Pages

Sunday, April 10, 2011

HIGS and LCRG - Potluck Dinner and Lost Colony Adventure Tues. Night

 by Dawn Taylor 

Time
Tuesday, April 12 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
 
 Location
Avon Firehouse, NC
 
 Created By
Hatteras Island Genealogical and Preservation Society
 
 
More Info
Hatteras Island Genealogy Society and the Lost Colony Genealogy and DNA
Research Group, are coming together to bring you some good eats and we will
have with us several guests, all specialists in aspects of Lost Colony
Research.
 
Roberta Estes, Director of the Lost Colony Research Group will give a
presentation about the ongoing research into the fate of the Lost Colony,
the Lost Colony DNA project, and the Hatteras Island Family ...project,
co-administered by Dawn Taylor. Dawn and Roberta will have their Hatteras
Island genealogy data base along for easy access this evening, so be sure to
see if your ancestor is listed. We'll be talking about what we've found in
the Hatteras families, genetically, too - so if it's results you're looking
for - you won't want to miss this.
 
Anne Poole, Research Director of the Lost Colony Research Group will be with
us as well.
 
Andy Powell, recently retired Mayor of Bideford England, and expert on the
English aspect of Lost Colony research will bring his recently released book
  Grenville and The Lost Colony of Roanoke, and will be sharing with us the
role of Sir Richard Grenville in the Lost Colony adventure. Andy has spent
years translating original English documents and will be sharing his
knowledge with us.
 
Prior to our special guest speakers, there will be a pot luck dinner.
HIGS and LCRG, will be supplying the main course and drinks. We do ask that
those attending, bring a side dish or dessert. The pot luck portion of the
night will be from 6-7 p.m. Our special guest speakers will start promptly
at 7 p.m
 
Hope to see you there !


This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share

Just When I Thought I had the Answer….Masque, Maskue, Askue, Massague, Massigay, Masagy, Maskie, Massechoes and Mashoes

by Roberta Estes
 
Enlightenment is where you find it..  In this case, it was laying on the steps.  I was visiting the home of Dawn Taylor and her lovely father, and I asked to use the restroom.  They directed me to the facility, which was up the stairs on the second level.  They do what we do at home, anything needing to go upstairs get stacked on the steps at the bottom and the next person to go up takes it along.  On their steps was an October 1996 edition of the Tyrrell Times, the publication of the Tyrrell County Genealogical Society.  I was immediately interested, and they loaned me the journal for a few days.  I found a very interesting article, which proved very enlightening relative to one of our Hatteras early families as well.
 
I thought I had this particular family figured out…..just when you think you have the answer, a left hook arrives.
 
In our Hatteras neighborhood project, we’ve been reconstructing the various neighborhoods from Buxton through Frisco in an effort to pinpoint the Native villages and to better understand the family relationships.  Through the joint efforts of several researchers over the past couple of years, we’ve succeeded in reconstructing these neighborhoods..  One of our mystery families, who don’t live on the Outer Banks anymore is the Joseph Maskue family.  Joseph is first found on Hatteras Island in 1757 when he receives a land grant of 300 acres “on Hatteras Banks” on the sound side near John Neals.  This was then Currituck County, later Hyde, and now Dare.
 
In 1767, George Masque sells the entire 300 acres patented by Joseph Masque to Benjamin Price, and the Masque (Maskie, Maskue) family disappears from the records of Hatteras Island. 
 
The reason this family was of particular interest is because the Maskue land abuts the land grand of William Elks, the Hatteras Indian family as reflected in the 1771 sale of part of the William Elks land.
 
I thought I had this family further identified.  A 1713 court record shows a Thomas Askue estate that involved Henry Davis, Patrick McKuen, John McKuen and Francis Farrow, all Hatteras men.  Henry Davis patented the land adjacent to the land that Joseph Maskue would patent in 1757.  The McKuen family were neighbors as well, and Francis Farrow, while not an adjacent neighbor, was an early island pioneer as well. 
 
 Admittedly, there is more than 40 years between the estate of Thomas Askue and the land grant of Joseph Masque, but the nearly exact location, the neighbors and the similarity of surnames is very certainly suggestive of a connection, especially considering that in 1713, there were very, very few families living on the Outer Banks, probably less than ten, judging from the early land grants and tax records.  Land grants on Hatteras really didn’t begin until after the Tuscarora War was resolved and it ended in 1713.
 
