by Jim Morekis
Sights
The North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport (204 E. Moore St., 910/457-0003, www.ncmaritime.org, Tues.-Sat. 9am-5pm, $2 adults, $1 over age 62, free under age 16) is a smaller branch of the Maritime Museum at Beaufort, where you can learn about the seafaring history of the Carolina coast. Among the many topics of interest here is the life of pirate Stede Bonnet, whose girly surname belies his infamous life of crime. Bonnet, who spent much time in the Southport area, was by turns the pillaging buddy and bitter rival of Blackbeard. Other cool displays in the museum include a section of a 2,000-year-old, 54-inch-long Indian canoe, and the eight-foot jawbone of a whale.
Events
Southport hosts the state’s best-known Fourth of July Celebration (910/457-6964, www.nc4thofjuly.com), attended each year by up to 50,000 people. (That’s approximately 20 times the normal population of the town.) In addition to the requisite fireworks, food, and music, the festival features a special tribute to veterans, a flag retirement ceremony (that is, folks bring their old and worn-out flags), and a naturalization ceremony for new Americans.
Accommodations
Lois Jane’s Riverview Inn (106 W. Bay St., 800/457-1152, www.loisjanes.com, $93-143, depending on season) is a Victorian waterfront home built by the innkeeper’s grandfather. The guest rooms are comfortably furnished, bright and not froufrou, and the Queen Deluxe Street, a cottage behind the inn, has its own kitchen and separate entrance. The front porch of the inn gives a wonderful view of the harbor. Another affordable option is the Inn at River Oaks (512 N. Howe St., 910/457-1100, www.theinnatriveroaks.com, $65-135), a motel-style inn with very simple suites. The Island Resort and Inn (500 Ocean Dr., Oak Island, 910/278-5644, www.islandresortandinn.com, $75-190, depending on season) is a beachfront property with standard motel rooms and one- and two-bedroom apartment suites.
Food
The S Yacht Basin Provision Company (130 Yacht Basin St., 910/457-0654, www.provisioncompany.com, Sun.-Thurs. 11am-4pm, Fri.-Sat. 11am-9pm, $10-20) is a Southport seafood joint with a super-casual atmosphere. Customers place their orders at the counter and serve themselves drinks (on the honor system), then seat themselves dockside to await the arrival of their chow. Most popular here are the conch fritters and grouper salad sandwich, but anything you order will be good.
OCEAN ISLE
Ocean Isle is the next-to-most-southerly beach in North Carolina, separated from South Carolina only by Bird Island and the town of Calabash. In October, Ocean Isle is the site of the North Carolina Oyster Festival (www.brunswickcountychamber.org), a huge event that’s been happening for nearly 30 years. In addition to an oyster stew cook-off, surfing competition, and entertainment, this event features the North Carolina Oyster Shucking Competition. In the not-that-long-ago days when North Carolina’s seafood industry was ascendant, workers—most often African American women—lined up on either side of long work tables in countless oyster houses along the coast and the creeks, and opened and cut out thousands of oysters a day. A complex occupational culture was at work in those rooms, one with its own vocabulary, stories, and songs. The speed at which these women worked was a source of collective and individual pride, and the fastest shuckers enjoyed quite a bit of prestige among their colleagues. The state shucking championship is the time when some of the best shuckers prove that although North Carolina may have changed around them, they haven’t missed a beat.
SOUTH ALONG U.S. 17
U.S. 17 is an old colonial road—in fact, its original name, still used in some stretches, is the King’s Highway. George Washington passed this way on his 1791 tour of the South, staying with the prominent planters of this area and leaving in his wake the proverbial legends about where he lay his head of an evening. Today, the King’s Highway, following roughly its original course, is still the main thoroughfare through Brunswick County into South Carolina.
