Rachel Carson Reserve Photo Album

86-Image Photo Album with Informational Captions

Beaufort Harbor's Wild Horses

Wild-horses Collage by Bob Decker
- Cape Lookout National Seashore -
PROTECTING OUR 
LOCAL WILD HORSES
Excerpts from these two PDFs...

Cape Lookout National Seashore and the Rachel Carson Reserve are both home to wild horses. 

The horses do not swim back and forth between Shackelford Banks and RCR, but they do swim between marsh islands on their respective reserves.
If you get too close to a wild horse, you could be charged, kicked or bitten. Watch from at least 50 feet. If horses come toward you, move away or, if you can't, stay very still while they pass. Horses have the right-of-way. If a horse stops what it's doing to stare at you, stop or back up.

The wild horses are protected by law. Feeding, touching, teasing or intentionally disturbing wildlife, including horses, is dangerous and illegal. The best way to enjoy observing the wild horses is to use binoculars and watch them from afar.  

UPCOMING 2013 ANNUAL EVENTS
BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA

EVENT CALENDER with LINKS

SCROLL to LEARN more about BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA


INFORMATION ON MAIN ATTRACTIONS: Fort Macon...Rachel Carson...Old Burying Ground...Resident Pirate...Cape Lookout...Restoration Grounds...Maritime Museum


FORT MACON

ALBUM of 1862 ETCHINGS and DRAWINGS
During the 18th and 19th centuries the area around Beaufort and Beaufort Inlet was highly vulnerable to attack. The construction of Fort Dobbs was begun in 1756 during the French and Indian War, but when the war ended the fort was never completed. Early in the 1800s a small masonry fort was built that guarded the inlet during the War of 1812. Shoreline erosion and a hurricane had swept Fort Hampton into Beaufort Inlet by 1825. 

The War of 1812 demonstrated the weakness of existing coastal defenses. The United States government began construction on an improved chain of coastal fortifications. This undertaking involved the construction of thirty-eight new, permanent coastal forts known as the Third System. As part of this system, pentagon-shaped 26-casemate Fort Macon, with a ditch separating its covertway and inner citadel, was designed by Brigadier General Simon Bernard and built by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. The fort was named for native North Carolinian Nathaniel Macon (1758–1837), who served in the Revolutionary War and as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, until he returned to his home state and served in the state senate. Construction began in 1826. Using brick made in the area and masons from Beaufort and other parts of the country, the US Army Corps of Engineers completed the fort in December, 1834. Total cost of the fort was $463,790. MORE...

(turn down volume before opening, then adjust for comfort)
Fort Macon ALBUM of 1862 Drawings and Etchings

RACHEL CARSON Estuary Reserve

Rachel Carson Photo Album
86 Images with Informational Captions
The Rachel Carson Reserve, part of Carolina Estuarine Reserve Foundation, is located near the mouth of the Newport River in southern Carteret County, directly across Taylor's Creek from the historic town of Beaufort. This site is a complex of islands: Carrot Island, Town Marsh, Bird Shoal, and Horse Island. These islands are more than three miles long and less than a mile wide, covering 2,315 acres.

The Rachel Carson Reserve is open to the public for enjoyment. Fishing, boating, sailing kayaking, shell-fishing and shelling are all common activities on and around the site. Town Marsh, Carrot Island and Bird Shoal receive the most use because of their easy access by boat or kayak.
 
The island of Town Marsh has a marked self-guided trail. Visiting the Carrot Island boardwalk (directly across Taylor's Creek from the boat ramp on Lennoxville Road - east end of Front Street) is a great way to learn about the estuarine environment and what plants and animals are found at the reserve. Interpretive signs provide a self-guided tour. The platform at the end of the boardwalk is a great place for birding and a view of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

The reserve is not a place for trash. When visiting the reserve, please take your litter with you when you leave. Unleashed dogs are also a constant problem on the reserve; dogs tend to chase colonial nesting birds disrupting feeding, breeding and nesting.
 
Marsh communities, like those of Horse Island and Middle Marsh, are quite vulnerable to effects of use and should be avoided. Small groups may use selected areas on a limited basic for collecting and interpretive purposes if permission is received from the NCNERR. Special habitat areas, such as the horses' watering holes and the shorebirds nesting sites are off limits to visitors.

The wild horses living on the reserve are beautiful and powerful animals. To many, they represent freedom and wildness for all to enjoy. Let's all participate in protecting them (and visitor safety) by giving these majestic wild animals their space. Watching them from at least a school bus length away (preferably more) will help the horses retain their wild nature and keep visitors out of the way of fighting stallions (pictured here) or a mare protecting her foal.

OLD BURYING GROUND

Beaufort, NC’s Old Burying Ground is a beautiful fascinating place. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the cemetery was deeded to the town in 1731 by Nathaniel Taylor, 4th owner of the town, from 1725-1733.

