Hatteras Island

Overall, Hatteras Island's residents live and work supported mostly by tourism, fishing, real estate, teaching, and government employment. Because of the seasonal economy, weather-related economic setbacks, and lack of corporations and industries that hire mass amounts of people, it's not unusual for residents to have more than one job. Cleaning rental cottages on the side provides extra money, and you may find that your waiter during the summer months is a professional from another trade altogether. Necessity also provokes creativity, and many locals sell their carvings or paintings in local shops and galleries.

Families thrive despite typical inconveniences to be expected in village living on a remote island. They pattern their living styles accordingly. You won't find a Kmart on the island, but mail-order companies get their share of business. A sense of community is evident in the packed stands at the Cape Hatteras High School basketball games (even folks with no kids attend).

It's only been during recent years that Hatteras residents have left the island in large numbers during county-mandated hurricane evacuations. More nonnatives who now live here are less likely to see out a storm. Storm danger and damage has increased due to development and tighter living quarters.

Weather plays a regular role in Hatteras life. When the island is evacuated during a hurricane warning, it's not unusual for the locals to lose a week's worth of income. This creates great financial hardship for businesses since their annual income is made primarily during the 12 weeks of summer. Even smaller storms cause delays when the roads flood.

Despite the imposing hold nature can cast over the barrier island, visitors flock here annually to enjoy its beauty and seclusion. Today there are enough conveniences, restaurants, and diversions within reach to entertain even sophisticated vacationers. The Cape Hatteras School, with help from the local arts council, brings in cultural events for residents. There are also several noteworthy art galleries on the island (see our Arts and Culture chapter).

History tells us, though, that even without these modern additions, folks would still come to relax Hatteras-style, away from the busier pace of the towns farther up the barrier islands to do a little crabbing, clamming, fishing, beach walking, bird-watching, or chatting with the anglers who relax at the docks. Many a modern-day adult vacationer has been coming to the Outer Banks since childhood. In fact, generations of families can call Hatteras Island their summer home.

The island has two obvious drawing cards: the sea and unique landscape. Some of the best windsurfing and surfing in North America can be done in the waters along Hatteras Island (see our Attractions and Water Sports chapters). Surfers from all over the East Coast come to Hatteras Island to surf the breakers, especially during strong nor'easters. Surfers look forward to hurricane season from June through November, when big northern swells can push wave heights to 8 feet or more. National surfing championships are held in Buxton (see our Annual Events chapter).

Hatteras Island is famous as an East Coast fishing hot spot. About 40 miles offshore are the Gulf Stream, a shelf current, and the Deep Western Boundary Current, all of which cross near the continental shelf's edge. The influence of this convergence is both positive and negative. These crossing currents spawned Diamond Shoals, creating the groundwork for danger but also supplying a rich habitat for sport fish (see our Natural Wonders chapter). A wide variety of fish travel up the Gulf Stream, giving this area the reputation for being the "Billfish Capital of the World." World-record fish have been caught both offshore and in the surf at Cape Hatteras Point, where red drum and many other fish come to feed. Much of the tip of Hatteras is lined with marinas where recreational charter boats take visitors to inshore and offshore waters (see our Fishing chapter). Full-service tackle shops, staffed with knowledgeable Insiders, speckle the barrier island.

North of Rodanthe and just south of Oregon Inlet is Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, where birding is popular and rewarding. A unique maritime forest lies farther south in Buxton, with a nature trail and informative signs (see our Attractionsand Natural Wonders chapters for descriptions of both).

There are three National Park Service campgrounds on Hatteras Island (at Oregon Inlet, Frisco, and Cape Point) offering more laid-back and less expensive camping than the rest of the Outer Banks's camping facilities. Several private campgrounds also are established in the island communities (see our Campingchapter).

If nature hasn't sold you on Hatteras Island's wild, raw beauty, check out our Recreation chapter for those artificial amusements that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Thousands of years ago, Native Americans settled on Hatteras Island and called it Croatan. Originally marked Cape S. John on 16th-century maps, the island has a history that is filled with diverse tales of Civil War battles, fabulous fishing, shipwrecks, and lifesaving efforts (see our History and Fishing chapters). The residents of this barrier island, who could reach the outside world only by boat until the Bonner Bridge was built to span Oregon Inlet in 1963, were a people so isolated that their speech today still maintains the direct flavor of their ancestors. Need was the driving force behind livelihood choices. Everyone fished for food, and seafood was traded on the mainland for provisions and corn. Windmills provided the power to turn corn into flour. Commercial fishermen harvested whale oil, turtles, oysters, and even seaweed. And the island was once covered with roving livestock gobbling up protective vegetation.

