Innovation and paranoia on the Outer Banks

Larry E. Tise’s “Conquering the Sky: The Secret Flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk” tells the story of the Wright Brothers’ struggles with the press. As late as 1908 they wanted to keep their accomplishment secret until all the kinks were worked out, and they thought the Outer Banks suitably remote.

People were already talking – the fishermen, the crewmen at the nearby lifesaving station who’d been so helpful in 1903 and others.

These men loved to talk and tell tales, and frankly, not much else was happening on the Outer Banks in 1908.

A New Land, ‘A New Voyage’: John Lawson’s Exploration of Carolina

A new exhibit at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh commemorates the 300th anniversary of the publication of A New Voyage to Carolina. Published in 1709 in London, the book by English explorer and naturalist John Lawson was the first major attempt to describe the natural history of the New World to Europeans.

The book is based on Lawson’s 550-mile, 57-day trek with nine others through Carolina in 1700 and 1701.

Continue reading the article “A New Land, ‘A New Voyage’: John Lawson’s Exploration of Carolina” here, and you can read the book itself online at Gutenberg.net in a variety of formats. Posted also under “tourism” because John Lawson came here and wrote about it – in 1709.

State Library of North Carolina provides key to online collections

In this world of information overload, locating information online can be a challenge and may require traveling from one institution to another to gather a complete view of a topic. The State Library of North Carolina’s NC MOSAIC (Managing, Organizing, and Strengthening Access to Institutional Collections) brings together in one online location links to important collections of government information including maps, publications, records, and historical documents that have been made available on the Internet by academic institutions or government agencies in North Carolina.

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Hatteras happenings at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum

Try painting, food tasting, or hearing about “the good ol’ days” on Hatteras Island at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in July. The Meekins Chandlery Gift Shop and Friends of the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum are sponsors.

Award winning writer Ray McAllister, Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist, will reflect on his family’s annual visits to the island more than 25 years ago and relate entries from his new book, Hatteras Island: Keeper of the Outer Banks on July 9, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

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Book: Journalists had to hide to see Wright Bros. in the air

On a breezy Thursday in 1908, five big-city reporters hid in a patch of woods, scratched at chiggers biting their sweaty bodies and bore secret witness to the marvel of a new century: the Wright Brothers circling Kill Devil Hill in a gasoline-powered airplane.

The famous pair had been flying for several years, notching the world’s first powered, manned, controlled flight on the Outer Banks in December 1903. But they were secretive, distrustful and obsessed with protecting their own patent from competition, so few had seen them fly. For all the world knew, the Wrights were fakers.

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Local historian David Stick has died

David Stick, an author and pioneer in recording the history of coastal North Carolina, died Sunday, his son said. He was 89.

Stick, who lived in Kitty Hawk, was the first mayor of the town of Southern Shores, the first licensed real estate broker in Dare County and a co-founder in 1982 of the Outer Banks Community Foundation, a nonprofit that grants money to worthy causes.

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‘Flags Over Hatteras’ Civil War Talk at museum

Drew Pullen, an authority on the Civil War on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, will give a free public presentation, “Flags Over Hatteras,” at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum on Wednesday, May 20, at 7 p.m.

In May 1861, the Atlantic Blockading Squadron Board of Strategy regarded the “sterile, half drowned shores of North Carolina” with little interest. Less than one month later, they acknowledged this same coast as “the most dangerous stretch of shore in the whole Confederacy.”

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Countdown to ArtSync Magazine

ArtSync Magazine is on track to launch March 2.

In the first issue you’ll find the Top 10 Cover Contest Finalists, “The History of NC Punk Rock: 1977-1984″; a profile of Revonda Roberts & Harvest Wind, contemporary bluegrass band; a National Artist Profile of Robert Williams; a North Carolina Artist Profile of potter Betsy Sellers; “The Print Process,” an interview with Zach Schaeffer of Image Monster and more.

A lifelong storyteller

Growing up in Johnson City, Tenn., Mary Maden found herself telling stories.

“I’ve just been a writer since I was 8, so I’ve written all my life,” Maden said during a telephone interview from her home in Kitty Hawk, N.C.

Years later, Maden found herself married to her husband, Eric Schroeder, and moving to Kitty Hawk in 1984, after years of living in Dayton, Ohio.

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Local historian David Stick profiled on WRAL

Author David Stick is celebrating his 89th birthday Sunday. When WRAL television interviewed Stick he recalled hopping on the back of a pickup truck as a boy to see Orville Wright. A kind lady held him to keep him from falling out – it was Amelia Earhart.

Watch “N.C. Man Remembers Orville Wright” on WRAL.com »