VOLUME XVII NO. 44
WOULD ERECT A
MONUMENT TO
DARE ITSELF
_________ *
Editor of The State Magazine
Recounts County's Fame
With Praise for Itself
The Editor of the State Maga
zine, run by Bill Sharpe and Carl
Goerch of Raleigh has written an
editorial recounting famous events
that have transpired in Dare Coun
ty. And—“ There is a place for still
another monument," he says. A
monument to Dare County itself.”
Truly we thank the editor fob
his kind words, and we will reprint|
them. But let us add that Dare’s
citizens with all their greatness,
and their limited means, could
never have gone far without the
love and loyalty of its neighboring
newspapermen whose writing in
the newspapers of North Carolina
and elsewhere have been the
mightest force for arousing for it
the nation’s interest.
Dare County has grown in fame
because it had some good men of
vision at home and some able
friends away from home who view
ed its situation as a challenge to
them to do something for it. We
think of men like Lindsay Warren,
and W. O. Saunders, and a number
of newspapermen of Norfolk, and
Raleigh and other towns. We can
mention a few: Ralph Pool of Nor
folk; Josephus Daniels, Jonathan
Daniels, Bill Sharpe, Ben Dixon
MacNeiJl, Aycock Brown, Tom
Bost, Herbert Peele of Elizabeth
City, Woodrow Price, and many
others.
Perhaps oth«r counties have
things that would make them fa
mous in other respects; things
that would bring them great pro
fits, and means for a better life.
But they have never been uncover
ed for lack of men at home with
love and vision for their homeland.
There has to be something about
one’s homeland to create this es
sential love and vision.
Be all this as it may, we want
to pass along the following, which
is the comment of- the State Maga
zine.
There the World Changed
The announcement, made from (
Chicago earlier this month, that
Reginald A. Fessenden had been
elected to join Thomas A. Edison
and Guglielmo Marconi in Radio’s
Hall of Fame must have caused
the Red Gods to look down upon
tiny Dare County and smile.
' Certainly no county that we
know of has done more to change
this world we live in.
The first English settlers on the
American continent came to Dare
County back in the 1580’s. The
world has not been the same since.
In 1903 the Wright brothers flew
their plane from a dune in Dare
County. That flight changed the
[ world, too.
A year or so earlier Reginald
Fessenden, conduction some re
search for the U. S. Weather Bu
reau, communicated between Man
teo and Hatteras by wireless tele
-1 phone.
That was the first such commu
nication over any distance. In 1906
Fessenden spanned the Atlantic
(Brant Rock, Miss, to Macrihan
ish, Scotland), sending voice and,
music out into space for the first j
time.
The relationship between Fes
senden and Arthur Godfrey, an
other Honorary Tar Heel, is too
obvious to require comment by us.
j The proposal that a monument
be erected to Fessendent on Roa
noke Island at the site of his tele
graphy station is entirely proper.
It is fitting that the first broad-
I cast of any distance should be
memorialized right alongside the
first settlement and the place of
’ the first flight.
But there is a place for still an
other monument.
We would build it high on the
dunes and from it you would look
over the endless green of the main
land’s swamps, the broad reach of
the inland sounds and the great
sweep of the ocean itself.
On it we would engrave deep in
the stone:
"To Dare County—
Her History She Changed
The World
Her Charm She Remained
Unchanged."
MANTEO MASONS HOST
TO NORFOLK TEAM
[ A Masonic event enjoyed by a
bout 200 members of the Masonic
fraternity took place Saturday
night at the handsome new home
of the Dare County Shrine Club,
when Manteo Masonic Lodge was
host to the degree team of Doric
Lodge of Berkley, Va., and which
team conferred in grand style, the
third degree upon E. E. White of
Manteo, a member of Manteo
Lodge. The degree was conferred
in full regaiia.
THE COASTLAND TIMES
PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTEREST OF THE WALTER RALEIGH COASTLAND OF NORTH CAROLINA
MIGHTY SCHOOL OF
CHANNEL BASS ARE
SEEN FROM AIRPLANE
A mighty school of channel bass
maybe 600 feet long, and with
maybe ten thousand in it was ob
served at 3:45 Saturday afternoon
near the shore, moving northward,
abreast of the village of Salvo.
