Pieces of the forgotten history of life on our obx sandbar.
HOBX loves stories of the hidden history of the Outer Banks so we LOVE this blog from Carolina Designs by Michele, containing fascinating but little known historical facts about the OBX!
4 Facts about Outer Banks History that Will Surprise You
“Looking around at the modern version of the Outer Banks, it can be hard to imagine that there was ever anything else here that what we currently see. But there is a history here—a very rich and wonderful history.
Of course everyone records the big events, but rather than write about the Lost Colony or the Wright Brothers, we thought a few lesser known historic facts about the Outer Banks might be interesting.
1) Nags Head was one of first tourist towns in the US
The Hudson Valley of New York is often given credit as the birthplace of American tourism, as a growing middle class ventured out of the urban centers of the Northeast.
The South, before the Civil War, didn’t have much of a middle class, but the wealthy plantation owners had their own reasons for finding places to visit during the summer.
Perquimans County plantation owner Francis Nixon is usually credited with being the first tourist to land in Nags Head. The story holds that in 1830, malaria was rampant in the coastal plane of North Carolina, and to escape the heat, humidity and disease of his home, he loaded his family onto a sailboat, sailed across the sound until he came to a dock at the base of Jockey’s Ridge.”
Read the rest of these fun facts on the Carolina Designs blog!