Outer Banks

See also: Banks

The Outer Banks draw a thin sand band 160 km length along the coasts of North Carolina to the the United States. They separate the Atlantic Ocean from the Baie of Albermarle (in north) and from the Baie of Pamlico (in the south).

It is at this place that the English, under the impulse of Walter Raleigh, made their first attempts at colonization of North America, and that they faced for the first time the Indians (1583).

Outer Banks saw the first flight achieved by the Frères Wright in a vehicle heavier than the air the December 17th 1903. The site from where they took off is located in the town of Kill Devil Hills, or the Wright Brothers National Monument commemorates this vol. This zone also served as first airport.

Geography

The Outer Banks consist of a string of islands, which north in the south is: Bodie Island, Roanoke Island and Hatteras Island, plus Ocracoke Island. The north of Outer Banks, of the Oregon Inlet , which literally passes through the Great Dismal Swamp (" the large marsh morne") occupying most of the grounds in the west of Outer Banks. A road reaches the northern limit of Outer Banks to Corolla, while passing through Carova accessible only by vehicles to integral Transmission. The Highway 12 connects most popular of the communities of Outer Banks. The point more in the east is the Cape Point with Cap Hatteras on the island Hatteras, site or is the Phare of the Cap Hatteras.

Outer Banks does not put back on a Coral reef like some other island-barriers, and consequently the Plage S suffer from erosion during the forts Orage S. In fact, their localization vis-a-vis the Atlantic Ocean makes that they are sujettent with the successive Ouragan S coming by the Florida. Hatteras Island was cut into two the September 18th 2003, when the Ouragan Isabel created a 600 m broad channel and of 3m of depth the Isabel Inlet through the community of Hatteras Village on the southern point of the island. The channel was stopped and the road restored later thanks to sand dredged by the Corps of the engineers of the army.

History

The forwarding of Verrazano, organized with the support of François Ier, reached the American coast with height of Fear Cape (with the 34e degree of latitude, according to the captain of forwarding), on March 20th 1524. Going up towards north to avoid the Spanish colonies, Verazzano reached on March 25th a ground which he baptized (according to the liturgical calendar Florentin) the Year. It gives following description of it:
It is there an isthmus broad of one thousand and length of two hundred miles. Ship one saw the Eastern sea towards the North-West. This sea is undoubtedly that which bathes the end of India, China and Cathay. We sailed along this island with the tough hope to find some strait or better a headland which completed this ground towards north (...) This isthmus was baptized by the discoverer isthmus Verrazano . In the same way all the ground met was called Francesca in the honor of our king François.

The sailors on several occasions on the occasion to meet natives:

These people go entirely naked, except with the ashamed parts where they carry skins of small animals like the martens and a narrow woven vegetable belt of the tails of other animals (...) the remainder, as well as the head, is discovered. Some carry garlands of feathers of birds. They are black of skin and rather similar to the Ethiopian . Their hair is black also and thick, but poor length… .

Thereafter and to the wars of religion, the efforts of French colonization will continue essentially around Bay of the St. Lawrence. Except some Spanish incursions, it is necessary to wait 50 years to see explorations including in Outer Banks.

After the half-failure of Humphrey Gilbert to seize Newfoundland (1583), Walter Raleigh, captivated by the work of Bartolomé de Las Put ( The Spanishe Colonie , 1583), decided to establish a colony in the north of the “Spanish Florida”. It sent as a scout a forwarding carried out by the captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe . The log books of the two captains, published by Richard Hakluyt, provide a detailed account of this voyage. Hesitating to engage in the strait of Florida, the flotilla of Richard Grenville doubled the Cape Fear and put at damping in the island of Roanoke, an island of Outer Banks, on July 5th, 1584. The size of this island was estimated at 20 Mile S length (approx. 30 km) and 6 miles of width (approx. 10 km). Barlowe and Amadas brought back to England two Indian algonquiens of the tribe of the Powhatan. The abundance of the wood area (of the “cedars” in particular, that Verrazano had already described; undoubtedly conifers of the red species Pine), out of fruits (a variety of grapes, undoubtedly of the Bilberry S) and out of fish, decided Raleigh to launch the one second forwarding, this time to colonize this baptized area Virginia (in homage to Elisabeth Ière of England, the “Queen-Virgin”). This attempt lasted only one year (1585-1586) because, in consequence of a food food shortage and lassitude of the Indians, the colonists entered in conflict with the natives and had to leave the island precipitately. For as much, the last year on these shores made it possible Thomas Harriot to deliver a detailed study of the country and language of the algonquiens, and the engraver John White to deliver the first illustrated boards of the life of the Indians of North America: these boards will appear later in the republication by Theodore de Bry of the relation of André Thévet, “ singularitez Them of France the Antarctic ”. The colonists also brought back in England the use of plants considered medicinal, the Tabac and the Sassafras.

A third colony, this time of 112 colonists men and women, and comprising several craftsmen, are established on July 1st, 1586. The governor of the colony, John White, decided to turn over to England in September 1587 in order to convince the authorities to send new colonists and especially building machinery. But on its return, which, in consequence of the attack of the Invincible Armada on the English coasts, could be carried out only in August 1590, this colony had disappeared without leaving of trace.

The area was finally colonized since north only starting from the colony of Jamestown and the pacification of the grounds bordering the Baie of Chesapeake, obtained by the famous captain John Smith, between 1603 and 1607. This date, the incomes drawn from the sale of the tobacco in Europe made it possible to cover the maintenance costs of the colony and made Virginia a prosperous establishment.

See also: Virginia Company

Culture

The islands closing the lagoon shelter a race of wild horses sometimes called banker ponies ; according to local, in fact the Spanish descendants of mustangs would have drawn from the successive shipwrecks of ships to the wire of the centuries. Colonies of these ruminants live on the islands of Corolla and Ocracoke.

Ocracoke was the refuge of the pirate Edward Teach, better known under the name of Black Barbe .

Cities

Towns of Outer Banks:

Bodie Island

Roanoke Island

  • Manteo

  • Wanchese

Hatteras Island

Ocracoke Island

  • Ocracoke

  • Portsmouth Island (Uninhabited)
  • Core Banks (Uninhabited)
  • Shackleford Banks (Uninhabited)

Banks bug/Coast Hook

  • Atlantic Beach

  • Prick Knoll Shores
  • Salter Path
  • Indian Beach
  • Emerald Isle

Parks

  • Cape National Hatteras Seashore

  • Cape National Lookout Seashore
  • Strong National Raleigh Historic Site
  • Jockey' S Ridge State Park
  • Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge
  • Wright Brothers National Memorial

Famous residents

See also

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