In the Tyrrell Times, James L. Liverman, wrote an article about a pair of French brothers who settled in Albemarle County at the end of the 17th century.  Unfortunately, he didn’t give specific dates, but I’ve extracted some of what he did say.
 
“A pair of Frenchmen came to live along the southern shore of the Albemarle Sound somewhere toward the end of the 17th century.  Probably Huguenots strayed from one of the colonies to the south.  Stephen was 25 at his first mention in the colonial records and seems to have located permanently just across the estuary from the Sand Banks in a neighborhood later to become a part of Tyrrell County, then to be lost to Dare, while the apparently more ambitious Benjamin made a claim “about 4 or 5 miles below Scuppernong River”.  This family name was variously rendered as Massague, Massigay, Masagy and other misadventures.  One clerk wrote it as Massechoes coming pretty close to the place names of Mashoes Creek and Mashoes in today’s mainland Dare County.
 
Legend has it that a shipwrecked Frenchman came ashore near present time Manns Harbor when that area was still completely uninhabited.  With his wife and family lost at sea, the marooned man is said to have carved the entire account of his travail onto a cedar shingle before he died of abandonment and grief.
 
Benjamin yclept (sic) Massenque abandoned his homestead below the Scuppernong probably at the same time he married one of the two orphaned daughters of Thomas Waller.  He then embarked on a series of lawsuits against a prominent citizen of the Albemarle by which he eventually secured custody of the other orphaned daughter and the Waller estate entire.  He was dead within the year. 
 
There is nothing in the surviving records about an heir, but a Peter Museos turns up in the court minutes 16 years after Benjamin’s death.  Then the name disappears from the archives, except for one trace that remains.  On the left hand side when headed out of Columbia south of NC94, you will notice in the vicinity of Ryder’s Creek the last memorial, a green placard sign that says “Pity My Shoe Road”.”
 
Liverman also spells the name Micheaux.
 
The first names don’t match.  We find Thomas Askue on Hatteras Island in 1713 and the Albemarle names were Benjamin and Peter.  The later Hatteras first names in the mid-1700s were Joseph and George.  However, the similarity between the surnames can’t be arbitrarily dismissed without further investigation.  I’d certainly appreciate any information that anyone has about these or similar surnames in this region of eastern North Carolina.


This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Old Time Hatteras Island


Hatteras Island is such a lovely place as are the residents.  It’s the essence of small-town Norman Rockwell America.  This evening, Danny Couch, a local historian and tour operator hosted a civic event at the Fessenden Center in Buxton.  Danny invited three of the local senior citizens, although you’d never have believed they were senior citizens by looking at and listening to them.  One man is still a full time commercial fisherman, and let’s just say he and the other gentleman were Boy Scouts in the 40s and 50s.  I won’t name names, since I don’t have permission, but listening to them was simply delightful as they talked about life on Hatteras the way it used to be.
 
One story was about going “up the beach”.  Only “bankers”, meaning “sand banks” type of bankers, would know what going up the beach means.  Roads didn’t exist here at all initially, and there were two ways to get up or down the island by vehicle.  During low tide, you drove literally on the packed sand along the beach.  During high tide, you had to take a much worse mid-island road.  Tires here were permanently nearly deflated, as the only way not to get stuck in the sand was and is to let some of the air out of your tires.  Locals carried a hand pump with them in case they came to a hard surface, especially after the first 17 miles of road was completed to connect Avon, Buxton and Frisco together so a school bus could pick up children so they could share a school.
 
The lady of the three told about boat rides to the mainland.  There were no ferry boats in the 1940s.  To go from here to Elizabeth City was, best case, an 8 hour ordeal, on a boat with no seats, and more importantly, no bathrooms.  In bad weather, it was longer and worse.  She told of making the trip once in a storm and how sick she was as they put the passengers below deck in the front hold among the cargo.  Better sick than overboard, but to this day, she has vivid memories of the trip….and not good ones.
 
She talked a bit as well about the hurricanes here which are simply a fact of life.  She mentioned that storms then didn’t have names like they do today, and the way you remembered them was by the lines on the wall paper from the flood water.  “That one was from ’37 and that one was from ’44.”  She also mentioned that you drilled holes in the floor so that the storm tides and water didn’t take your house out to sea.  You basically opened your house up like a big sieve so that the water could pass through it and not push the house off the foundation.  Today, most homes here are build on stilts about 20 feet in height.  I counted the steps this evening to get up to the door of the house where we are headquartered and it was 17 steps.  
 

