HGB Ep. 547 - Haunted Outer Banks Series - The Lower Islands

Moment in Oddity - Castle-like Structure Part of Canadian Home (Suggested by Michael Rogers)

In Edmonton Alberta, Canada there is a unique home which garners the attention of tourists, if not the locals themselves. It is considered a South Side landmark and was established in 1983. A Scottish dentist, Ken Wallace, added on to the two car garage area above his Lendrum home. The addition appears castle-like, complete with suits of armor. The space is a bonus room of sorts and it housed Wallace's collection of antique furniture and has stained glass windows. The homeowner used the lower portion of the building as his dental office, but he desired additional space where his daughters could play. They were the reason why he added the castle themed portion to his property. When Dr. Wallace retired, he sold his home to his oldest daughter who now works as a dental hygienist out of the home. They even have an old dental sink in the front yard. Wallace's youngest granddaughters enjoy playing in the castle area while his teenage step-granddaughter hangs out there with her friends. The castle like structure may catch tourists' eyes but apparently the interior is equally interesting. According to the Edmonton Journal, "There's a fireplace, along with two huge antique sideboards and an antique sofa, plus a row of throne-like chairs. A small spiral staircase leads to a loft, and an even smaller staircase from there ends at a tiny solarium with a trap door that opens out to the top of the garage." The castle is decorated for the holidays yearly and the family celebrates Christmas within its walls. Castles are all unique in their structure, but finding a castle as a second story addition in a modern day neighborhood, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - First Air Conditioner Created

In the month of July, on the 17th, in 1902, the first air conditioner was invented. AND BOY ARE WE THANKFUL FOR THAT! The inventor's name was Willis Carrier and he became known as the "Father of Air Conditioning". Carrier came from modest beginnings, but with his determination and creative problem solving methodologies, he created an innovation that performed what once was thought to be impossible. Controlling the temperature of an indoor environment prior to Carrier's invention often relied upon the architecture of a home. A building could utilize large windows and high ceilings for cross ventilation, while deep eaves and large trees would shade porches to help keep the structure cooler. Even cupolas held a cooling purpose allowing heat to escape the highest point of a home. In 1902, Willis Carrier was working at a publishing company in New York where the temperatures and humidity were a huge problem. The fluctuations in heat and humidity throughout the day would cause the paper that was being printed upon to grow and shrink, thus resulting in poor quality images. Willis submitted his air conditioner drawings to the publishing company which marked the birth of air conditioning with humidity control. This led authorities in the field to standardize four major functions that A/C must perform: control temperature, control humidity, control air circulation and ventilation and cleanse the air. After a few years of refinement and testing, Willis Carrier was granted his US patent in 1906 with the description of "an Apparatus for Treating Air".

Haunted Outer Banks - The Lower Islands

The Outer Banks stretch for 200 miles from southeastern Virginia to Shackleford Banks in North Carolina. The Atlantic that borders its eastern side is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of the hundreds of shipwrecks that have occurred here. We traveled much of this stretch on our recent road trip and took in many of the sites while learning about the history and legends of this area. A key figure in history connected to the Lower Islands of the Outer Banks was Blackbeard the pirate. He came to his violent end here. There are numerous haunted locations and legends in the Outer Banks. On this first episode of our Outer Banks Series, we are going to explore the history and hauntings of the Lower Islands!

We took a road trip up through the Outer Banks here in June of 2024. Our first stop in the Outer Banks after leaving Charleston was Okracoke Island. The island is 16 miles long and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Pamlico Sound. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore makes up most of the island, so the beaches are protected. The only way to get on the island is via boat and there are ferries that will take you and your car to the island from three locations: Hatteras Island, Swanquarter and the one we took, Cedar Island. You have to make a reservation for the Swanquarter and Cedar Island ferries and they do cost money. The Hatteras Island ferry is free and runs on a first come, first serve basis. They also have introduced an express ferry that is for people on bike or foot. The Cedar Island ferry dropped us off in the heart of the tourist area of the island. There are lots of places to eat and shop and if you are interested in fishing charters or the beach, this is the spot for you.

