Here are more coastal objects that help define North Carolina

Shrimpers and other watermen are known for wearing white rubber boots. This style of footwear has come to be revered along the North Carolina coastline as “Sneads Ferry Sneakers.”

They won’t help you run faster or jump higher. Rather, Sneads Ferry Sneakers keep you from slipping and sliding on a wet boat deck. 

They’re white and not black for a reason as well – so as not to leave scuff marks.

Now, the white rubber boots are “extra special,” because they are listed among the 50 objects that “define North Carolina,” according to editors of Our State magazine. The article appears in the September issue.

 

Contributing writer Jason Frye said the boots were invented in 1927 in Normandy, France. As told by the Le Chameau company archivist:

“On a rain-soaked day” in the village of Cherbourg on the northwestern tip of Normandy along the English Channel, bootmaker Claude Chamot listened to the frustrations of farmers, hunters and fishermen. “Their boots were neither comfortable nor durable. Determined to change that, he set out to craft…a boot capable of withstanding the rigors of land and sea, without compromising on comfort.”

“Chamot fashioned his first prototypes from natural rubber. He handed them to those who knew the elements best. The response was immediate – comfort, resilience, performance. Word spread. By harnessing the innovation of vulcanization, Chamot refined his boots, earning a reputation that soon extended beyond Normandy. Customers from across France made the journey to be fitted for their own bespoke pair.”

 

The term “Sneads Ferry Sneakers” was branded and copyrighted in 1992 by Sherry Thurston, a local artist in Sneads Ferry in Onslow County, N.C. 

She had a batch of T-shirts with an image of the white boots printed up to sell at the annual Sneads Ferry Shrimp Festival.

 

Farther up the North Carolina coast, at Kill Devil Hills in Dare County, Our State staff writer Rebecca Woltz tells about the significance of another historical “object” – one that pays tribute to our “First in Flight” fellows – Wilbur and Orville Wright.

  

It’s an original wooden propellor from one of their early aircraft that is displayed along with other artifacts at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, which is visited annually by nearly 400,000 people.

 

 

Back in the early 1900s, off-duty surfmen from the U.S. Life-Saving Service stations at Kitty Hawk (shown above) and Kill Devil Hills (shown below) were more than willing to assist. 

On days when the wind was strong and steady, the Wrights hoisted a red flag made from a bedsheet to signal that they could use some help carrying their flying machine up the dunes.

Local historian “Keeper James” Charlet, says: “There is a gene in every lifesaver to want to help.” Hence, the surfmen provided an essential service to “solving the problem of flight. They were the world’s first ground crew.”

 

One of the surfmen was John T. Daniels, who snapped the iconic photograph of the first flight at Kill Devil Hills on Dec. 17, 1903. The aircraft stayed aloft for 12 seconds and traveled 120 feet.

 

Orville set the expensive, boxy camera on a tripod, positioned it and prepared the 7x5-inch glass-plate negative. He then instructed Daniels to squeeze the camera’s shutter release bulb once the craft was airborne.

 

Orville climbed aboard the flyer and started the engine – a four-cylinder model that delivered more than 12 horsepower. The flyer set off along the launch track as Wilbur ran along side, steadying the right wing before takeoff.

Daniels triggered the shutter as instructed, capturing Orville’s ascent at precisely the right moment…“forever immortalizing one of history’s most groundbreaking technological achievements,” commented historian Bryan Patterson of Wake Forest, N.C.

Coastal ‘objects’ contribute plenty to North Carolina’s identity

Coastal North Carolina fares quite well in the tally of “50 objects” that define The Old North State, a project undertaken by Our State magazine for its September issue.

In a nutshell, editors selected about a dozen items that have direct coastal ties, beginning with the first-order Fresnel lenses that were capable of sending beams of light miles out into the Atlantic Ocean from the iconic coastal lighthouses, dating back to the mid-1850s. 

The first one was installed at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1854.

 

Our State’s top 50 list also includes a pair of wind-catching devices. Kitty Hawk Kites are designed to fly high in the sky, while Shibumi Shades stay anchored to the sand on the beach, providing cover from the sun’s rays to beachgoers.

 

The culture and heritage of Down East Carteret County is represented in a “trifecta” of objects that are North Carolina born and bred. They are oyster shucking tools, crab pots and duck decoys.

Our State contributing writer Jason Frye said: “Oysters are a treat to slurp down for supper, steam with friends on a fall evening or fawn over in a fried platter, but first you gotta open them up. And for that you’ll need an oyster shucker.”

