Witnessing A Mysterious Homecoming On The Shores Of North Carolina's Outer Banks
On the last days of April every two years, about 500 people pile into small boats in Ocracoke, a town at the southern end of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Their destination is Portsmouth Village, six miles away across the ocean on the lonely and uninhabited Core Banks. Once the busiest port on the Outer Banks, Portsmouth now a ghost town maintained by the National Park Service.
On this single day, visitors to Portsmouth can meet descendants of the original residents, attend a hymn sing in the church, have mail stamped at the Portsmouth Post Office and share a potluck dinner of local specialties. Every other day, Portsmouth sits empty and windswept, but still welcomes visitors willing to make the sometimes challenging journey.
History first visited the region aboard a pirate ship, when Ocracoke Inlet was the haunt of the infamous Blackbeard, killed here in a battle with the British in 1718. By 1770, Portsmouth on the inlet’s south side was the largest town on the Outer Banks. At its bustling dock, large, ocean-going ships transferred their cargo to smaller vessels with the shallow draft necessary to navigate the inland waterways of North Carolina, a process called “lightering.”
The local shipping industry faltered around the time of the Civil War when Ocracoke Inlet began to shoal up and the Hurricane of 1846 opened deeper Hatteras Inlet farther north. Some Portsmouth villagers hung on, replacing lightering with fishing and taking jobs at the local U.S. Life-Saving Station. But in 1971, the last two residents reluctantly moved away, leaving Portsmouth to the mercies of wind and water.
In 1976, the National Park Service (NPS) entered the story, adding Portsmouth Village to the newly formed Cape Lookout National Seashore, made up of 56 miles of uninhabited islands stretching from Ocracoke Inlet in the north to the Shackleford Banks near Beaufort, NC, in the south. Today, the NPS opens several houses in Portsmouth Village to the public, as well as the post office, school, lifesaving station, general store and former Methodist church, many of which contain exhibits on the village's history. Rangers offer guided tours during the summer months, with audio tours available for download on the park’s website year-round.
“If it weren't for the Park Service there would be no Portsmouth Village today,” Rosanne Penley, president of the Friends of Portsmouth Island association, told The Buzz. “It would have been swept away by storms and the buildings would all be in ruins.”
Getting to Portsmouth Village is an adventure in itself, requiring a sea voyage–or two. People with four-wheel drive vehicles can take the ferry from Atlantic, NC, north of Beaufort, to North Core Island and drive 16 miles up the beach to the village. However, most of the approximately 3,000 people that visit each year take the shuttle boat from Ocracoke Village harbor operated by Rudy Austin and his family, themselves descendants of a former caretaker of the Portsmouth Life-Saving Station. Austin operates the ferry service daily during the summer and on demand the rest of the year, enlivening the journey with nuggets of local history delivered in the distinctive local dialect.
Ocracoke itself is an island, most of it part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the recipient of a “Best Beach” award from Dr. Beach. Three daily ferries operated by the North Carolina Department of Transportation give visitors access to the island. A free ferry runs from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke, a one hour voyage. Other ferries arrive from Cedar Island, near Beaufort, to the south and from Swan Quarter to the west; both take better than two hours and require a modest fee based on vehicle size.
The Friends of Portsmouth Island association was formed in 1990 to help preserve both the village itself and the legacies of the families who lived there. “It is often difficult when we and the park are faced with nor'easters, hurricanes and budget restraints,” Penley said. “But we work together to get it done.”
Since 1992, the organization has sponsored Homecomings, held every two years at Portsmouth Village itself. According to Penley, more than 130 descendants of the original villagers come from as far away as France and California, although many still live in the area. About 300 of the people making the journey on April 30 will be Portsmouth descendants or members of the Friends of Portsmouth, Penley said. But everyone is welcome at the Homecoming, which this year celebrates the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service and the 50th anniversary of Cape Lookout National Seashore.
The Portsmouth Village NPS visitor center in the Salter House is open from April through October with limited facilities available. The Cape Lookout Seashore’s main visitor center on Harker’s Island near Beaufort is open all year. The remote park is known for its herd of wild horses, thought to be descended from animals who survived early Spanish shipwrecks, and some of the best beach fishing on the East Coast, as well as the magnificent diamond-patterned Cape Lookout Lighthouse.
Today, a visit to Portsmouth Village is a step back to a different time. Fresh flowers adorn gravestones in the island cemeteries. Lawns are perfectly clipped behind white picket fences. The church door stands open, welcoming worshippers. Only the people, who fought so hard to scrape a living from the sea, are missing.
“It was a hard life but it was a good life,” Rosanne Penley said. “We need to let our children know, and remind ourselves, that places like this existed.
Renee Wright
A graduate of Franconia College in Social Psychology, Renee has written for Charlotte Magazine and Beaufort Magazine in addition to writing many guest books on North Carolina. She enjoys traveling and nature hikes.
Make Sure To Stay At:
New Bern KOA, which is a little less than 60 miles away, nestled on the tranquil banks of the Neuse River and minutes from historic downtown New Bern. This quiet campground is the perfect setting for a peaceful retreat.