Washington County is known as ‘Bear-olina’

Completing our journey through the eight counties that comprise North Carolina Senate District 1, we’re crossing the Albemarle Sound from Chowan County into Washington County by way of N.C. Route 32 – on the Albemarle Sound Bridge.

It’s one of the longest bridges in the state – a span of approximately 3.5 miles.

 

The “entering Washington County sign” says: “Welcome to Bear-olina. Where traffic ends and adventure begins!”

 

Some folks believe there are more black bears in Washington County than there are people. And they might be right. They grow big old bears here. Some exceed 800 pounds. 

Plymouth, the county seat, which was built on the banks of the Roanoke River, is being promoted as a “base camp for all your wildlife excursions.”

 

Tom Harrison of the North Carolina Black Bear Discovery Center in Plymouth is a ‘bear-ologist.” He tells visitors that eastern North Carolina black bear sows “den up for a short time and give birth to their cubs in January, but the bears don’t really hunker down for the winter.” 

“Our bears do experience metabolic changes that are an indication of hibernation,” Harrison explained. “Their heart rate slows down, their metabolism slows down, and they will sleep for periods of time during inclement weather.” 

Washington County celebrates the North Carolina Black Bear Festival in Plymouth every year on the first Saturday in June. (Great graphics!)

 

Visitors also enjoy the Port o’ Plymouth Museum, which is housed in a historic 1923 Atlantic Coast Line train depot. The facility documents Plymouth’s Civil War history. The centerpiece is the 1864 Battle of Plymouth and the “Civil War’s most successful ironclad ship” – the CSS Albemarle. 

A 63-foot replica of the 158-foot vessel floats in the Roanoke River. Another attraction is the exact-size replica of the old 1866 Roanoke River Lighthouse and an associated maritime museum in Plymouth. 

The late Harry Thompson, who was the museum curator, commented: “Lighthouse enthusiasts rival Civil War enthusiasts in their passion.” He envisioned Plymouth as “the first stop on a tour of North Carolina lighthouses.”

 

Also within Washington County is Somerset Place, a North Carolina Historic Site bordering Lake Phelps, located near Creswell. The property was one of the Upper South’s largest plantations, active from 1785-1865. 

In 1939, Somerset’s main house and six adjacent structures were incorporated into the newly formed Pettigrew State Park. In 1969, these buildings and the immediate grounds were brought under the umbrella of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

 

Thanks largely to the efforts of author Dorothy “Dot” Spruill Redford, Somerset Place “has transformed the interpretation of slavery in North Carolina,” creating a model of inclusiveness. 

The idea to run passenger ferries between the river harbor towns along the Albemarle Sound was first floated in 1997 by Estelle “Bunny” Sanders, the former Mayor of Roper, a small town in Washington County. 

Harbor Towns Cruises was officially launched in the summer of 2023 as a nonprofit organization to link the Albemarle Sound communities of Plymouth, Edenton, Hertford, Elizabeth City and Columbia with passenger ferry service.

 

The service has gotten off to a flying start, and it’s vitally important to Plymouth and the waters that are known locally as the “Braided Delta,” where the Roanoke and Cashie rivers and a few other creeks appear to crisscross.

 

“We are going to be running tours of the Braided Delta,” said Peter Thomson, CEO of Harbor Towns. “That area is (tree) stump city. We are going to have a local pilot show us where we can actually go. He will know where we can tour safely.”

Let’s get to know Chowan: ‘Cradle of N.C.’

Perquimans County’s western neighbor on the Albemarle Sound is Chowan County, N.C., which takes its name from the Chowanoc Native American tribe that inhabited lands around the Chowan River (pronounced cho-WONN). 

Chowan County is fondly known in North Carolina as the “Cradle of the Colony.”

Edenton, the Chowan County seat, was settled in 1712 and chartered in 1715. Within North Carolina, it appears that only the communities of Bath, New Bern and Beaufort are older.