It’s a knife-like tool with a blunt edge that fits comfortably in the palm of your dominant hand to pry open the hinge of the oyster shell. “Insert, twist, pop. Easy as 1, 2, 3,” Frye insists.

 

Frye also wrote the piece for Our State about crab pots, the PVC-coated wire mesh baskets that are dropped into the water to snare Atlantic blue crabs, a delicacy.

He also mentioned secondary uses for the colorful crab pots. For one, they can be piled up just-so to form a gigantic, 25-foot tall Christmas tree structure, which has become a holiday tradition at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island.

Then, there’s the story about the famous crab pot Christmas trees, invented by the late Neal “Nicky” Harvey at his shop – Harvey & Sons Net and Twine – in Davis. 

He was the first to see that the vinyl-coated wire could be cut into triangles and made into a tree-shaped figure that folds flat for easy storage.

Harvey was awarded a U.S. patent in 2004, forming a cottage industry. Don Acree acquired the business in 2009 and established a company known as Fisherman Creations Inc., developing a national distribution system through major outlets and establishing a huge e-commerce presence.

 

Our State’s Hannah Lee Leidy contributed the article about decoy carving. “Centuries ago,” she wrote, “fisherman…turned to duck hunting for food and extra income during the lean winter months. To lure birds to their blinds, they relied on homemade decoys, crafted from whatever raw materials nature provided” including salvaged timber from shipwrecks.

 

“The decoys’ sophisticated designs gave wings to an emerging school of folk art….During this time, wealthy sportsmen from the North would follow migrating waterfowl – pintails, redheads, brants and geese – to eastern North Carolina. Local watermen would hire out their services as hunting guides.”

 

“Though our state’s heyday as a game-hunting destination has long flown, decoy carving endures as a celebrated art form,” Leidy wrote. “Names like Mitchell Fulcher, Homer Fulcher, Robert Pigott, Julian Hamilton, Alvin Harris and Ammie Paul have been canonized by museum curators and fine art collectors.”

“Some see the decoys as art, others as investments, but for many, these decoys are keepsakes carved from the very woods where they spent hours in the blinds beside fathers, grandfathers and friends,” Leidy concluded.

More columns on “50 objects” are yet to come.

‘Golf Lad’ continues to represent the Pinehurst brand

Pinehurst’s “Golf Lad” keeps popping up from time to time as a nostalgic flash-back to early advertising messages. He still looks the same as he did in 1905, wearing a white floppy hat, a billowing red shirt, baggy trousers with unhooked, flapping suspenders and boots.

 

He moves around the golf course from tee to sand trap to green. On the other hand, Pinehurst’s complementary “Putter Boy” is stationary, a bronze statue created in 1912.

 

Putter Boy was modeled after Golf Lad by sculptor Lucy Currier Richards. Standing just 18 inches tall, he had become the primary emblem of Pinehurst Resort, which opened in 1895 in North Carolina’s Moore County.

The Putter Boy was joined on the golf course in the 1990s by two other life-size statues of Pinehurst luminaries. 

A bronze statue of Donald J. Ross (shown on the left), the legendary golf course architect, was created by sculptor Gretta Lange Bader of Alexandria, Va., and dedicated in 1991.

 

Additionally, a bronze statue of James Walker Tufts, the first owner of Pinehurst, was created by sculptor Zenos Frudakis of Glenside, Pa. (near Philadelphia) and dedicated in 1996.

A fourth statue on the grounds at Pinehurst was dedicated in 2001, a tribute to professional golfer Payne Stewart, who won the first U.S. Open Championship played at the legendary Pinehurst No. 2 championship course in 1999. 

He died in a tragic charter airplane crash later that year, along with three other passengers and two pilots.

 

Titled “One Moment in Time,” the statue was also created by Frudakis. 

It depicts Stewart’s classic fist-pump after sinking the winning putt on the 18th hole to defeat Phil Mickelson by a single stroke at the 1999 U.S. Open. It remains one of the most dramatic final rounds in tournament history.

 

It’s only fitting, commented Jessica Marksbury, senior editor at GOLF, that Frudakis’ masterpiece“ has since become arguably the most famous statue in golf.” 

“Perhaps you’ve replicated Stewart’s celebratory fist-pump seen ’round the world: left leg planted, right leg raised and splayed, a forward lean, right arm extended in ecstasy.”

Plus, of course, there’s the famous Payne Stewart “look” in golfing attire: A navy-colored flat cap (traditional Scottish golf headwear), a red-and-navy striped golf shirt, traditional navy plus-fours (baggy knickers gathered just below the knee), long white stockings and white golf shoes. That day he also donned a navy rain jacket that he altered by cutting off the sleeves into a vest because the original sleeves felt too tight during his swing.

