he planned to use them to strengthen the incipient English colony on Roanoke Island. However, what actually happened to...
9. Armed Conflict: A Recurring Theme
Download PDF (161.1 KB)
In these days when American wars are fought in some vague place halfway around the world, we need to be reminded that for most of human history armed conflicts took place near home. The Albemarle region is no exception. In fact, wars have been a recurring theme in the long history of this region. Disparate Indian tribes battled intermittently among...
10. Intracoastal Waterways: War Canals
Download PDF (657.8 KB)
The Outer Banks is called the ‘‘Graveyard of the Atlantic’’ for good reason. At no other point along either coast of America has shipping been so hazardous literally for centuries, from shoals, storms, pirates, and other hostile attack. Little-known events during World War I reexposed this vulnerability in a modern world. Few people are aware, for example,...
11. Forests Then and Now
Download PDF (783.9 KB)
When humans first arrived in the Albemarle region thousands of years ago the most superlative feature here was the hundreds of thousands of acres of primeval forest, unsurpassed in the entire eastern United States.The rich, damp soil and warm climate created a canopy of trees of truly gargantuan size and age. The virgin hardwoods, bald cypress (Taxodium...
12. Droughts and Forest Fires
Download PDF (1.4 MB)
For tens of thousands of years forest fires occurred naturally in what is now northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, independently of human disturbance. Such fires were linked to the juxtaposition of two naturally recurring phenomena, droughts and lightning. The significance of lightning in starting fires in the past can be extrapolated from...
13. From Peat Mining to Wildlife Refuges
Download PDF (187.4 KB)
The Albemarle region of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina holds some of the largest deposits of peat in temperate North America, comparable in area to that in Ireland. The Albemarle peninsula in particular ‘‘has the largest and deepest peat soils in North Carolina’’ and contains nearly half the peat for the entire state. Similarly, the Great...
14. Lost Heritage: Last River Highway
Download PDF (479.4 KB)
Much of the Albemarle region was virtually inaccessible by road until relatively recently. The vast swampy Albemarle peninsula was particularly isolated, especially the remote communities along the Alligator River. Indeed, one of these, Kilkenny, was described as late as the 1930s as ‘‘one of the most isolated villages in North Carolina.’’ Although indeed...
15. Urbanization and Depopulation
Download PDF (192.6 KB)
In March 1540 the de Soto expedition observed the Apalachee Indians of northwest Florida (Tallahassee) making fine cloth spun from the bark of mulberry trees: ‘‘And they know how to process it and spin it into thread and to prepare it and weave it.’’ The women wore white cloaks from this cloth and made a fine appearance ...
Download PDF (117.7 KB)
The journey through the tidewater region of Virginia and North Carolina in the preceding chapters has recorded environmental and human events over some fifteen thousand years, the approximate period that people have lived here. From this history, we can safely predict that well into the future this region will continue to experience periodic megastorms, droughts,...
Download PDF (205.2 KB)
Download PDF (189.5 KB)
Download PDF (1.4 MB)
Page Count: 272
Illustrations: 12 b&w illus., 1 map
Publication Year: 2010