Bill Henderson, pilot, flying out
of the Manteo Airport saw the fish
on his way to Hatteras, and said
at Exactly one hour later they had
moved northward some two miles
until they were abreast of the vil
lage of Waves.
Mr. Henderson, who makes a
study of watching fish from his
i plane, said at the rate they were
travelling, they would reach Ore
gon Inlet about midnight—but
that is fishermen’s luck. Some 40
boats had been fishing all day
Saturday. By Sunday morning
they were probably off Kitty
Hawk.
Mr. Henderson reported an un
usually large number of porpoises
in the vicinity and also swimming
on top of the water one of the
mightiest sea turtles he had ever
seen.
BEST BASS CATCH -
MADE AT HATTERAS
Trolling Improving In Oregon In
let Waters Following Seige Os
Bad Weather
By AYCOCK BROWN
Although sportsfishing was im
proving with the weather at Ore
gon Inlet on the week end, the best
catches reported during the past
week were made in Hatteras wat
ers.
Casting from a drifting boat in
Hatteras Inlet last Sunday Mr. and
Mrs. T. J. Noble of Cavalier Are
na, Richmond and Al Greico of Chi
cago landed 18 channel bass rang
ing from 31 to 41 pounds.
Two days previously at Oregon
Inlet a party of Washington, D. C.,
anglers had caught seven channel
bass while trolling with artificial
lures in Oregon Inlet with Capt.
Omig TjUett The cjitcb.from. a-,
bbard Tillett’s boat, the Jerry, Jr.,
was the best of the season to date
[from Oregon Inlet waters where
I the season’s first of the copper
fighters was taken by Dover Hin
ton, Windell, on April 5, while
fishing with Capt. Willie Ethe
ridge, Jr., aboard his new cruiser,
the Chee Chee of Wanchese.
Three Anglers Catch 18
The Nobles of Richmond and
Greico of Chicago were fishing
from aboard Capt. Ernal Foster’s
Gulf Stream curiser Albatross II
when they hit the big school of
channel bass at Hatteras Inlet on
Sunday.
Instead of trolling artificial
lures through the school, the
method usually employed by ang
lers fishing from boats at Oregon
Inlet, the party aboard the Alba
tross II were casting 4-ounce
feather jigs and heavy chronium
plated spoons from the drifting
cruiser.
The Sunday catch at Hatteras
surprised the natives. It was a
blustery, rainy day, the kind that
one would not expect fish to be
running. The party chartering the
Albatross II had only one more
• day at Hatteras, so they decided
to take a chance of getting the
fish. “They surely got them, too,”
said M. L. Burrus, owner of the
oil and iceplant docks in the Outer
Banks community. “I would have
given odds that no one would cateh
fish on such a stormy day.”
Looks Better at Oregon Inlet
Only two channel bass were
landed at Oregon Inlet Friday of
this week. Roy and Jean Sweval
of 96 Kings Road, Chatham, N. J.,
made the catch. They were trolling
Pfleuger No.- 7 Record Spoons.
Oregon Inlet, muddied by heavy
rains of the interior of the State
flowing seaward in flooded rivers
and unfavorable winds have been
responsible for few catches of
channel bass at Oregon Inlet. By
Friday, the water was clearing and
guides were hoping for a change
in current season fishing luck.
FISHERMEN AT DUCK
LAND BIG STURGEON
Duck.— Largest sturgeon to be
landed by commercial fishermen a
long the Dare coast in several
years was taken by a group of
commercial fishermen on Monday,
according to Woodson Midgett.
The big fish, which had apparently
come into the waters of Currituck
Sound adjacent to the villages to
spawn, measured six feet from tip
to tip. There were no scales in the
community large enough to weigh
the big fish.
The roe of sturgeon is known as
caviar. The caviar in the old days
was usually worth considerably
more than the flesh of the fish,
although the steaks of sturgeon
today bring a good price on the
commercial markets.
