Hatteras Island has seen shipwrecks (so many that this part of the coast is called The Graveyard of The Atlantic), pirates (including Blackbeard), the ravages of the Civil War and later the German U-Boats of World War II. They saw the Hatteras Lighthouse tower above the trees, withstand grapeshot and musket ball in the Civil War, and, much later, in 1999, move inland, away from the encroaching sea. They saw each of the Bodie Island Lighthouses rise from the sand, shine their lights into the sea swept night, and the dim as their replacement rose even higher and more sturdily built. Families here worked the water for a living, hauling nets full of fish to shore, gathering oysters and clams by the barrel, risking their lives to save the lives of those shipwrecked on the sandbars and shoals just offshore, and for generations their lives remained relatively unchanged. That’s a secret many Hatteras Islanders kept to themselves for years. Within Cape Hatteras National Seashore you’ll find all seven of the island’s villages, but also woods, dunes, marsh, and beaches so pristine as to border on perfect. ![]() Established in 1937 to preserve the integrity of this thin barrier island, the National Seashore limited growth, virtually freezing the villages in time and limiting their ability to grow into the wild woods and dunes of Hatteras Island, instead these small, tight-knit communities remained relatively isolated and their cultures, which developed over more than a century of life on the Banks, distinct. Hatteras Island is unlike anywhere else thanks in part to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the first of its kind.
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