Stewart was 42 when the fatal accident occurred. He was born and raised in Springfield, Mo., and played collegiate golf at Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas. A member of Phi Gamma Delta social fraternity, he graduated in 1979. Stewart earned his PGA Tour card in 1981 and won his first title on the tour at the 1982 Quad Cities Open at Coal Valley, Ill.

 

Stewart went on to win 11 PGA Tour events, including three major championships – the 1989 PGA Championship and the 1991 U.S. Open prior to the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

 

Golf Lad was there as the mascot for the 1999 event, and he also returned for future U.S. Opens at Pinehurst, in 2005, 2014 and 2024, appearing prominently in the tournament logos, thanks largely to Stephen Cryan, former marketing director at Pinehurst. 

Cleverly, the 2014 image shows Golf Lad clutching the championship trophy almost exactly as Payne Stewart did after the 1999 tournament.

Golf Lad has also been the subject of a series of retro posters created by artist Eric Johnson of Nonesuch, Ky., that show him in various poses around the Pinehurst campus.

American golf: ‘Carolina born and bred’ at Pinehurst

Selecting just 50 objects to tell the “story of North Carolina” must have been a difficult assignment for editors of Our State magazine, but they gave it a go to produce the lead article that appears in the September issue.

The items mentioned range from the North Carolina mountains to the coast and include the mile markers on the Blue Ridge Parkway, mandolins and banjos, textile bobbins and shuttles…as well as boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. It’s a fascinating piece.

 

Interestingly, one of the smallest “pure North Carolina” objects featured in the article is a souvenir golf ball from Pinehurst Resort, founded in 1895 in Moore County. 

The Titleist ball is stamped with the image of the iconic Pinehurst “Putter Boy.”

Widely known as the “Cradle of American Golf,” Pinehurst was carved out of “ravaged timberland” that was acquired by James Walker Tufts of Boston, Mass.

 Tufts bought 5,800 acres of land from the Henry Page family of Aberdeen, N.C., paying $1 per acre.

Tufts hired the development firm owned by Frederick Law Olmsted of Brookline, Mass., to design the Village of Pinehurst. 

(Olmstead was the landscape architect for the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., as well as the developer of New York City’s Central Park.)

Tufts’ grand scheme was to provide a comfortable resort for New Englanders to come south and experience mild winters. 

Obviously, golf entered into his thinking. In 1897, a nine-hole golf course was built…for starters.

In 1900, the well-known Scottish golfer Donald J. Ross arrived in Pinehurst “to take charge of all matters pertaining to the sport.”

 

Ross designed Pinehurst’s legendary No. 2 championship course as well as three others on the property. He borrowed what he learned growing up as a lad on the links of Dornoch, Scotland. (A seaside resort town, Dornoch is located near the wee northern tip of Scotland in the Highlands region.)

In Pinehurst, Ross discovered landforms that harkened to his homeland – sandhills. He set about retooling Pinehurst’s modest golf offering and expanding it.

 

Pinehurst’s archivist reported: “Golf’s popularity was spreading like wildfire in the early 1900s, and Pinehurst was at the epicenter.”

Writing for Golf Digest, Shane Ryan (shown below) said Tufts hired Frank Presbrey, who ran an advertising agency in New York City, to attract guests who were looking for recreation and relaxation. 

Presbrey created a young character known as “Golf Lad” to appear in magazine advertisements…and say: “Come to Pinehurst.”

 

Golf Lad wore a white floppy hat, a billowing red shirt, baggy trousers with unhooked, flapping suspenders and boots. 

He made his advertising debut in 1905, as Presbrey sought to promote an escape from a stuffy, urban existence to a “casual, informal, carefree, open-air lifestyle found in the North Carolina Sandhills,” centered around golf.

 

In 1912, Leonard Tufts (shown below), son of James Walker Tufts, hired Lucy Currier Richards, a Boston sculptor, to create a bronze statue for placement in the area between the two practice putting greens near the Pinehurst clubhouse.

 

“She knew very little about golf, but she was taken by the Golf Lad,” Ryan remarked. “With the help of Ross (who demonstrated the proper way to grip a golf club), she created the 18-inch statuette that still graces the grounds today – a boy with a floppy hat, face inscrutable, lining up to hit a ball.”

 

Richards’ bronze piece took the name of “Putter Boy.”

 

“The shaft of the club appears unusually long,” Ryan said. “That’s because Richards’ intent was to make the statue a sundial, and to make it accurately tell time, the angle of the club had to be longer than would appear normal.”