Brunswick Town and Fort Anderson
Near Orton is the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site (8884 St. Philip’s Rd. SE, Winnabow, 910/371-6613, www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us, Tues.-Sat. 9am-5pm, free), the site of what was a bustling little port town in the early and mid-1700s. In its brief life, Brunswick saw quite a bit of action. It was attacked in 1748 by a Spanish ship that, to residents’ delight, blew up in the river. (One of that ship’s cannons was dragged out of the river about 20 years ago and is on display here.) In 1765, the town’s refusal to observe royal tax stamps was a successful precursor to the Boston Tea Party eight years later. But by the end of the Revolutionary War, Brunswick Town was completely gone, burned by the British but having been made obsolete anyway by the growth of Wilmington. Today, nothing remains of the colonial port except for the lovely ruins of the 1754 St. Philip’s Anglican Church and some building foundations uncovered by archaeologists. During the Civil War, Fort Anderson, sand earthworks that were part of the crucial defenses of the Cape Fear, was built on this site, protecting the blockade runners who came and went from Wilmington. A visitors center at the historic site tells the story of this surprisingly significant stretch of riverbank, and the grounds, with the town’s foundations exposed and interpreted, are an intriguing vestige of a forgotten community.
Nature Preserves
The Nature Conservancy’s Green Swamp Preserve (Hwy. 211, 5.5 miles north of Supply, 910/395-5000, www.nature.org, daily dawn-dusk, free) contains nearly 16,000 acres of some of North Carolina’s most precious coastal ecosystems, the longleaf pine savanna and evergreen shrub pocosin. Hiking is allowed in the preserve, but the paths are primitive. It’s important to stay on the trails and not explore in the wilds because this is an intensely fragile ecosystem. In this preserve are communities of rare carnivorous plants, including the monstrous little pink-mawed Venus flytrap, four kinds of pitcher plant, and sticky-fingered sundew. It’s also a habitat for the rare red-cockaded woodpecker, which is partial to diseased old-growth longleaf pines as a place to call home.
The Nature Conservancy maintains another nature preserve nearby, the Boiling Spring Lakes Preserve (off Hwy. 87, Boiling Spring Lakes, trail begins at Community Center, 910/395-5000, www.nature.org, daily dawn-dusk, free), with a trail that begins at the Boiling Spring Lakes Community Center. Brunswick County contains the state’s greatest concentration of rare plant species, and the most diverse plant communities anywhere on the East Coast north of Florida. This preserve is owned by the Plant Conservation Program and includes over half the acreage of the town of Boiling Spring Lakes. The ecosystem comprises Carolina bays, pocosins, and longleaf pine forests. Like the Green Swamp Preserve, many of the species here are dependent on periodic fires to propagate and survive. The Nature Conservancy does controlled burning at both sites to maintain this rare habitat.
Calabash and Vicinity
The once tiny fishing village of Calabash, just north of the South Carolina line, was founded in the early 18th century as Pea Landing, a shipping point for the bounteous local peanut crop. Calabashes, a kind of gourd, were used as dippers in the town supply of drinking water, and when the settlement was renamed in 1873, it was supposedly for that reason that it became Calabash.
In the early 1940s, a style of restaurant seafood was developed here that involves deep-frying lightly battered fish and shellfish. As the style caught on and more restaurants were built, the term “Calabash-style seafood” was born. Jimmy Durante was fond of dining in Calabash, and some people claim that it was in tribute to food here that he signed off on his shows saying, “Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.” Though Calabash seafood is now advertised at restaurants all over the country, this little town has more than enough restaurants of its own to handle the yearly onslaught of visitors in search of an authentic Calabash meal. Local favorite spots for seafood are the Calabash Seafood Hut (1125 River Rd., 910/579-6723, daily 11am-9pm, $10-28) and, right on the docks, Dockside Seafood House (9955 Nance St. SW, 910/579-6775, daily 4pm-9pm, $9-17).
Indigo Farms (1542 Hickman Rd. NW, 910/287-6794, www.indigofarmsmarket.com, Mon.-Sat.
8:30am-5:30pm, longer hours in warm months), three miles north of the South Carolina line in Calabash, is a superb farm market, selling all manner of produce, preserves, and baked goods. It also has corn mazes and farm activities in the fall, and is a training site for porcine contestants in the prestigious local NASPIG races.
Sunset Beach, the southernmost of the Brunswick County beaches, is a wonderfully small-time place, a cozy town that until 2008 could only be reached via a one-lane pontoon bridge. One of the area’s most popular restaurants is located just on the inland side of the bridge to Sunset Beach: Twin Lakes Seafood Restaurant (102 Sunset Blvd., 910/579-6373, http://twinlakesseafood.com, daily 4:30pm-9:30pm, closed Nov.-Feb., $10-30) was built almost 40 years ago by Clarice and Ronnie Holden, both natives of the area. Clarice was born into a cooking family, the daughter of one of the founders of the Calabash restaurant tradition. Twin Lakes serves fresh locally caught seafood, a rarity in this time and place. In high season and on weekends, expect long lines.