The village of Kinnakeet, now Avon, was the heart of a thriving shipbuilding industry. Materials were gathered from the oak and cedar forests on the sound side of the island. The islanders built their homes there, in the woody hammocks, seeking safety from high waters and winds. Timbers also were used to fashion clipper ships. Kinnakeet was a base for a large fleet of small schooners, many of which were used to harvest oysters.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton has towered over the island's low- lying terrain since 1870. Rising 208 feet, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the nation (see our History and Attractions chapters). Within reach of the light cast by the tower are the treacherous and ever- changing Diamond Shoals, where hundreds of vessels met their demise. Lifesaving teams, at one time riding horse-drawn carts through the sand, saved thousands of seafarers' lives off these shores. Today, modern equipment aids in navigation; but the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse still operates. The power of the sea, shuffling weather patterns, and changing inlets still cause captains to traverse the waters with care. The lighthouse, a pillar of security and hope for islanders, was moved from the water-torn edge of the shoreline slightly inland during 1999 to save it from toppling into the Atlantic.

Much of Hatteras Island is undeveloped National Park Service property. But scattered north to south along the coast are the seven villages, hugging what is loosely termed "Highway 12," a thin strip of blacktop often covered with sand and water. More often than not, it seems the children of Hatteras's old-timers stay or return to carry on family traditions in these villages. This may be why the flavor of the area has not changed too drastically over the years despite the influx of vacationers and outsiders looking for summer homes. Most of the people who move here are seeking just what the island presents: to live alongside the powerful sea within a small community where all of life bends to nature's will.

While 75 percent of Hatteras Island is National Park land, a limited number of lots and homes are available for purchase, and each village has a mix of low- to high- price choices. The addition of a reverse- osmosis water plant on the north end of the island breathed new life into the Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo communities in the mid-1990s, allowing many additional parcels to be built upon. Residents formerly used electric-generated water pumps, but now they are able to maintain a steady water flow even when storms knock out the power. Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras got their own reverse- osmosis water facility in 2000. Utility lines have been upgraded over the last few years, so power outages are not as frequent. Hatteras Island has some remaining real estate available, and its infrastructure is being expanded to accommodate new residents. An elementary school opened in Buxton Woods in August 2002.

Hatteras Island Communities

Rodanthe is Hatteras Island's northernmost village, situated about 12 miles from the northern tip of the island. Rodanthe blends seamlessly with Waves and Salvo to form what is sometimes referred to as the Tri-Village area. The three towns were once one, called Chicamacomico, but by the early 1900s they had separated into three individual villages. Of the three, Rodanthe has the most commercial offerings, including restaurants, an amusement park, gas stations, a shopping center, and tackle shops, but it is primarily a residential and vacation village. Rodanthe is home to the restored 1874 Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station, a historic tourist attraction that offers many activities. It also has a popular fishing pier.

Waves is a sleepy little village of mostly vacation homes. It's hard to know when you are actually in Waves because there are no signs welcoming you. Surfers stole those so many times that the villagers finally gave up installing them. This village was known as South Rodanthe until 1939, when it got its own post office and a new name.

Salvo also has nebulous village boundaries. The locals know them, though, and that's all that matters. Salvo is vacation- oriented, although there aren't many commercial enterprises. Originally called Clark, this village was reportedly named for a salvo (simultaneous firing of cannon) it was given by Union soldiers during the Civil War. At the south end of the village is a National Park Service day-use area that's great for soundside picnicking, swimming, windsurfing, and kiteboarding.

Avon is about 10 miles south of Salvo, separated from the northern villages by a long, beautiful stretch of undeveloped National Park Service property. Avon was originally called Kinnakeet, a name that is still used by many old-timers. The name changed when the village got a post office in 1883. Avon has a wealth of vacation rental homes, hotels, and commercial businesses, including the island's only large chain grocery store and movie theater. It has many shops, restaurants, watersports rentals, and a fishing pier. A medical facility opened in 2001. One of the most well-known windsurfing spots in the world, Canadian Hole, is on the south end of Avon. Old Avon Village, on the west side of the island, offers a chance to see local life. Turn toward the sound at the stoplight to see the old cottages, fishing gear, boats, and villagers.

Buxton is at the widest part of the island, on a point of land that juts into the sea and is known as Cape Point. Buxton is the hub of Hatteras Island. Hotels, restaurants, shops, and small- town grocery stores line the highway. Tackle shops are abundant here because fishing at Cape Point is rightly famous, as is surfing. The black-and-white candy- striped Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is, of course, the most popular attraction here. Buxton Woods, a rare maritime forest, provides protection for the village. When Buxton got its post office in 1873, it was called simply The Cape. The name changed in 1882.

Frisco, the next town heading south, is the perfect place to get away from it all, with many vacation rental homes, a couple of art galleries, a pier, some shops and restaurants, and a Native American museum. But mostly it is the fishing, uncrowded beaches, and solitude that attract people to Frisco.

Hatteras Village, at the southernmost end of the island, is a picture-book fishing village and the ferry embarkation point for Ocracoke Island. When people say they're going to Hatteras, they mean the village, not the lighthouse, the cape, or the inlet. With its proximity to the Gulf Stream, Hatteras is a world-famous fishing locale, especially renowned for its bluefin tuna fishery in winter. Several marinas and charter fishing vessels call Hatteras Village home. The village has always had a quaint, homespun appeal, with independently run restaurants and shops, small motels geared to anglers, and simple homes. Lately, however, Hatteras Village has seen the addition of upscale oceanfront homes, a fancy shopping complex, and the first chain hotel on the island, a Holiday Inn. The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, at the southernmost point of the village, opened in the spring of 2003.