Edenton is named after North Carolina’s second colonial governor, Charles Eden, who served from 1714 until his death in 1722. Edenton was the capital of the North Carolina colony from 1722-43.

 

Historian J.D. Lewis Jr. said: “From its very beginning to the time when freedom from England was finally achieved, Edenton was a hot-bed and center of continuous revolt and resistance to the Crown.” 

A perfect example is the famous “Edenton Tea Party” in 1774, when Penelope Barker and Elizabeth King formed an alliance of 50 local women to protest against “taxation without representation” by boycotting British tea and fabrics coming into North Carolina.

 

Penelope Barker

Historian Dr. Benjamin F. Speller Jr. said the “women drew up resolves, stating: ‘We, the Ladies of Edenton, do hereby solemnly engage not to conform to the pernicious custom of drinking tea,’ and we ‘will not wear any (garment made of cloth manufactured in England) until such time that all acts which tend to enslave our native country shall be repealed.”

 

One journalist wrote: “There are but few places in America that possess so much female artillery as Edenton.” 

The bronze Edenton Teapot Commemorative Sculpture was unveiled in 1905, created by Frank Baldwin, a foundry man from Watertown, Conn. The teapot is also featured prominently in the Visit Edenton logo.

 

Geographically, Chowan County is bounded on the south by the Albemarle Sound and to the west by the Chowan River. It is one of seven counties that has been “attached” to Carteret County to form the state’s Senate District 1. 

Chowan’s population of about 13,384 is just a tad more than that of Perquimans County, which has about 12,870 people. 

North Carolina Senate District 1 is a strange configuration where part of The Outer Banks meets a portion of the “inner banks” region. All communities in the district are heavily dependent on the various forms of tourism, and as they say…a “rising tide lifts all boats.”

 

Today, the Roanoke River Lighthouse is a major Edenton attraction. How it got there is an interesting story. 

Built in 1886 near the mouth of the Roanoke River in the Albemarle Sound, the lighthouse was abandoned in 1941. It was just “sitting out there” off the coast of Washington County in Batchelor Bay – uncared for and unloved. 

Emmett Hofler Wiggins, an experienced waterman and a savvy engineer, salvaged the structure in 1955 and “floated it over to Edenton in Chowan County.” Wiggins was hailed as a local hero for saving the structure from drowning in the sound. 

The lighthouse became Wiggins’ permanent home. After he died in 1995, the Edenton Historical Commission came up with the funds to purchase the lighthouse in 2007. 

In 2009, the State of North Carolina provided $1.2 million to restore the lighthouse and relocate it to the town harbor. The refurbished lighthouse opened to the public in 2014.

 

Forbes magazine featured Edenton in 2011 as one of America’s “Prettiest Small Towns” and paid tribute to the many “well-preserved colonial- and plantation-era homes” still standing within the community.

Road trip moves into Perquimans County for a look around

Coming out of Virginia into North Carolina, U.S. Route 17 passes through Elizabeth City in Pasquotank County on its way into Perquimans and Chowan counties along the northern shoreline of the Albemarle Sound. All three of these counties are included in North Carolina Senate District 1.

Travel writer Jennifer Smart of Durham, N.C., said: “Perquimans sparks tiny flickers of mystery, like it could be anything from an exotic fruit to one of those color strips on a paint store sample card.” 

“Of course, it’s neither,” she said. “Perquimans translates to ‘the land of beautiful women.’ It’s from the language of the Yeopim, one of the original Native American tribes” who once lived in the area.

 

Perquimans County is the homeplace of John Harvey of Harvey’s Neck, who fueled the flames of “civil disobedience” in the colonial legislature and earned the reputation as the “Father of the Revolution in North Carolina,” according to Robert Digges Wimberly Connor of Wilson, who was North Carolina’s first state archivist.

Robert Connor

 

“The decade from 1765-75 witnessed the revolt against the authority of Parliament, the inauguration of the Revolution and the overthrow of the royal government in North Carolina,” Connor said. 

“The dominant figure was John Harvey, who routinely clashed with colonial governors,” Connor wrote. 

