Rosa Lee to establish MerleFest in 1988 as an annual event staged in April on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro in memory of their son. Proceeds benefit the college’s foundation.

The four-day musical extravaganza typically attracts some 75,000 music fans who come for the “music, moments and memories.”

MerleFest celebrates what Doc Watson termed “traditional plus” music. He explained: “When Merle and I started out, we called our music ‘traditional plus,’ meaning the traditional music of the Appalachian region…plus whatever other styles we were in the mood to play.” The venue features 12 stages and a plethora of musicians.

MerleFest’s mascot is Flattop, a raccoon character who was associated with Merle Watson’s band Frosty Morn. The group often was the opening act for Doc and Merle.

One who continues to sing Doc Watson’s praises is Dolly Parton, who said: “Doc Watson was everyone’s hero and a great guitar player. Some say he was the absolute best, and I was honored to get to work with him a few times in my career.”

A relatively new tradition that began in 2011 is the annual observance of “Doc Watson Day” in Boone, the county seat of Watauga County. 

It’s a huge concert on the lawn of the Jones House Cultural Center in the downtown district that occurs Aug. 14. 

Some tomato sandwich makers opt for Cherokee Purple

In his recent column about North Carolina tomato sandwiches, Donald Bryson, CEO of the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, said it’s perfectly all right to substitute one heirloom tomato for another.

For instance, he said some people prefer the Cherokee Purple (shown above), a tomato that is “darker, richer and less orderly than the German Johnson (shown below).”

“The Cherokee Purple may be lumpy, cracked and green at the shoulders,” Bryson said, “and that is part of its charm. It looks like something grown to be eaten rather than photographed, and its deep, complex flavor requires little more than bread and mayonnaise.”

 

It’s got to be soft white bread, and Merita Old Fashioned works best. The brand was invented in 1901 at the Highland Bakery in Birmingham, Ala., by William Fisch and Herman Machow, who operated a lunchroom there.

 

Legend has it that in the bakery’s early years, the MERIT-A award was conferred on superior bakery products. Highland Bakery consistently won the award, and Fisch and Machow decided to display the MERIT-A symbol on the packages. By mistake, a printer left out the hyphen, and thus, the name “MERITA” was born.

 

Over the years, the Merita brand has changed hands several times and is presently part of Flowers Foods, based in Thomasville, Ga., one of the largest producers of packaged bakery products in the United States with 2025 sales of $5.3 billion.

It’s OK with the people at Flowers Foods for folks to opt for Bunny, Sunbeam or Wonder white bread, because the company owns those familiar brands, too. 

 

Some folks in eastern North Carolina lump them all together, anyway. Their grocery list might read: “white-lofa.” That’s short for “a loaf of fresh, soft white bread.”

As for the mayonnaise part of a tomato sandwich, only Duke’s will do. The Duke’s Real Mayonnaise was invented by Eugenia Duke in 1917 in Greenville, S.C.

 

Mrs. Duke made sandwiches (pimento cheese, egg salad and chicken salad) in her home kitchen and delivered them to troops stationed at Greenville’s Camp Sevier training base for National Guardsmen during World War I. She charged a dime for one of her sandwiches and made two cents profit on each one.

Mrs. Duke began bottling her mayonnaise as a separate product around 1923. Her recipe called for oil, egg yolks and cider vinegar, which gave the mayonnaise a spunky tang, but no sugar.

 

“Duke’s is the only mass-produced mayonnaise on the market without any natural or artificial sweeteners, and that makes a huge difference,” said freelance journalist Emily Wallace of Durham.

Mrs. Duke sold her mayonnaise business in 1929 to C.F. Sauer Company of Richmond, Va., a family-owned business that was started in 1887 by a young pharmacist named Conrad Frederick Sauer, who began retailing flavoring extracts. (Sauer Brands and Duke’s is now owned by Advent International of Boston, Mass., a private equity investor.)

Every now and then, someone will attempt to sneak a jar of Hellmann’s Mayonnaise into the tomato sandwich discussion. Hellmann’s was created in 1913 by Richard and Margaret Hellmann, German immigrants, who opened a delicatessen in New York City.

 

Food writer Susan Stafford Kelly of Greensboro, N.C., polled readers of Our State magazine to gauge their mayonnaise favorite – Duke’s or Hellmann’s.