SCHOOL SITE ON
HATTERAS ISLAND
UP BEFORE COURT
Question to Decide: Who Has
Authority; The Board in
Raleigh or The Board
of Dare County
Sometime ago the Board of .Ed
ucation and other interested par
ties entered into an argument to
bring a “Friendly Suit,” to de
termine who had the authority
to locate a school building,—The
State Board of Education in Ra
leigh, or the Dare County Board
of Education.
The question grew out of the
State’s refusal to erect a modern
consolidated school on Hatteras
Island to serve the people of sev
en villages, at the spot chosen by
the Dare County Board of Edu
cation, Avon.
Because of the block in plans
for the erection of the building,
the children of this area have
been the losers, and they have
also lost by the subsequent in
flation of values, a good 35 per
cent of what their money would
have bought in construction costs
two years ago.
Here is what the News and
Observer had to say about the
case before the courts, in its issue
of April 19th:
The courts were called in yes
terday to settle that months-old
squabble over the location of an
Outer Banks high school.
The Dare County Board of Ed
ucation, determined to see the
school built at Avon, appealed to
the courts to remove a big road
block. That roadblock happens to
be the State Board of Education.
For months now, the Dare
Board has huffed and puffed for
Avon without so much as mov
ing the State Board an inch. Yes
terday, Wake Superior Court
was asked for an injunction that
would clear the way for a con
solidated high school at the Avon
site.
The State Board based its firm
refusal to go along with AVon
on the advice of its engineers.
Those engineers have long con
tended that the Avon site is too
much exposed to the gales
waters of the Atlantic,
stone’s throw away.
The site is too dangerous for
the State to sink the taxpayers’
money into regardless of what
the Dare Board contends, the Ra
leigh officials have held.
At one point, the State Board
sent a committee of three of its
members to the outer banks to
examine all the proposed sites —
two at Avon and one at Buxton.
The committee returned to re
port that neither of the Avon
sites would do.
Said Committee Chairman
Claude Farell of Elkin: “The
Dare Board is determined and
of one mind to place this school
at Avon. We did not see a single
thing that would bring our think
ing in line with theirs; we could
n’t see eye to eye at all.”
After that the board promptly
adopted a motion “disapproving
the allocation of State funds for
the construction of a school buil
ding at Avon.” The vote was
unanimous.
The board let it be known sev
eral times that it would approve
the safer site at Buxton.
The opposition claimed repeat
edly the State Board has no legal
authority to dictate a building
site in the face of stony opposi
tion from the county board of
education involved. The board
replied that it certainly had an
obligation to spend State money
wisely. To build a school on an
exposed site at exposed Avon
wouldn’t exactly constitute wis
dom, its members held.
One Alternate
At one point the Dare Board
offered an “alternate” site to the
one originally proposed at Avon.
The original site is the present
location of the Avon school. The
alternate happens to adjoin the
school.
The State Board committee
said it got “conflicting testi
mony” on the Outer Banks as
to past storm damage to the pres
ent Avon school. On one hand
the committee was told that
storms had “flooded the school
and torn it loose from its moor
ings.” But the Avon folks vowed
that such a thing had never oc
curred.
The Dare Board itself first in
tended to build the school at
Buxton, but it later shifted its
plans.
In its complaint in Wake Court
the Dare Board contended that
the State Board had far overshot
its legal authority. The State
Board’s function in passing upon
See SITE, Page Four
MANTEO, N. C., FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1952
INDIANA SENATOR POSES WITH FISH WHILE
VISITING W. R. DEATON IN DARE COUNTY
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SENATOR HOMER CAPEHART OF INDIANA, who with Mrs. Cape
hart spent the Easter week end on the Dare Beaches, as the guest of
W. R. Deaton of Greensboro and Kitty Hawk, and whose visit was
covered in our paper last week, is shown posing with a big fish at
Oregon Inlet. (Photo by Aycock Brown.
CHARTER GIVEN
SCOUT TROOP IN
MANTEX) SUNDAY
Lively Group of 36 Has En
thusiastic Leaders; Con
duct Scrap Metal Drive
for Funds
The enthusiastic Boy Scout
Troop No. 165 which has Been in
process of organization during the
past six weeks, received its Char
ter Sunday at the Manteo Metho
dist Church and in the afternoon
the boys set out on a six mile hike.