On May 3, 1775, “under the clouds of a rapidly approaching revolution,” John Harvey, 50. “died after a very short illness, occasioned, it is said, by a fall from his horse.” 

Connor wrote: “Though (Harvey’s) strong hand was snatched from the helm at the most critical moment, nevertheless the Revolution moved on apace without a jar, without swerving an instant from its destined end.”

 

A Hertford landmark, to so speak, is Turtle Log.

About two centuries later, another Perquimans County native emerged on the national scene…having a revolutionary effect on American professional sports. He was James Augustus Hunter, who became professional baseball’s first “modern era free agent” in 1974. 

You may know him as Hall of Famer Jim “Catfish” Hunter. Hunter signed a pro contract after graduating from Perquimans County High School in 1964. He was “discovered” by North Carolinian Clyde Kluttz, a scout for the Kansas City Athletics. 

The Athletics’ team owner was Charlie Finley, who thought his 18-year-old pitcher needed a nickname. Finley dubbed him Jim “Catfish” Hunter.

 

Finley fabricated a story: “You left home when you were 6. When your momma and daddy finally found you, you had landed two catfish, and you had a third one on the line. They’ve been calling you ‘Catfish’ ever since.” 

Hunter balked, but Finley said: “I just gave you $75,000,” (a reference to Hunter’s signing bonus). “Yes, sir. My name is ‘Catfish,’” Hunter conceded. 

Hunter caught fire after the “A’s” moved to Oakland, Calif., for the 1968 season. He helped his team win three consecutive World Series championships from 1972-74. Hunter was the American League’s Cy Young Award winner in 1974 – the best pitcher of the year. 

Hunter made history off the field as well. He was baseball’s first “free agent,” offering his services to the highest bidder…and inking a five-year deal worth about $4.2 million to join the New York Yankees for the 1975 season.

 

Hunter helped the Yankees win back-to-back World Series titles in 1977-78. He retired in 1979. His five World Series rings, earned over the course of a 15-year career, is quite impressive. 

Hunter returned to his roots in Perquimans County. In 1998, Hunter was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. 

He died at home in Hertford about a year later on Sept. 9, 1999, at age 53.

We’re headed to Pasquotank County on the Albemarle Sound

Continuing our road trip from Dare County to explore all eight counties that make up the territory of North Carolina Senate District 1, today’s destination is Pasquotank County.

Pasquotank is in the middle of the five “finger counties” in northeastern North Carolina that form the northern shoreline of the Albemarle Sound. Pasquotank County is nearly and neatly boxed in by the Albemarle Sound, the Pasquotank and Little rivers and the Great Dismal Swamp.

 

Getting from Dare to Pasquotank on dry land is quite an adventure. Hop on U.S. Route 158 at Nags Head – and keep going for about 60 curvy miles. 

The highway passes through Currituck and Camden counties before crossing the Pasquotank River and entering Elizabeth City, the Pasquotank County seat. Almost 18,000 people reside in Elizabeth City, making “E-City” the largest city in the Albemarle Sound region.

 

The community was once known as Redding’s-on-the-Narrows but became Elizabeth Town in 1794 and then Elizabeth City in 1801. It was named for Elizabeth “Betsy” Taylor Relfe, who owned a swanky tavern in town. 

The Pasquotank River was the first waterway in America to receive an “Underground Railroad Network to Freedom” designation from the U.S. National Park Service in 2004. From Elizabeth City, slaves (freedom seekers) escaped on vessels traveling north into free territory or south to the West Indies.

 

After the Civil War, a railroad line was built in 1881 from Norfolk, Va., through Elizabeth City and on to Hertford in Perquimans County and Edenton in Chowan County. 

At the time, Richard Benbury Creecy, a newspaper publisher in Elizabeth City, proclaimed “the railroad promised prosperity, prosperity and more prosperity.” He was mostly right about that. 

Today, Pasquotank has about 40,540 residents, making it the second largest county within Senate District 1, trailing only Carteret with about 68,050 people. 