 

She said: “Among the more creative responses was: ‘I asked my homegrown tomatoes. They said Duke’s…and frankly looked a little offended at the question.’”

Furthermore, Bryson said: “The use of Miracle Whip is not a legitimate subject for debate.”

Try a griddled tomato sandwich….

Or for a complete “upgrade,” go for a peanut butter, tomato and mayonnaise sandwich. Just spread a healthy glob of creamy peanut butter (in place of the Duke’s) on one slice of bread.

This is ‘tomato sandwich season’ in North Carolina

On a sultry summer day in North Carolina, nothing could taste finer than a juicy, ripe tomato sandwich, lathered thick with a healthy dollop of Duke’s Real Mayonnaise.

 

Oh, so messy, tasty and satisfying. Just the other day, an Op-Ed column in the Carteret County News-Times (published in Morehead City, N.C.), written by Donald Bryson reminded us to hustle to the farm market and pick up some German Johnson heirloom tomatoes, which are the key ingredient.

 

Bryson isn’t a farmer. He’s the CEO of the John Locke Foundation, a public policy think tank in Raleigh, as well as the publisher of Carolina Journal…but he knows a thing or two about tomato sandwiches. 

He had a rural upbringing in Lexington, Tenn., a small city with about 8,150 residents, located about midway between Nashville and Memphis.

To make an award-winning tomato sandwich, Bryson says all you need are two slices of Merita Old Fashioned soft white bread, a scoop of Duke’s, salt, pepper and a sliced German Johnson tomato that has ripened under the North Carolina sun.

 

The tomato “should be slightly too soft, irregularly shaped and heavy with juice,” Bryson said. “It should require careful handling. A tomato capable of being dropped into the bottom of a grocery bag without consequence is probably not ready for this assignment.”

 

To avoid a mess, it’s best to eat your ooey-gooey tomato sandwich “while leaning over the kitchen sink,” Bryson recommended, because dripping and dribbling from one’s chin is inevitable.

The tomato sandwich “was not a restaurant invention or a chef’s creation,” Bryson said. “It was simply what people did when gardens were producing more ripe tomatoes than a family could reasonably preserve or give away.”

“For me,” Bryson said, “the German Johnson is hard to beat. One thick slice will often cover most of the bread, and it has the kind of sweet, tangy flavor that tastes like summer.”

General Johnsons are “big, pink heirlooms that has been grown in North Carolina…for generations, with a particularly strong following in Alamance County.

German Johnsons became the centerpiece of the North Carolina General Assembly’s “Tomato Sandwich Day,” a tradition that began in th

e mid-1990s and was initiated by the late Hugh Webster of Burlington. 

(Webster was both a farmer and an accountant; he served in the state senate from 1995-2006 and died in 2022 at age 78.)

Sen. Webster wanted his colleagues to appreciate that tomatoes are an important crop in North Carolina’ agricultural mix. 

In fact, the Tar Heel State is the ninth leading state in tomato production, with approximately 1,500 farms growing about 1 million pounds of fresh-market tomatoes each year. (The top eight states are California, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, South Carolina and New Jersey.)

Sen. Webster would organize and host the luncheons during the summer of odd-number years, when the General Assembly was in the midst of its “long session.”

The casual and informal event held in the courtyard on the grounds of the Legislative Building, features about 300 pounds of General Johnson tomatoes, donated by the Iseley family farm in Alamance County, located on the Haw River just north of Burlington.

State lawmakers are invited to come and build their own luncheon plates, making use of squeeze bottles of Duke’s and loaves of Merita bread.

 

The delicious tradition has been carried on…first by Sen. Rick Gunn of Burlington (shown above), who served in the legislature from 2011-21 (before retiring), and now by Sen. Amy Galey of Burlington (shown below), who was elected in 2021.

 

In recent years, Sen. Brent Jackson of Autryville in Sampson County, a watermelon grower, has provided dessert at the legislators’ “Tomato Sandwich Day.”

This is the 2026 North Carolina Watermelon Queen Lilah Byrum of Tyner, a small, rural community in Chowan County. 

She attends North Carolina State University and is pursuing a degree in Crop and Soil Sciences with a concentration in Agronomy.