PINE laiOLL SHORELINE
December 1977
Editors: Mary Doll
Betty Hammon
CLEVELAND, THOf^PSON, UEBELE ELECTED TO BOARD ... Wayne Cleveland, vdth I56
votes; John Thompson, v/ith 122 votes and VJilliam Uebele, with 111 votes,
v/ere elected by Pine Knoll voters to the town's six commissioner board. Of
the three, '/ayne Cleveland viae the only man standing for reelection. Other
candidates were Elwood Ratliffe, with 10? votes; Ray Scoggins with 101 votes
and John Collier vd.th votes. Three Commissioners are elected every two
years and the mayor is chosen by the six board members at the organization
meeting in November.
Issue 5^
Pine Knoll voters also approved the three referendum matters on the ballot
as well as all of the constitutional amendments proposed. The vote for
gubernatorial succession v/as approved by II8 to 111; the clean water bond
proposal passed I88 to 40, and the highway bond proposal passed I63 to 6^.
All constitutional amendments were approved by large majorities*
In this off-year Pine Knoll citizens turned out to vote, or per cent
of the registered voters.
GLADSTONE’S is a nev; gift shop in Beaufort, across from the restoration.
It offers some tasteful things, including several laser carved wood items
(for example, a lovely tape measure encased in this v/ood would make a splen
did gift at S7»50 and there are bookends for '^^2,00),
Beaufort, by the way, looks great these days; lots of wonderful boats are
moored or in slips along the waterfront, which is unveiled at last - all the
old buildings on that side of the street are gone except one. And the res
toration area has more to see every time we go there. Then the Hampton_
Mariner Museum continues to amaze us; there is an Englishman out back build
ing a marvelous boat and you can go watch him, Charles McNeill, the well
known local water colorist who manages the museum, has had a painting pur
chased by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and it will hang in their per
manent collectiono Right now it is in the museum for us to see, a lovely
scene of lowland water and marshes familiar around here, ^Hien you go to
the museum, pick up it s calendar of events - for example, on December 10,
Saturday, there’s a ’’Day at the Cape'S a field trip aboard the Diamond
City, departing Cape Lookout Restaurant, Harkers Island at 10:00 a,m. You
bring your own lunch, you pay :|J6,00, and you return at ^:00 p,m.
Also in Beaufort is CLAUSON’S EMPORIUM, a new restaurant in an old building
on Front Street that used to be a dry goods and bakery shoiD in the early
1900’s. Candy and Bill Rogers are running the place, v/hich may even be
open by the tiiiie you get this paper, and they have spent many hours very
creatively in fixing the place up. They’ll be serving sandv/iches and
chov/ders, and expect eventually to be baking their ovm bread out in the
back in an outside oven. ''Je’re told that in the old days hot bread was
delivered from Clauson’s by a horse pulled cart. We don’t know if Candy
and Bill are going to do that, but we feei sure that whatever they do it
will be done splendidly.
Have you seen the sign in Beaufort marking the site of the salt wopks?
Well, older editor v/hose knowledge was of salt mines vias curious. Back
in colonial days, salt came as ballast in ships from Europe and the Carib
bean, Then Great Britain tried to force the colonists to buy salt there,
and Governor Dobbs complained, ’’The English salt is not found so good, as
the French, Spanish, or Portuguese in curing our Pork 8c Beef ,, .Limitation
of this Trade obliges us to take that Salt at a great Disadvantage from
New York and Pennsylvania at double freight and a further advanced Price
to the Northern Importers,” VJith the Revolution, salt became increasingly
scarce, and the citizens appealed to their delegates in Philadelphia to
help them get salt sufficient to curing their meat. A ship was ordered to
go to Bermuda or any island in the West Indies to buy salt, but costs were
so high that it never made the voyage. Salt was made on the Carolina coast
during the Revolution, There were two methods. One was by solar evapora
tion. Salt water v;as pumped by v/indmills'into shallow reservoirs v/ith
clay bottoms. There v/ere three vats, and the v/ater was dra\\Ti from one
into another. A vat 2kO by 150 feet v/ould give 25 to 40 bushels a day in
hot, dry v/eather. The other method wajs to boil sea water in an iron pot
over a v/ood fire or in cast iron rectangular pans set in a brick furnace.
Often the tv/o methods v/ere combined so that the brine would be quite con
centrated when it was put on to boil. Beaufort citizens fearod "that
General Clinton might send troops to destroy their town and the salt works
north of to\m. Many housewives made salt at home as indicated in this
1776 ouote: ""::very Old VJife is now scouring her pint pot for the necessary
operation. God send the., good luck." ^frteref ?ou\tTpSbl\r