The Beaufort Historical Association provides a self-guided brochure, which highlights several of the notable gravesites within the Old Burying Ground. With over 200 headstones pre-dating the Civil War, 45 from the Civil War period, and 150 from 1865-1890 and a few from the early 1900s, the Old Burying Ground is a must see in Beaufort. Find A Grave

RESIDENT PIRATE

Captain Horatio Sinbad - Pirate in Residence

Captain Sinbad, a real merchant adventurer, has lived continuously aboard the Meka II for over FOUR decades making Beaufort, NC his home port. If you are in Beaufort, look for the Meka II anchored in Town Creek, seen to your left as you cross the bridge into town. He does, occasionally, take the adventurous aboard ship for "Two Hours Before the Mast". But, then again, you might not find him in port - another adventure always awaits just over the horizon.

CAPE LOOKOUT - A Ferry-ride Away

Painting by Florida Artist - Roger Bansemer

Originally built in 1812 and rebuilt in 1859, the 163 foot red brick lighthouse can be seen from 19 miles away. In 1873, the keeper's cottage - large enough to house two keepers and their families - was completed, and the tower painted. Because the four lights on the Outer Banks were so similar, the Lighthouse Board designed striking patterns for each to make them easily distinguishable. On April 14, 1873, Cape Lookout Lighthouse was painted with large checkers that appear as alternating black and white diamonds. Following the traditional day-mark aids to navigation, the black checkers are oriented north and south toward the shallow waters of the shoals and around the headlands, while the white checkers are oriented east and west facing the deeper waters.

RESTORATION GROUNDS - Beaufort Historical Association Site

In 1960 a few local citizens formed the Beaufort Historical Association, not only to help celebrate the town's 250th birthday, but also to initiate plans and guidelines to preserve the aging, but historically important structures in town. After property was purchased, houses and historic buildings were acquired and moved to the site. 

Today the site is comprised of ten buildings, six of which have been authentically restored, nestled on two acres in the heart of the quaint downtown area of Beaufort. The buildings include: the 1796 Carteret County Courthouse, the 1829 Carteret County Jail; the 1859 Apothecary Shop and Doctors Office and the 1732 Rustull House that houses the Mattie King Davis Art Gallery. Living history demonstrations, guided tours and special events vividly describe the lifestyles, customs and architecture unique to this coastal area. Volunteers in period dress provide tours for three of the buildings on the site. The BHA's red English bus also provides tours of the historic district.

BEAUFORT NC MARITIME MUSEUM & FRIENDS

 












Visit the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort for a taste of coastal cultures and maritime history.  Exhibits feature the state’s rich seafood industry, life-saving stations and lighthouses, and sailboats and motorboats. The Museum is the official repository for artifacts from Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, which ran aground near Beaufort in 1718.

The "Friends" work with the museum by underwriting new projects, purchasing equipment, funding educational and public awareness programs and acquiring land and facilities needed for expansion.

Their combined effort offers programs such as Build a Boat in a Day, Sailing Programs, Beaufort Oars, Junior Sailing, Sea Scouts, Summer Science School and much more, including the annual Wooden Boat Show.

The centerpiece of the Beaufort Maritime Museum exhibit on whales and whaling is the skeleton 
of a fifteen-year-old 33.5-foot sperm whale that stranded on Shackelford Banks.

In January 2004, the museum staff, including Natural Science Curator Keith Rittmaster, responded quickly to the news of a beached whale; they buried the dead creature on the beach and waited for nature to take its course. Four years later, when the bones were exhumed, the team found a whale-skeleton puzzle of more than 200 bones, bone fragments and teeth.

After the bones traveled to N.C. State University for de-greasing—a process to keep the skeleton from dripping oil and creating bad odors—the team set up an off-site work facility. Bones in hand, a dedicated team spent four more years cleaning and reassembling the skeleton while raising necessary funds to ready it for display in the museum. The skeleton is now suspended above the main exhibit hall in the North Carolina Maritime Museum on Front Street.

As part of the whaling exhibit, visitors will be able to use interactive touch screens to learn more. Whaling tools, equipment and images will also help tell the story of those who braved the sea, off the Outer Banks of North Carolina in pursuit of these huge creatures.

A little more history...The earliest history goes back to 1666 when New England sailing vessels cruised North Carolina waters in pursuit of sperm and right whales.

A lease in 1723 allowed Governor Burrington, Christopher Gale and John Lovick to take whales along the coast between Cape Fear and Currituck Inlet for a term of seven years. A whaling license was issued in 1726 to Samuel Chadwick. Chadwick and three other residents of Carteret precinct, Bath County, were permitted to whale with three boats. More about Samuel Chadwick the Whaler…
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