Offering panoramic views of Pamlico Sound, the Marc Basnight Bridge, and Bodie Island Lighthouse, a new and vastly improved Oregon Inlet Fishing Center has just opened its doors to the public. The new, two-story building includes a retail store, ticketing area, and a restaurant with outdoor seating overlooking the marina. The new fishing center building is situated where the original fishing center was once located. That building, though, was destroyed by the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962. There is little chance the new fishing center will suffer the same fate. The National Park Service, which o ..read more

The Outer Banks and the Outer Banks Hospital seem like a bit of an out of the way location for a state of the art cancer care, but for the past few years, the expertise and knowledge that caregivers in the program have contributed has created a program that has garnered widespread praise for its patient treatment and outcomes. And as the Carol S. and Edward D. Cowell, Jr. Cancer Center nears completion, those accolades are being translated into a nationally recognized and accredited center for the care of cancer patients. Treatment for cancer patients and their families has been a part of the ..read more

With the launch of a 110’ catamaran back in July, a new record has been set for Wanchese boatbuilding. The Outer Banks and especially Wanchese and Manteo have a long rich history of boat building dating back more than 150 years. Wanchese has really become the center of the craft over the past 50 years but in WWII that skill was found at the Manteo Boat Building Company and the many wooden boats constructed for the US Navy, including 13 105’ wooden patrol boats. But the Hippocampus 2—H-2 for short—is something else entirely. Hippocampus is the genus name for all species of seahorse. The size c ..read more

Manteo is alive as it never has been before. The town has always been a go-to place for a lot of Outer Banks gatherings, but over the past two or three years it has blossomed into a very real center of arts and entertainment. Manteo waterfront aerial view Some of that has to do with VUSIC OBX, the locally-owned music promotion company that has done an amazing job of bringing national acts to the Outer Banks. Just about every week during the summer they have managed to bring in some of the best talent around to play at Roanoke Island Festival Park (RIFP). From the time it opened more than 30 ye ..read more

The Corolla Wild Horses may be staging a comeback. Or at least, they’re not quite ready to become the stuff of a hazy past. Recently a mare and her foal were spotted on one of the many uncharted marsh islands in the northern Currituck Sound. Herd managers are confident that neither the mare nor the foal had been counted. Those islands are so isolated and remote that there is a good possibility that there are more hidden horses on them. There have also been five foals born this year, not including the foundling. That brings the herd population to over 100, probably 102 or 103, although herd man ..read more

Back in December, when Buddy Creef closed the Pioneer Theater that his family had been running since 1918, the outlook for one of the oldest family-owned community theaters in the nation looked bleak. But investors made up of two local families, the Basnights and Hatchells, stepped in and bought the iconic building in downtown Manteo in February. The theater has just reopened, and it is remarkable how much the new owners were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. For anyone who is familiar with the old faux Elizabethan facade that was on the theater, that’s gone. That facade was p ..read more

Some new research may give some insights into what really happened during one of the most terrible Outer Banks shipwrecks. Archeological researchers are very cautious about saying definitively that they have found pieces of the doomed steamship Metropolis, but modern technology and evidence are strongly suggestive. Using 3D imaging and CAD programming, Matthew Pawelski, in a recently completed thesis paper, was able to place wreckage known wreckage on the Corolla beach onto the Metropolis with surprising precision. Additionally, looking at an area on the beach from the Albacore Street ramp sou ..read more

With his solo debut in the new opera Champion at New York’s Metropolitan Opera—the Met, Tshombe Selby, who grew up in Manteo, seems on the cusp of realizing a dream that has been part of his life since childhood. Someone once remarked that “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” That’s usually attributed to Thomas Edison, but there’s a lot of research that says, “Not so.” To be safe, we’ll attribute it to anonymous. Regardless, it’s a true statement and Tshombe is living proof of that, although in his case it’s more than just perspiration. There is also having a dream ..read more

Even after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit upheld a lower court finding on February 23 in favor of NCDOT and the Mid Currituck Bridge, it’s still unclear when or even if the much-delayed toll bridge will be built. Current plans call for construction to begin in 2024 on the $500 million-plus project. But there are a number of obstacles, some legal, some financial, that will have to be addressed before construction can begin. If built, the seven-mile-long bridge will connect mainland Currituck County with the Currituck Outer Banks (Corolla), bypassing the intersection of US158 and ..read more