The wild “banker ponies” are part of life here as well, especially on Ocracoke Island.  The only mounted Boy Scout troop to ever exist was there for a few years and both of the gentlemen who spoke this evening were part of that troop.  They caught and tamed their ponies and the biggest problem they had was that the male horses kept escaping and going back to the herd.  Now Ocracoke Island isn’t large, and they knew where the herds lived, so they had to keep going back and luring their horse away from the herd with sweet treats…..which of course lasted long enough for their “pony” to find an opportunity to escape again.
 
This island didn’t have a bridge to the mainland until in the 1960s, so Outer Bankers tended to be extremely self sufficient and not reliant on items from off the island.  They went to the mainland maybe 2 or 3 times a year to shop.  Milk was mostly canned and proteins were mostly seafood of various kinds, depending on the season and what the sea was producing.  For this reason, the island was not as affected by the Great Depression in the 1930s as were other locations.  As one man put it “we were already poor and didn’t know the difference”. 
 
Another man summed it up well by saying that they didn’t realize how much fun they were having at the time, but now, looking back, they had a wonderful life and enjoyed those early years immensely.
 
And tonight, those of us in attendance certainly enjoyed the stories they graciously shared with us as well.

This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share

Under the House

by Roberta Estes
 
Have you ever eaten under a house?  No, really….a picnic maybe?  Well, you haven’t lived until you have.  In Hatteras, many houses are on stilts, and under the house becomes a living or a storage area – well – at least until the next flood.  Anything left under the house just gets washed away.
 
In our case, we rented a house for a group of individuals and we have to feed about 25 folks 3 meals per day.  Our lovely pirate, George, cooks for us.  Blackbeard beware – you have serious competition…
  
 
Here’s the pirates lair – under the house.  

 
 
Only on Hatteras will you find a pirate that cooks for you, and has his lair under the house!  Truly a unique  Outer Banks experience.


This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share

Friday, April 8, 2011

The Hatchling


You just never know what you’re going to find.  Sitting in the road.  A hatchling painted turtle.  One of our students was astute enough to recognize that this nickel sized bump in the road was indeed a turtle and rescue the little critter.  Of course, this was in the middle of a raging storm, and we brought the turtle back to the house while the storm subsided.  He had a slight injury as well, so we fixed him up and returned him to his swamp as soon as the rain stopped.
Now this event was of particular note because Andy Powell, of Bideford, England, had the honor of rescuing a much larger turtle last year on his birthday which occurred during his visit to the Outer Banks.  This year’s turtle rescue was a few days shy of his birthday and a much, MUCH, smaller turtle.  Here’s Andy and his new buddy!!!

 




This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share

Thursday, April 7, 2011

North Carolina History

It's hard to imagine that we're working with records in our search for the Lost Colony that are some of the earliest records in the history of the State of North Carolina.  Actually, it was just "Carolina" then, North and South didn't happen until 1712. 
 
Sometimes taking a look at a historical time line, aside from being interesting, can lend perspective to what our ancestors were doing and what was going in around them.  Here's a brief history of North Carolina before the United States was formed.
 