TRANSPORTATION
The Brunswick County beaches, including Holden, Ocean Isle, and Sunset, are an easy drive on U.S. 17. The beaches and islands along the cape, due south of Wilmington, are not as close to U.S. 17. They can be reached by taking U.S. 76 south from Wilmington, or by ferry from Southport. The Southport-Fort Fisher Ferry (800/293-3779 or 800/368-8969) is popular as a sightseeing jaunt as well as a means simply to get across the river. It’s a 30-minute crossing; most departures are 45 minutes apart, from Southport in summer daily 5:30am-7:45pm, winter daily 5:30am-6:15pm, and leaving Fort Fisher in summer daily 6:15am-8:30pm, winter daily 6:15am-7pm. For most vehicles the fare is $5, but if you’re driving a rig that’s more than 20 feet long, boat trailers and the like included, the price can be as high as $15. It’s $1 for pedestrians, $2 for bicyclists, and $3 motorcyclists. Pets are permitted if leashed or in a vehicle, and there are restrooms on all ferries.
Points Inland from Wilmington
Moving inland from the Wilmington area, you first pass through a lush world of wetlands distinguished by the peculiar Carolina bays. Not necessarily bodies of water, as the name would suggest, the bays are actually ovoid depressions in the earth, of unknown and much debated origin. They are often water-filled, but by definition are fed by rainwater rather than creeks or groundwater. They create unique environments and are often surrounded by bay laurels (hence the name), and are guarded by a variety of carnivorous plants.
The next zone, bounded by the Waccamaw and Lumber Rivers, is largely farmland and small towns. This was for generations prime tobacco country, and that heritage is still very much evident in towns like Whiteville, where old tobacco warehouses line the railroad tracks. Culturally, this area—mostly in Columbus County, extending some distance into Robeson to the west and Brunswick to the east—is congruous with the three counties in South Carolina with which it shares a border—Horry, Marion, and Dillon.
The area around the Lumber River, especially in Robeson County, is the home of the indigenous Lumbee people, who have an amazing heritage of devotion to faith and family and steadfast resistance to oppression. If you turn on the radio while driving through this area, you’ll likely find Lumbee gospel programming and get a sense of the cadences of Lumbee English.
At the edge of the region is Fayetteville. From its early days as the center of Cape Fear Scottish settlement to its current role as one of the most important military communities in the United States, Fayetteville has always been a significant North Carolina city.
ALONG U.S. 74
A little way inland from Calabash, the countryside is threaded by the Waccamaw River, a gorgeous, dark channel full of cypress knees and dangerous reptiles. (The name is pronounced “WAW-cuh-MAW,” with slightly more emphasis on the first syllable than the third.) It winds its way down from Lake Waccamaw through a swampy little portion of North Carolina, crossing Horry County, South Carolina (unofficial motto: “The H is silent”), before joining the Pee Dee and Lumber Rivers to flow into Winyah Bay at the colonial port of Georgetown. Through the little toenail of North Carolina that the Waccamaw crosses, it parallels the much longer Lumber River, surrounding the very rural Columbus County and part of Robeson County in an environment of deep subtropical wetlands.
Sights
S MUSEUM OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN RESOURCE CENTER
Pembroke is the town around which much of the indigenous Lumbee community revolves, and at the center of life here is the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP). Founded in 1887 as the Indian Normal School, UNCP’s population is now only about one-quarter Native American, but it’s still an important site in the history North Carolina’s indigenous people. The Museum of the Native American Resource Center (Old Main, UNCP, 910/521-6282, www.uncp.edu, Mon.-Sat. 8am-5pm, free) is on campus, occupying Old Main, a 1923 building that’s a source of pride for the Pembroke community. The Resource Center has a small but very good collection of historical artifacts and contemporary art by Native Americans from across the country.