Public spirited citizens are back
ing the efforts to build an out
standing troop in Manteo, and
Wilford Wise is Scout Master. As
sistant Master is Allen Mann. Har
ry Tugwell is explorer-adviser;
Ray Jones is institutional commit
teeman, and other members of the
committee are Rev. H. R. Ash
more, Chairman, Edwin Midgett,
and Merle Meekins.
To raise money for the troop,
the boys are conducting a scrap
metal and waste paper -drive and
the proceeds will go for troop ex
penses. The troop meets each Tues
day night in the Methodist Church
annex at 7:30. The 36 charter mem
bers are as follows: Davis and
Bobby Ballance, St. Clair Basnight,
Tommy Biggs, Caleb Brickhouse,
Billy Brown, Ronald Cox, Donald
Clark, Woodrow Cox, Allen Dough,
Gary Dowdy, John Etheridge,
James Flowers, Leonard Francis,
Elroy Gray, Carl Hayes, Arthur
Johnson, Michael Jones, Danny
Mann, Merle Meekins, Fleetwood
Mitchell, Paul Midgett, William
Midgett, Danny Moulson, Tommy
O’Neal, Byron Sawyer, David
Simpson, Lawrence Swain, James
Stillman, Coy Tillett, Billy Tug
well, Bobby Tugwell, Lloyd Wes
cott, Raymond Wescott, Frankie
White.
CHEST EXAMINATION
DATES ANNOUNCED
A, mass chest X-ray will be
held in Dare County beginning
May 2, sponsored by the State
Board of Health and the Dare
County Health Board.
The exmination will be given
to 11 persons 15 years of age or
over, free of charge, Dr. W. W.
Johnston, county health officer,
asks that all persons wishing to
be exmined, be at the designated
place as early as possible. Fol
lowing are the dates and places:
Kitty Hawk Post Office; Mav2;
Kill D'evil Hills Post Office. May
3; Manteo Community Building,
May 5; Wanchese Post Office,
May 6; Manns Harbor Post Of
fice, May 7; Stumpy Point school.
May 8. At each place the unit
will open at 11 a. m. close
at 5 p. m.
• / ,
' ■ J
SCHOOL MASTERS CLUB
MEETS AT NAGS HEAD
Dr. W. Amos Abrams Delivers Ad
dress To Large Gathering
Monday
The Albemarle School Master’s
Club, meeting in Dare County for
the first time in seven years had
a dinner session at the Parkerson
Hotel, Nags Head, Monday even
ing. The attendance of school sup
erintendents, principals and key
teachers from the Albemarle Coun
ties reached something over a hun
dred. A majority of them had driv
en long distances to take part in
the meeting and friendly relation
ships were shown as well as an
eager enthusiasm for what was
said and done.
In the program L. W. Huggins,
Principal of the Manteo School,
gave the invocation, W. H. West,
President of Dare NCEA Unit, wel
ocmed the group. Mrs. Mary Lang
ston Evans, Superintendent of
Dare Schools, presented as guests
the members of the Dare Board of .
I Education present: Walter L. Per- i
ry, Mrs. Mabel Evans Jones, Har
vey E. Best. Then the speaker of
the evening, Dr. W. Amos Abrams,
an Editor of the North Carolina
Education Association Journal.
Dr. Abrams led up to a dynamic
address- through good stories that
brought refreshing laughs after a
hearty dinner, then went on by
saying that his listeners might not
know that Dare County made edu
cational history by using boats to
| transport children to educational
I events such as county commence
ments when only the faith of a
young woman county superinten
dent made an educational get-to
gether of Dare’s children seem pos
sible. He read clippings from the
Education Journal of that period.
Later he stated that 89 per cent of
the tax income of the United States
today was being spent as a result
lof wars past and present, that
only 3 per cent was being spent on
education. He said that in the
state of North Carolina, where this
year there would be a surplus of
See CLUB, Page Four
THREE FINED TUESDAY
IN RECORDERS COURT
Three cases involving four de
fendants were tried Tuesday in
Dare County Recorder’s Court, and I
fines were levied as follows:
Charles W. Flynn, seaman, for'
careless and reckless driving,
j which resulted in the total des-,
I truction of an automobile was fin
ed $25 and costs.;
Allen Beasley and Early Gallop
for disorderly conduct and creat
ing a disturbance at Nags Head
Casino weft each fined $25 and
costs.
