Portsmouth Island, NC

Paradise bound!  My darling brother and SIL offered Stuart and me the use of  their truck/camper for the weekend, specifially for a visit to Portsmouth Island, NC.  It's part of the Core Banks, some folks might think of it as the southern end of the Outer Banks.  Truthfully, all the beaches in NC are islands, making them ALL Outer Banks.  Portsmouth Island is directly across the inlet from Ocracoke Island.  From the Village of Ocracoke, you can see the state historic site of Portsmouth Village.  It was a 'ship lightering' community for more than 100 years.  The people living on this sliver of land on the edge of the mid-Atlantic made there living fishing, crabbing and shrimping, and unloading the ships loaded with goods from Europe bound for the eastern US.  The shoals prevented the ships from coming closer, so the people of PI loaded the goods into smaller boats, moved to the island  The goods were then loaded onto other ships, and moved up and down the east coast, beyond the treacherous shoals 'outside'.

Hurricanes changing the inlets in the early 1900's changed the game, and the ships could come closer in other locations, eliminating the need for the lightering services.  The last permanent residents left PI in 1971, with the death of some of the last people.   African Americans made up about one third of the population of the island, but until the 1970's blacks remained marginalized by the whites.  Laws prevented white and black children from attending the same school, and schools were never built for black children.  The site of Portsmouth Village is now a historic site, accessible only by boat from Ocracoke and the ferry landing on Portsmouth Island, about 25 miles south.  There are no roads on the island.  Morris Marina, in Atlantic, operates a ferry for the park service, dropping people and four-wheel drive vehicles at the south end of the island.

So, Stuart and  I have brother Worth/SIL Karen's truck and slide-in camper for a few days, and we're very excited about the trip!  Pictures, taken with my new camera (hopefully!), later....