Okracoke was first inhabited by Native Americans and some of them were the Croatoan. Most indigenous people just visited the island for fishing though. The original name was Wococon and eventually the W was dropped and different spellings morphed into Okracoke. The spelling we all know today made its official appearance on a map in 1852. One of the most infamous and colorful characters to call Okracoke home was Edward Teach, whom most of us know as Blackbeard. Okracoke was one of his favorite places to hideout and it would be here that he would come to his end during a naval battle in the Okracoke Inlet. This was on November 22, 1718. British naval Lieutenant Robert Maynard was tasked by the Virginia Governor at the time to track down Blackbeard. Maynard took two small sloops to Okracoke following a tip he had gotten that Blackbeard was anchored there. They found the pirate in an inlet that faces Pamlico Sound that is called Teach's Hole today. Blackbeard had tied one on the night before, or rather, tied on a lot the night before and he was in no condition for a fight. When he saw the sloops he started a running battle, meaning he was heading straight for the two sloops which were at the channel's mouth. The ships came close enough that Maynard and Blackbeard were able to have a conversation. This basically went with Blackbeard trying to make a deal with Maynard to just let him go, no harm, no foul. But Maynard was specifically here for Blackbeard and told him so, so Blackbeard got a glass of wine and drank damnation to Maynard and his men and said he would neither take nor give quarter. Then Blackbeard fired on the other sloop, killing the commander and several men. Several men on Maynard's sloop were wounded as well. Maynard decided to take a chance and play Blackbeard. He retreated to his quarters hoping to get the pirate to come to him. Blackbeard lashed his ship to the sloop and boarded with his men and they were quickly ambushed. It was a quick and harsh fight and when the smoke cleared, Blackbeard lay dead. His men were either dead or wounded. Maynard removed Blackbeard's head, put it on the bowsprit and took it back to Virginia. Blackbeard's body was thrown into Teach's Hole where legend claims it took a couple laps around Maynard's sloop. People believe that Blackbeard's ghost wanders Okracoke Island. 

There are many historical sites to check out on the island, which we definitely did after visiting the Pony Pen. These ponies on Okracoke arrived here via a shipwreck. These were Spanish mustangs that managed to make it to the island and now their descendants are kept in the Pony Pen. They used to roam free on the island, but as more and more people came and cars arrived, it got too dangerous for the horses. These horses are very unique. They have an unusual number of vertebrae and ribs and they have a distinct posture and size, which is why they are referred to as ponies. The National Park Service has cared for them since 1959. Then we went back into the main part of the island and visited the David & Alice Williams House. The house was built in 1900 and is a two-story house with a large veranda. It was built for David Williams who was the first Chief of the U.S. Coast Guard station on Ocracoke. The house was moved from its original spot to this one near the ferry dock, so that it wouldn't be demolished. It's now a museum and gift shop and home to the Ocracoke Preservation Society. There are various displays from seashells to stuff on Blackbeard to the original occupants of the house. I overheard the woman running the gift shop mention something about the place being haunted. Here is us talking to her about that. (Okracoke Shop)

The woman on the bike on Howard Street was actually part of a story named "Mad Mag." The author that the woman at the store was telling us about is Philip Howard. His great-great-great-great-great grandfather, William Howard, bought the island in1759 and the Howard family has lived and died on this island for decades. Philip wrote two books of history and ghosts stories and he started the ghost tour on Okracoke. He is retired now, but his daughter has taken up the reins and we joined her for a ghost tour. The family owns a shop called The Village Craftsmen where local artisans sell their wares. Right across the street is the family's cemetery. We shared a reel on Instagram of the cemetery in June while we were there. There are over 80 cemeteries across the island. Most are surrounded by fences, not to keep the people out, but to keep the bodies in. The water table sometimes would bring coffins up out of more shallow graves during flooding. 

Many of the people who lived on Okracoke in the early days were schooner captains or sailors. There was no ferry to bring people and supplies. Many of these captains would sail to other ports and one of these men was Captain John Simon Howard. He went to Maine and brought back a young Margaret Eaton with him. They married and as Mag got older, she got quirky. She would decorate the trees with hanging flowers and other things and began making herself elaborate hats. Now while these endeavors were creative, Mag was actually slipping into mental illness. Her husband came home one day to find that she had chopped one of her toes off with a meat cleaver. Another time, John came home and found a cat in the stew pot. Mag was 52 when John passed away in 1923. We'll pick up Philip's story on pg. 115 in "Howard Street Hauntings and Other Stories."