JOHN BLUE HOUSE
Laurinburg’s John Blue House (13040 X-way Rd., Laurinburg, 910/276-2495, www.johnbluecottonfestival.com, Tues.-Sat. 10am-noon and 1pm-4pm, free) is a spectacle of Victorian design, a polygonal house built entirely of heart pine harvested from the surrounding property and done up like a wedding cake with endless decorative devices. John Blue, the builder and original owner, was an inventor of machinery used in the processing of cotton. A pre-Civil War cotton gin stands on the property and is used for educational demonstrations throughout the year. This is the site of the John Blue Cotton Festival, an October event that showcases not only the ingenuity of the home’s famous resident and the process of ginning cotton, but also lots of local and regional musicians and other artists.
The Legend of Henry Berry Lowry
In some places, the Civil War didn’t end the day General Lee surrendered, but smoldered on in terrible local violence. One such place was the indigenous Lumbee community of Robeson County, in the days of the famous Lowry Band.
Then as now, Lowry (also spelled Lowrie) was a prominent surname among the Lumbee people. During the Civil War, Allen Lowry led a band of men who hid out in the swamps, eluding conscription into the backbreaking corps of semi-slave labor that was forced to build earthworks to defend Wilmington. When the war ended, violence against the Lumbees continued, and the Lowry Band retaliated, attacking the plantations of their wartime pursuers. Allen Lowry and his oldest son were captured in 1865 and executed. Henry Berry Lowry, the youngest son, inherited the mantle of leadership.
For the next several years, long after the end of the Civil War, the Lowry Band was pursued relentlessly. Arrested and imprisoned, Lowry and his men escaped from prison in Lumberton and Wilmington. Between 1868 and 1872, the state and federal governments tried various ways to apprehend them—putting a bounty on Lowry’s head, even sending in a federal artillery battalion. After an 11-month campaign of unsuccessful pursuit, the federal soldiers gave up. Soon afterward, the Lowry Band emerged from the swamps, raided Lumberton, and made off with a large amount of money. This was the end of the road for the Lowry Band, however, and one by one its members were killed in 1872—except, perhaps, Henry Berry. It’s unknown whether he died, went back into hiding, or left the area altogether. As befits a legend, he seems simply to have disappeared.
Henry Berry Lowry is a source of fierce pride to modern Lumbee people, a symbol of the community’s resistance and resilience. Every summer, members of the Lumbee community perform in the long-running outdoor drama Strike at the Wind, which tells the story of the Lowry Band. Another vivid retelling of the story is the 2001 novel Nowhere Else on Earth by Josephine Humphreys.
Sports and Recreation
Several beautiful state parks line the Waccamaw and Lumber Rivers.
Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park (626 Richard Wright Rd., 877/668-8586, www.taborcityjellystone.com, $30 tents, $120 cabins), formerly known as Daddy Joe’s, is a popular campground with RV and tent spaces, rental cabins,
and yurts. The facilities are clean and well maintained, and there are tons of children’s activities on-site. Some of the camping is in wooded areas, but for the most part expect direct sun and plan accordingly.
In Fair Bluff is River Bend Outfitters (1206 Main St., 910/649-5998, www.whitevillenc.com/rbo), a canoe and kayak company that specializes in paddling and camping trips along the beautiful blackwater Lumber River.
S LAKE WACCAMAW STATE PARK
Lake Waccamaw State Park (1866 State Park Dr., Lake Waccamaw, 910/646-4748, http://ncparks.gov, office daily 8am-5pm, park Nov.-Apr. daily 8am-6pm, Mar.-May and Sept.-Oct. daily 8am-8pm, June-Aug. daily 8am-9pm, free) encompasses the 9,000-acre Lake Waccamaw. The lake is technically a Carolina bay, a mysterious geological feature of this region. Carolina bays are large, oval depressions in the ground, many of which are boggy and filled with water, but which are actually named because of the bay trees that typically grow in and around them. Lake Waccamaw has geological and hydrological characteristics that make it unique even within the odd category of Carolina bays. Because of its proximity to a large limestone deposit, the water is more neutral than its usually very acidic cousins and so supports a greater diversity of life. There are several aquatic creatures that live only here, with great names like the Waccamaw fatmucket and silverside (a mollusk and a fish, respectively). The park draws many boaters and paddlers, naturally, although the only available launches are outside the park. Primitive campsites are available in the park.