North Carolina Early History
 
  1. Jamestown landing was May 15, 1697
  2. In 1629, a grant was made to Sir Robert Heath between the latitude south of 36 degrees and north of 31 degrees.
  3. In 1648 Roger Green was granted 10,000 acres in 2 grants near the Chowan River which was to be divided among 100 settlers from Virginia.  At this time, the area was in the state of Virginia.
  4. In 1661, George Durant purchased a tract of land from Kilcocanen, chief of the Weapemeoc Indians between Perquimans River and Little River.  The area is still called Durant’s Neck.  This was prior to NC becoming a state in 1663.
  5. In 1663 Charles II granted to the Lords Proprietors the territory of NC.  (Same bounds as the Heath grant.)
  6. In 1665 a new charter extended NC north to 30 degrees.  At that time there were about 2000 people in Albemarle region.
  7. In 1665 William Drummond of Virginia was appointed first governor of NC by the Lords Proprietors.
  8. The first assembly met at Elizabeth City in May of 1665.
  9. In 1676, Governor Jenkins jailed Thomas Miller, druggist.  Miller and Eastchurch went to England to obtain the removal of Jenkins as governor.  On the way back from England Miller and Eastchurch stopped over in the West Indies where Eastchurch met a woman and sent Miller back to Elizabeth City to take over as Governor until Eastchurch returned.  Miller took over and because he was also collecting customs, the inhabitants wanted to get rid of Miller who was appointed illegally by Eastchurch.  Miller was subsequently arrested by Durant who was his enemy.  Court was then held by 40 people and Miller was removed.  In 1669, Miller broke out of jail and sailed for England.
  10. Seth Sothel was appointed governor by the Proprietors, but he was captured by pirates.  Later he returned in 1683 to be governor.
  11. In 1690, John Gibbs proclaimed himself governor of Carolina.  It didn’t work.
  12. The early churches in NC were Anglican, Baptist and Quaker.
  13. About 1700, the first settlement occurred south of Old Albemarle County near Bath.
  14. In 1711, the Tuscarora killed many settlers in and around the Neuse River, the Trent River and the Pamlico River in Hyde County.  By 1713, the Indians had been defeated and many, but not all, left the area for New York.
  15. About 1715 Edward Drummond, otherwise known as BlackBeard (the pirate) changed his name to Edward Teach..  He was a friend of Governor Eden.
  16. About 1729, the remaining proprietors sold out to the Crown except for John Carteret who kept his share in the middle of North Carolina.  From this point on, North Carolina was known as a Royal Colony.
  17. New Bern was made the capital about 1745.
  18. In 1766, New Bern was made the capital of NC.  Until this time, there had been no official capital, although Bath was often used as such.
  19. The Revolutionary War occurs in 1776-1780.
  20. In 1789, North Carolina ratified the constitution and became the 12th state to sign.
  21. In 1789, Raleigh became the state capital.




This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The Kinnekeet Bible


Hubert Price was a genealogist and researcher who passed away some years ago.  His collective works have come to be known as the Kinnekeet Bible.  Not only did he document the early families, with sources, he also provided extracted data from early sources that he could not necessarily tie to the early families.  In some cases, he was able to make the link.
 
His notes are chock full of interesting information.
 
Old Albemarle Precinct was the first part of North Carolina settled by Europeans.  Aside from the Native people, who had always lived here, the first settlers arrived from Virginia and then slowly made their way down the coast.  Price extracted this data from microfilm and his notes say “deeds to or from in Pasquotank County 1700-1747.  Camden made from Pasquotank about 1870.”
 
Volume A 1700-1747
Page 72 1746 - Patrick Quidley
Page 74 1716 - William Gray
Page 149 1716 – Mary Scarborough
Page 225 1719 – John, Mary and Augustine Scarborough
Page 500 1727 – John Scarborough
Page 166 1716 – Matthew Midgett
Page 191 1718 – George Whidbey
Page 324 1720 – Christopher Williams
Page 488 1727 – Edward Williams
Page 408 1725 – Thomas Miller
Page 50 1752 – James Williams
Page 491 1758 – Joseph Williams
Page 35 no year – William Williams to Joseph Williams – NE side Pasquotank river near Sawyers Creek
Page 49 no year – James Williams to son and daughters
Page 235 1757 – Augustine Scarborough
 
Volume B 1759-1762
Page 46 1727 – Joseph Williams
Page 101 1750 – Augustine Scarborough
Page 120 1750 – Joseph Williams
Page 240 no year – Augustine Scarborough
 
 
Volume C 1750-1761
Page 420 no year – Joshua Gray
 
Volume D 1761-1764
Page 4 no year – Austin Scarborough
Page 298 no year – Joseph Williams
 
His further notes are:
 
Perquiman County
Mcrora (?) Scarborough
Abra Jennett
William Price
 
Pasquotank County
James Williams
Richard Gray
Robert Barnett
 
Currituck County
Mich. (Michael) Oneal
Thomas Oneal
John Neal
Zediah Farrow
Jacob Farrow
Evan Miller
Willis Miller
 