We headed over to the Okracoke Lighthouse. The lighthouse is a 77 foot tall white tower that was built in 1823 by architect Noah Porter. The solid brick walls were five-feet thick at the bottom and two-feet thick at the top. The interior isn't very big and the spiraling stairs in the middle can no longer be climbed. The original light was basically silvered reflectors that magnified the flame of a whale oil lamp. A Fresnel lens replaced this in 1854. In 1929, the oil lamp was replaced by an incandescent bulb and in 1946 the lighthouse became fully automated. Lighthouse keepers stayed in a house near the lighthouse that was expanded through the years. Despite the Okracoke Lighthouse being one of the oldest lighthouses in the country that is still in use and having keepers die on the premises, there are no hauntings reported at the lighthouse. But there is a haunting connected to Captain Joe Merritt Burrus. He was serving one winter in 1917 when his supplies ran low. The food wasn't as big a concern to him as was his chewing tobacco. He ran out and had to chew boat caulking. Anyway, Captain Joe retired and died in 1951 and its said his spirit haunts the cottage he moved into after retiring. Howard recounts the following in his book Howard Street Hauntings about a conversation Captain Joe's nephew had with a woman who had purchased the cottage. (p. 16)

We visited the British Cemetery, which is the final resting spot for four sailors from HMT Bedfordshire, which was torpedoed on May 11, 1942. These were the only bodies recovered from the attack. Many hurricanes have blown through the island with the most recent being Dorian in 2019. These storms have changed the topography of the island. And there have been many man-made changes. In earlier years, the island was separated by two streams called Big Gut and Little Gut. This divided the village into two groups called The Creekers and The Pointers. This wasn't about political class or station in life, but rather, about location. And a friendly rivalry developed that continues to today, even though the Navy filled in the creeks in 1942 when they dredged to make it easier for their ships to get around. Other things that changed the island is that people really like to move the houses around.

We stayed at the Pony Island Inn, which was in the middle of the village and enjoyed some great food and local brews at 1718 Brewing. Night came and we headed off to the Village Craftsmen and Philip's daughter Amy took us through the village and shared several of the haunted locations with us. The former Odd fellows Hall is one of the places that has been moved around on the island and is the last Greek Revival structure on the island. It was just undergoing some refurbishment when we stood outside of it and no one is sure exactly what its next iteration would be. This two story building was built in 1901 by Charlie Scarborough who bought the property from James and Zilphia Howard. This became Ocracoke Lodge No. 194 Independent Order of Odd Fellows. the lodge was on the second floor and the first floor was used as a public school. The building was sold as a private residence in 1917. During World War II, the upper floor became home for Naval Officers. After the war, wings were added to the building and it was opened as the Silver Lake Inn. This was one of the island's first modern hotels with running water, electricity and indoor plumbing. This became the social center of the village. Years later, the business became Island Inn. It closed under foreclosure in 2010 and was reopened again, but closed again in 2015. The Ocracoke Preservation Society bought the building in 2018 and removed it from the wings and placed in a new spot on new pilings in 2021, which is how it still is today. The building is said to be haunted by a ghost called Mrs. Godfrey. A guest told Philip Howard the following story in his book "Digging Up Uncle Evans." (p. 31)

The James Henry Garrish House was another stop for us. This was a home built by a descendant of one of the original settlers to the island, Henry Garrish. When James passed in 1947, the house was sold out of the family. The house was rented out as a summer rental and renters started reporting odd activity. Pictures on the walls would be hanging upside down. The house was remodeled and added onto with an L-shaped addition of three rooms. A rear porch was enclosed and turned into a hallway, which made the interior of the house get a little weird. Amy explains that to us and shares the haunting experience of one man who stayed in the house. (Amy Garrish House)

The beaches are amazing here. And speaking of them, there is a haunting connected to the beach. This is from Philip Howard's book "Howard Street Hauntings and Other Stories. (p.75) And our final story for Okracoke is really cool and features a ghost ship. (p. 91)