Claude Ziegler, Sr., of Elizabeth
City for driving without operator’s
license was fined $25 and costa.
JOHN DUVALL DIES
AT MANNS HARBOR
EARLY THURSDAY
Prominent Citizen of Coun
ty; Was Chairman of Dare
Beaches Sanitary
Board
John Robert Duvall of Kitty
Hawk, died suddenly at 1 o’clock
Thursday morning at Manns Har
bor where he had been living for
the past several months while
managing a logging operation at
East Lake.
He was the son of the late John
E. and Cynthia Pritchett Duvall of
East Lake, where he was a resi
dent most of his life, moving there
at an early age with his parents,
from Tyrrell County, where he
was born.
At the time of his death he was
owner of a cottage court and store
at Kitty Hawk, which he had op
erated for the past six years. He
was also Chairman for the past
three years of the Dare Beaches
Sanitary Board, for which post he
had recently filed without opposi
tion.
Most of his life had been spent
in the timber business, and for a
time he had been employed in the
logging industry in Haifa and oth
er Carribean islands. He also
worked for a while in the oil fields
of the southwest.
He is survived by his wife, John
nie Jordan Duvall, several step
children, step-grand-children, and
many nephews and nieces. He was
a brother of Claude C. Duvall,
Chairman of the Dare County Com
missioners, and he has two sisters,
Mrs. L. E. Bray of Elizabeth City
and Mrs. Ewie Pinner of Manns
Harbor.
He was a member of the East
Lake Methodist Church, of Wan
chese Masonic Lodge and of Su
dan Shrine Temple. Funeral serv
ices will be conducted Friday at 2
p. m. by Rev. H. R. Ashmore at the
Manteo Methodist Church, and
burial will be in the Manteo Ceme
tery. Twiford Funeral Home, di
rectors.
LACK OF MAINTENANCE
ON ROAD SCORED
Residents of Hatteras Island
after all the years of isolation
from motor travel will soon have
a paved route from Oregon Inlet
to Hatteras village, some 50 miles
southward. Despite this move by
the State in providing what is des
tined to become one of the most
traveled coastal tourist routes a
long the Atlantic coast, some tour
ists and residents of Hatteras Is
land, complain the State is neglect
ing currently, the proper main
tenance of the unpaved stretch be
tween Oregon Inlet and Rodanthe.
Scores of tourists and sportsfish
ermen from other States who have
driven over the route agree with
the residents of the Banks that
there is a lack of adequate main
tenance.
“We don’t know whether it is
the duty of North Carolina’s High
.way Department, or the construc
jtion firms in charge of building the
final link of the road to provide
. a passable road or detour,” said
Capt. Levene Midgett of Rodanthe,
this week. “It is surely someone’s
duty though, and even if we are
promised a paved road during the
coming summer, there is consid
erable traffic at the present time.
There is no excuse for not having
better maintenance in the bad
spots now.”
E. P. White of Buxton agreed
with Midgett. “Residents of this
island pay gasoline taxes, are re
quired to purchase state licenses
for their automobiles and also take
drivers’ tests for licenses. In addi
tion to this thousands of dollars
have been spent by island inter
ests in the building of additional
See ROAD, Page Four
PRE-SCHOOL CLINICS
IN DARE COUNTY
Parents with children beginning
school next year are asked to
bring them to the pre-school clinics
so they may start their immuniza
tions and get their check-ups. This
is required of all children begin
ning school next year.
Following are the dates and
hours set by the health depart
ment:
Stumpy Point, April 29, 11:00 a.
Im., School Building; Manns Har
, bor, April 29, 1:30 p, m., school
building; Manteo Roanoke School,
i April 30, 10:00 a. m., school build
ing; Manteo High School, April
30, 2:00 p. m. school building; Avon
, School, May 1., 10:00 a. m., school
building; Buxton School, May 13,
2:00 p. m., school building; Hat
teras School, May 14, 9:00 a. m.,
school building; Rodanthe School,
May 14,1:00 p. m., school building;
Colington School, May 21, 10:00 a.
m., school bui'ding.
