Communities along the northern Outer Banks are using beach replenishment to maintain wide and handsome beaches to protect buildings, and improve the economy and quality of life. Replenishment is the “wave of the future” in these Northern Outer Bank communities with heavy shoreline development.
This is not necessarily the case with the islands that comprise the Southern Outer Banks in Carteret County. To be sure, two of these barrier islands, Core and Shackleford, no longer are inhabited. But, they were inhabited at one time and this brings into play another mitigation option: relocation.
The first of these, Core Banks, named after the Coree tribe, extends from Ocracoke inlet at its northern tip to its southern terminus at Cape Lookout. Inlets have opened and closed on this low, flat barrier island, more or less, for centuries. A 1933 hurricane cut New and Old Drum inlets dividing the island into South Core, Middle Core and North Core Banks. A third inlet, Ophelia Inlet, opened when that named hurricane made its appearance in 2005. And, so it goes.
Core Banks once was home to Portsmouth, a lightering port, where cargo from ocean-going vessels could be transferred to flat bottom vessels capable of traversing the shallow Pamlico and Core Sounds. Established in 1753, Portsmouth was one of the most important points-of-entry along the Atlantic coast in pre-Civil War America when it experienced its peak population of about 700.
Three blows precipitated the decline of Portsmouth. The first was the shoaling of the waters around Portsmouth’s harbor. The Civil War was yet another blow as many people fled to the mainland when Union soldiers came to occupy the Outer Banks. The final blow was the nationalization of the railroad. All three contributed to the shipping industry abandoning Portsmouth and more and more residents abandoning Portsmouth in search of work and more fruitful opportunities on the mainland. Within one hundred years, only 17 hardy residents remained in a town with limited resources and more limited potential. The last two residents, Marion Babb and Elma Dixon, finally and reluctantly left the island in 1971; Portsmouth has been deserted ever since. Because the island had no electricity, running water or refrigeration, relocation was a reasonable option for residents.
Relocation was the option of choice for the former residents of a community on the next island in the string of elongated sand, Shackleford Banks. This barrier island is approximately 8.5 miles long and is roughly a mile wide at its widest point (depending on the tide.) Shackleford Banks is bordered to the north by the Back Sound and Harkers Island, to the south by the Atlantic Ocean, to the east by Barden Inlet and the west by Beaufort Inlet.
By the late 1800s, the island was home to a small community of permanent residents, in a settlement known as Diamond City. Though it would be difficult to find visual evidences of it there today, Diamond City was one of the largest communities on the Outer Banks with roughly 500 full-time residents by the end of the 1800s. This island town, however, would not be for much longer, as an 1899 hurricane produced a storm surge that covered the width of the island, with just few of the bigger sand dunes sticking their tops out from under the overwash. This storm washed most homes off their foundations, killed most of the maritime forest, and smashed up boats and just about everything else in Diamond City. And when the residents decided to move, they took all of Diamond City with them, except for the name, the family graveyards and the foundations where their houses once stood. The last dwellers left in 1902.
In the end, both Portsmouth on Core Banks and Diamond City on Shackleford Banks practiced a sure way to avoid continued erosion and damage: building relocation. This was a viable option for three reasons. First, neither community was very large. Second, inhabitants of both communities lived without electricity, running water or refrigeration. Third, most homes could be relocated or abandoned relatively cheaply.
In the end, Outer Banks communities have two main arrows in their quiver for dealing with the ocean....beach nourishment and relocation. In the next blogs, I will examine how other barrier island communities, south of the Outer Banks, are dealing with the ocean. That being said, to learn more about life in Emerald Isle, NC, along the Southern Outer Banks, go to my website, www.EIHomesforSale.com and request my free Guide to Living Were You Vacation or text your email address to: 919-308-2292. Stay well and stay safe.
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