This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share

Monday, April 4, 2011

Jonas Squires

by Roberta Estes
While sometimes records are sparse, there are often clues held within records that convey more than the actual words.  Let’s take a look at the Jonas Squires records and see what we can determine.
According to the research records of Jonas Squires descendant, we first find Jonas Squires, planter, purchasing land, 88 acres on “Matchapongo Swamp” in 1732, adjacent to William Barrows, land first surveyed for Francis Gurganus.  In 1741, Jonas witnessed a will for Cornelius Collier.  In 1738, Jonas Squires, also again called “planter”, purchased land and in 1750 he trades his original 88 acres. In this document, Jonas signs his name.  Jonas is shown on the 1743 and 1744 tithable tax lists and is not noted as a person of color.  By 1765, Jonas was dead because his son, Appleton, conveys his land to his other son, Eyaberton.
Aside from what these records say directly, there is a great deal more information just beneath the surname.
First, this man had money to purchase land.  This was not a land grant.  Secondly, Jonas witnessed a will.  A man of mixed race would never have been called up on to witness a will for a white man.  Third, Jonas is referenced as a “planter”, twice, a term associated with the aristocracy of rather well-to-do farmers.  Fourth, Jonas is on the tithable list.  Indians holding Indian lands did not have to pay taxes on their land.  Jonas is not listed as a “person of color”.  Fifth, and perhaps most telling, Jonas knew how to sign his name.  Native people and people of “mixed blood” in this era never knew how to sign their name and they always signed with a mark. 
For the past several years, the Lost Colony Research group has been compiling all records relating to various surnames of interest in Eastern NC.  In this case, the first mention we find of the Squires surname is in 1728 in a 450 acre land patent on “the west side of the NW river of Cape Fear at the place where Samuel Swann and Mr. Squires were building a saw mill, joining Ephraim Vernon, Levingston's Creek to the mouth and the said river.”  While this record does not give “Mr. Squires” first name, we know from this reference that he was a respected man, as only men of relatively high social stature were references as Mr. or Esquire or even as a planter.  This record certainly implies that this man was white.  An Indian would never have been referred to as “Mr.”. 
However, there certainly were Indians living in this area who had adopted the surname of Squires.  The first record of these men is found in a 1731 deed that was not recorded until 1737 that says “John Squires, King of Aromallsket (sic) Indians with advice and consent of John Mackey and Long Tom to William Spencer Jr. all of Currituck County, 20 pounds, land on North side of old Aromattskeet Creek called Table of Pine Creek, 140 acres, total cost of 180 pounds, rest to be paid later. 
This man was definitely Indian, as he was stated to be such.  John Squires could not sign his name.
This begs the question of just how John Squires, the Mattamuskeet Indian, obtained his Squires surname.  It’s well know that Native people often adopted surname of those they knew or respected or with whom they were establishing “fictive kinship relationships”.  For example, one of the Mattamuskeet in a 1738 Mattamuskeet Indian land transaction was Charles Eden, an Indian who had adopted the same name as the Governor of NC. 
We know that in 1728 there is a successful white man by the surname of Squires on the Cape Fear River.  We know that in 1732, Jonas Squires, who appears to be white, is purchasing land on the Mattchepungo Swamp and in 1731 a deed which was not filed until 1737 (assuming the 1731 or 1737 is not mis-transcribed) conveys land from the Indian John Squires, also living at Mattamuskeet, stated variously in different deeds as the King of the Aromuskeet and Mattamsukeet, by different spellings.  John Squires, the Indian, could not spell his name and signed with a mark.
Perhaps the Native Squires gentlemen took the surname of Jonas Squires, or Mr. Squires from the 1728 transaction.
Taking a look at the Lost Colony Y-line DNA project, we have four descendants of Jonas Squires and all four individuals match.  His haplogroup is definitely European, although it’s not unusual to find Native men who were (or their ancestors were) sired by European men, often traders.  In this case, Jonas appears to be white based on the historical records and the DNA confirms that this line is genetically European.  Now of course, we need the DNA from one of the Native Squires men for comparison.



This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Reunion

 by Roberta Estes

One of the great things about working with a group of people is meeting folks you’ve known online in person, and to see old friends again.  Events like this serve not only their stated purpose, but also as a conduit to build lasting relationships.
In the five years since the founding of the Lost Colony Research Group, we’ve been very fortunate to acquire some absolutely top notch researchers.  Many within our group are here.  I met Nancy Frey and Dawn Taylor for the first time in person yesterday, but the internet allows us to collaborate electronically, something researchers 20 or 30 years ago could not do.  Andy Powell, who lives in Bideford returns this year for his third major dig and seeing Andy again is like old home week.
Some of the students were here last year as well, and many of them returned.  It’s wonderful to see these lovely young people.  Dinner time takes on the flavor of a family reunion.
We’ve been particularly blessed to be joined by a descendant of Jonas Squires.  The Squires name is familiar to anyone who does Native research in Hyde County.  The Squires family was one of the primary native families who were part of the Mattamuskeet tribe who was granted the reservation at Lake Mattamuskeet and a few decades later, sold it in the 1730s and 1740s.  Our friendly Squires descendant brought along a great deal of research for which we are very grateful.  While early records were sparse they had been able to find quite a few.  Join us tomorrow for more details of the Squires family of Hyde County and what the few records they have found tell us about Jonas.