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Single Copy 7#
MANY CAN’IDATES
UNOPPOSED THIS
YEAR IN DARE CO.
Three for County Commis
sioners and Two for Board
of Education
Candidates for Nags Head, Hat
teras and Atlantic Township on the
Board of Commissioners are with
out opposition in Dare County.
Candidates from Hatteras and At
lantic Township for the Board of
Education are unopposed.
Late entries in the field against
Lawrence Swain of Manteo for
Commissioner was Elmer V. Mid
gett; and against Roy Gray of
Hatteras was Raymond Basnett of
Buxton, but both of these men
withdrew soon afterward.
The candidates who have filed
and remain in the running are as
follows:
For Representative, R. Bruce
Etheridge and Dewey L. Hayman.
For Commissioner, Nags Head
Township, Lawrence L. Swain, un
opposed; Atlantic Township, W. H.
Lewark, unopposed; Hatteras
Township, W. L. Scarborough, un
opposed; Mainland District, C. C.
Duvall and C. L. Holmes; Kenne
keet Township, James W. Scar
borough, David O’Neal.
For Board of Education: Atlan
tic Township, Walter D. Perry,un
opposed; Hatteras Township, Roy
Gray, unopposed; Kennekeet Town
ship, Ellis A. Gray, Noah E. Price;
Mainland District, H. E. Best.
Wallace Taylor. Nags Head Town
ship: Mrs. Mabel Evans Jones, Jas.
W. Davis, R. O. Ballance and Vic
tor Meekins.
The three members of the Dare
Beaches Sanitary District Board
filed for renomination without op
position. John R. Duvall, Chairman,
Mrs. Daisy Midgett and J. E. Har
ris. Mr. Duvall died Thursday
morning.
A NEW LOOK PROMISED
LOST COLONY IN 1952
Some Changes Planned For Paul
Green’s Drama at Fort
Raleigh
By -AYCOCK BROWN
America’s longest-lived sym
phonic drama, Paul Green’s inter
nationally famous “The Lost Col
ony,” is getting a slightly new
look for its 1952 season which pre
mieres here on Roanoke Island in
Waterside Theatre, June 28, ac
cording to William Hardy, gen
eral manager of the production.
Changes are being planned both in
front of the footlights and on the
stage for the 12th season of the
play which dramatically tells the
tragic story of first attempts to
plant an English settlement in the
New World.
“For the first time in the his
tory of the drama,” said Hardy,
"all the seats in the spacious am
phitheatre overlooking Roanoke
and Albemarle Sounds will be re
served-”
“With the opening date of the
drama still several weeks away,
we are getting an unusual number
of requests for reserved seats,”
said Mrs.;Mabel Basnight, box of
fice manager of The Lost Colony
since its beginning here on the
350th anniversary of the birth of
Virginia Dare in 1937. Off-season
records of the business office re
flect that already hundreds of tick
ets have been sold for the 1952 sea
son of the drama. These tickets
were sold to persons who became
members of the Lost Colony’s
sponsoring organization, the Roa
noke Island Historical Association.
Invitations to become members of
the association were extended by
Governor W. Kerr Scott.
Previously a large number of
seats have been sold on a general
admission basis. Hardy said that
the decision to make all seats re
served was to give all patrons of
The Lost Colony a chance to select
a definite location in the theatre
in advance and thus avoid having
to arrive at the drama early in or
der to be assured of a seat.
New Blood in Play
The play itself has been given
some new blood with the addition
by Playwright Green of a real
I blood and thunder Indian attack
on the fort during the second act.
uel Selden feel that this new scene
“Both Green and Director Sam
will be the most exciting sequence
that has happened to the drama
since its premiere on historic Roa
noke Island in 1937,” said Hardy.
Already special music for this
exciting scene which is destined
to add thrills to the tragic second
act of the drama is being arranged
by James Hart, Lost Colony or
ganist. “It is believed that the
spectacle of painted warriors
swarming over the parapets, lock
ing in death struggles with the
defending colonists and finally be
ing driven off, will make hair
stand on end in the audience,” said
'Hart.