Both Pasquotank and Carteret counties host U.S. Coast Guard facilities, bases and stations and share a deep respect for their rich Coast Guard heritage…while proudly welcoming Coast Guard families into their communities.

 

Elizabeth City has earned distinction as an official “Coast Guard City.” Similarly, Carteret County, with units at Fort Macon/Atlantic Beach and at Emerald Isle, holds equal status as an official “Coast Guard Community.” 

Pasquotank and Carteret counties have “sister state museums” that are units of the N.C. Museum of History – the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City and the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. 

Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), founded in 1891 as a “normal school for African-Americans,” is now part of the 16-campus consolidated University of North Carolina System. More than 2,000 students are currently enrolled at ECSU. 

Offering the only four-year collegiate aviation education program in the state, the ECSU School of Science, Aviation, Health and Technology is highly regarded. The program includes a fleet of 10 aircraft for flight training.

 

Additionally, the university and Coast Guard are partnering to enable upper classmen to pursue careers within the Coast Guard. Participating students can directly enter officer candidate school upon graduation. 

Elizabeth City has received national acclaim for its “Rose Buddies” tradition that started in 1983 when two local men decided to host an impromptu wine and cheese party at Mariners’ Wharf on the Pasquotank River waterfront. 

One man supplied roses clipped from his garden, and the other provided wine, cheese and crackers. They hosted 17 transient boaters who had docked that day in Elizabeth City. Most were moving up or down the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway).

 

The “Rose Buddies” has continued and has put the city on the map as the “Harbor of Hospitality.”

Dare County places have some curious and peculiar names

Beginning in 1874, the United States Life-Saving Service began building stations along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Dare County’s history is peppered with great stories about the surfmen who were dedicated to the mission: “to save lives in peril from the sea.”

Among the original group of stations were structures at places named Kinnakeet, Chicamacomico (a six-syllable word), Kitty Hawk and Nags Head.

 

Some of the town names go back to the Algonquin-speaking tribes of Native Americans who were here first. 

For starters, Kinnakeet is an Algonquian word meaning “that which is mixed.” This was a perfect description for several settlements that became bunched into one community. The place was renamed as Avon by the U.S. Post Office in 1883. Perhaps the name came from River Avon in England. 

Chicamacomico is an Algonquian word meaning “sinking down sand.” That doesn’t sound good, but the community’s still here, although known today as Rodanthe. Again, postal authorities are to blame, as Chicamacomico was even harder to pronounce or spell than Kinnakeet. No one seems to remember where the name Rodanthe came from, but no matter. 

Author Nicholas Sparks popularized the place. He published “Nights in Rodanthe,” a romantic novel, in 2002. He remarked that “Rodanthe looks wonderful on the page and conjures up a mixture of mystery and sensuality.” 

Kitty Hawk was the originally Chickenhauk, derived from the native Algonquian word meaning “a place to hunt geese.”

 

The name Kill Devil Hills originated many years ago when sailing ships, transporting rum from the tropics to markets in the north, would wreck along The Outer Banks coast. Their cargo would wash up onto the sand hills as “gifts from the sea” to the local population who said that the rum was strong enough “to kill the devil.”

 

Donna Campbell Smith, a freelance journalist living in Franklinton, N.C., said the name Nags Head came from pirates who would lure sailing ships into shallow waters where they would run aground. 

Horses on shore were led up and down the beach. Each carried a lantern that was strapped around the horse’s neck, swaying as it walked along. Their glowing light would deceive ship watchmen who would call out, “Ship to the starboard!” 

Smith wrote: “The sight of ‘another vessel’ gave the appearance that the captain was in safe waters. The captain’s relief was nullified when the ship shuddered and groaned to a stop. It had run aground – doomed by the nag’s head.” 

Pirates would then salvage the cargo that washed ashore, Smith said. Goods were carted to the pirates’ lairs in the sounds and loaded onto pirate ships that traveled up the rivers and creeks and peddled to colonial merchants on the mainland.