This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share

Back on the Road Again

by Roberta Estes

 For the past several years, the Lost Colony Research Group has sponsored and coordinated an archaeological dig on Hatteras Island.  This April marks our fourth dig in cooperation with the University of Bristol and we welcome you to blog along with us on our journey.
Today was arrival day for most of the crew.  Several from our group are present at this dig.  Not everyone is arriving at the same time.  Anne Poole has been here on the island for several days already setting up and getting ready, along with Cousin George.  Bless Cousin George, he cooks for us all for 2 weeks on the “gypsy wagon”.  Nancy Frey, our British genealogist who lives in Canada arrived yesterday as well.
Louisa, our graduate student from the University of Bristol has also been here for several days preparing as well.  She also worked last December on getting ready for this spring’s dig.  Coordinating an effort of this size is nothing trivial.  Yesterday evening through about 3AM this morning, the rest of the Bristol crew arrived on several flights.  Altogether, it was a 25 hour trip for them.  Canceled flights and other misadventures plagued them, but eventually they did all arrive safely.  This morning was the “things that go bite in the day” lecture.  We discovered last year that British students aren’t familiar with the wildlife here that Hatteras Islanders take for granted.  You know, things such as snakes, ticks and alligators.
And then, the dig began. 
But I hadn’t arrived yet.  I was still in the death grip of Old Man Winter – or at least still struggling to escape him.  I awoke this morning in Beckley, Va. to discover there was SNOW on the vehicles.  Now it was bad enough for me, but folks there believe that spring has already arrived, and there were couple on motorcycles.  They had a very cold ride.
I put off my departure by going to Tamarack to see what new and wonderful artisan creations they had, and I was not disappointed.  They had ample new goodies to keep me interested for a long time.  I’ll probably stop on the way back to purchase.  Unfortunately, it is Saturday, and their quilter in residence, Elaine Bliss was not in today.  I always enjoy visiting with Elaine.
By 10 AM, I had hoped the snow would have melted off, but it had not.  I decided I really needed to go ahead and leave as I had a 9 hour drive in front of me and I really did not want to navigate Highway 12 on Hatteras Island at night.  I don’t know….it’s just something about the sea covering the road that I find disconcerting…..
I headed South, after taking note of a very confused goose who was standing in the grassy area of the cloverleaf, wondering to himself where he took a wrong turn, as snow and sleet pelted him.  Not only had the snow not melted, it got WORSE and turned into a blizzard.  By the time I got to Flat Top, which seemed to be the highest elevation while crossing the Appalachian Mountains, there was a significant amount of snow covering everything.  Dawn, who lives on Hatteras Island, pleaded with me to pull over and make a snowball, put it in the cooler and bring it to her.  She tells me they don’t get snow on Hatteras.  Had I been able to find a place to pull off to take a photo, I would have also gotten her snowball….but that didn’t happen.
By the time I was descending the mountain on the other side of the two tunnels, the snow had stopped and I wondered where the smoke was coming from.  Shortly, I discovered it wasn’t smoke, but was fog, drifting through the valleys.  Fog was followed by very high winds that caused people to fight for control of their vehicles, then rain, then brilliant sunshine by Winston-Salem and 64 degrees, then overcast by Raleigh and raining off and on between there and Hatteras Island.  I have experienced a years worth of weather in just under 12 hours.
I have also discovered that the reason hotels are only open here in the spring, summer and fall is because they do not have heat.  Suffice it to say that I’m glad I have long underwear with me and two quilts from my car.  If I get any colder, I’ll also be sleeping in my down vest….but I digress.
North Carolina never disappoints me.  The beauty and diversity here found in nature and the nature of the people are truly unparalleled elsewhere.  One of today’s finds was a house on State road 98 near Rocky Mount that was almost complete covered by wisteria.  This reminded me of a forest type of ginger bread house found only fairy tales.  Wonderful fodder for a fertile imagination….

 
Then, in Manteo, I found the most remarkable pink pick-up truck.  I didn’t realize that trucks came in this color of pink.  I think this must be hibiscus pink.  It was parked outside another colorful feature of the island that I’ve talked about during every trip, Kitty Hawk Kites.  Truly a colorful scene, and one to be found only on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  


 Welcome home!


This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts
Bookmark and Share