 

“Word spread back to Europe about the pirates’ ruse,” she said. “As sailors were about to embark on a voyage they were warned, ‘Beware of the nag’s head.’ Soon that area of the Outer Banks became known as Nags Head. The name stuck, and the area is now one of the world’s most popular resort areas.”

 

Ironically, the two settlements on Roanoke Island are named after a pair Native Americans – Manteo and Wanchese – who interacted with Englishman John White, governor of “The Lost Colony.” 

Although the communities of Manteo and Wanchese share an island, their personalities are distinctly different. Manteo is a real town with shops. Wanchese, on the other hand, is a village. People here don’t have time to shop; they’re too busy fishing and tending their workboats.

Dare County is the N.C. coast’s favorite tourism destination

Dare County is an oddity among North Carolina’s 100 counties. It includes an 80-mile-long stretch of North Carolina’s famous Northern Outer Banks, extending from Hatteras Island up to Duck. The road connecting the two villages is N.C. Route 12.

 

The seat of Dare County government is Manteo on Roanoke Island, and the county also includes a chunk of the mainland that is practically surrounded by the Alligator River, Albemarle Sound and Croatan Sound. The mainland section is served by two major highways – U.S. Route 64 and U.S. Route 264.

Manteo welcomes you!

 

The unincorporated village of Manns Harbor on the mainland is home to the North Carolina Ferry Division shipyard on Spencer Creek, which maintains the 21 vessels currently used on the state’s seven ferry routes. North Carolina’s ferry system is the second largest in the nation, trailing only Washington state. 

About 37,875 people live in Dare County, making it the third largest among the eight counties that make up the North Carolina Senate District 1. (Carteret and Pasquotank are larger.) 

Dare County takes its name from Virginia Dare, the first child born to English colonists at Roanoke Island in 1587. No one knows exactly what happened to the expedition that was sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh. The mystery of the “Lost Colony” is waiting to be solved. 

More than a century ago, artist Maria Louise Lander of Salem, Mass., donated a sculpture of Virginia Dare. Lander envisioned Virginia Dare as a beautiful princess within a blended society of native Croatoans and the lost colonists. 

The statue is the centerpiece of the lovely Elizabethan Gardens at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. Nearby is Waterside Theater, home of “The Lost Colony,” a symphonic drama performed nightly under the stars during the summer season. Tiered seating can accommodate an audience of approximately 1,600 people.

Dare County is jam-packed with historic and natural attractions. Dare County ranks fourth among the state’s counties in travel and tourism revenues, generating more than $1.293 billion annually. (The top three are Mecklenburg, Buncombe and Wake.) 

Manteo is home to the North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island, while the Aquarium’s Jennette’s Pier facility is at Nags Head. The concrete fishing pier extends 1,000 feet out into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Within the Cape Hatteras National Seashore are two majestic lighthouses – at Hatteras and Bodie Island. In between, are the charmingly quaint and rustic fishing communities of Frisco, Buxton, Avon, Salvo, Waves and Rodanthe. 

At Kill Devil Hills, the National Park Service maintains the Wright Brothers National Memorial, honoring the first successful airplane flight, conducted nearly 120 years ago by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903. 

A 60-foot granite monument dedicated in 1932, is perched atop Big Kill Devil Hill – the primary location of the brothers’ glider experiments.

 

Jockey’s Ridge State Park at Nags Head is home to the tallest living sand dune system on the Atlantic coast and provides an ideal location for flying kites and watching sunsets. Hang gliding is a hallmark activity at the park, and a private concessionaire offers lessons. Visitors can also explore wetland habitats and go swimming, paddling, kiteboarding and windsurfing on the Roanoke Sound. 

Many legends surround the origin of the name Jockey’s Ridge. The most popular is that the name of the giant dune is based upon the early inhabitants’ practice of lassoing wild ponies and racing them on the flat surface at the base of the dune. The steep sides of the ridge served as a grandstand for spectators.

 We’ll stay over in Dare County for one more column.