The next morning we headed to the ferry for Hatteras Island early. There are seven towns that make up the island of Hatteras: Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Frisco, Buxton, and Hatteras. There have been humans on the island since at least 500 AD and some historians believe that the colonists from Roanoke might have ended up here eventually. European settlers arrived in the 1700s. The island was originally called Hatterask for the indigenous people that were there first. During the Civil War, the Confederates built two forts on the island. The Union army won its first victory in The Battle of Hatteras Inlet and they would control the island. Freed slaves came to the island in 1862 and lived in a barracks there that became known as the Hotel De Afrique. This was the first safe place for escaped slaves in North Carolina and was part of the Underground Railroad. Ferry used to be the only form of transport to the island, but the Bonner Bridge was built in 1963 and that made it so people could drive to the island. That bridge was replaced with the Marc Basnight Bridge in 2019. US Lifesaving Stations soon dotted the island and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was built. The US Weather Station in Hatteras would receive the initial telegraph that the Titanic was sinking.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was unfortunately completely surrounded by scaffolding when we visited. Although for us it was easy to envision what it looks like without the scaffolding because it has the same black and white candy-cane striping as the St. Augustine Lighthouse. This is the tallest brick lighthouse in the world, rising to 208 feet. This wasn't the first lighthouse here. The first was built in 1803 and made from sandstone and rose 90 feet. This lighthouse was a complete failure as its sandstone color blended in with environment and the tower was too short. In 1853, 60 feet were added to the tower so it stood 150 feet. The top portion was painted red with white at the base. A first order Fresnal lens was added as well. In the 1860s it was decided a new lighthouse was needed This one was completed in 1870 and had been built on a floating foundation because of the high water table. Six foot by twelve foot yellow pine timbers were laid crossways below the water table and granite rock layers were placed on top of the timbers. The base is octagon-shaped and made from brick and granite and painted red. The black and white pattern of the tower was added in 1873. It's a beautiful lighthouse. 

The lamp was electrified in 1934. Beach erosion  forced the closer of the lighthouse and the beacon was moved to a skeletal steel tower the following year. By 1950, the beach had built back up and the lighthouse was reopened, but the beach would erode again and an ambitious decision was made. The lighthouse was going to be moved. The museum had an entire room dedicated to this undertaking and amazingly, the lighthouse was moved 2,900 feet to its present location over 23 days in 1999. On top of that, the oil house, Principal Keeper's Quarters, Double Keepers' Quarters and dwelling cisterns were all moved. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains the light, while the National Park Service takes care of the lighthouse and buildings. This lighthouse is haunted by a ghost cat. It matches the lighthouse as it is said to be black and white. The cat appears as a full-bodied apparition that rubs on visitors legs and they quickly realize it is a spirit when they reach down to pet it and it disappears. There are also a couple stories of a male apparition named Bob who wears a yellow raincoat.

There is also a mystery story connected to the lighthouse and Hatteras Island. In January of 1921, a five-masted commercial schooner named the Carroll A. Deering was found run aground  just off Cape Hatteras. This isn't strange considering that the Outer Banks is the Graveyard of the Atlantic. What was strange is that the ship was missing its entire crew of twelve. The life boats were gone. When the Coast Guard boarded the ship, there was no question that the crew had left in a hurry. Food had been prepared, but was untouched. The sails were set and the boat was in good condition until it was torn up by the Diamond Shoals as it sat off Cape Hatteras. The crew and life boats were never found. What had happened to them? Did bad weather force them from the schooner? Did pirates attack? Did some other crew of men force them from the ship? To this day, no one knows, but there are theories. We don't think pirates were involved because why wouldn't they take the ship for themselves? If there had been a mutiny on the ship, surely the mutineers would have taken the ship. A message was found by a man in a bottle off the North Carolina Coast in April 1921. It read, "Deering captured by oil-burning boat." After that, newspaper ran with stories that a Bolshevik plot to steal cargo and ships had hit the Deering. Many of our listeners probably wondered if the man who found that message was being honest and he wasn't. He later admitted that he wrote the message. Even though the Bermuda Triangle wouldn't be a thing until several decades later, people have wondered if it was responsible. A Coast Guard captain had the time had the most reasonable answer. He believed the ship had become stuck in a storm and the crew decided to row the nine miles to shore aboard the lifeboats, but the ocean was too rough and the boats didn't survive. 

Many listeners have heard of the Gray Man of Pawleys Island and we have covered it for a Moment in Oddity. This is a figure that is a harbinger of doom. Well apparently, Hatteras Island has a Gray Man as well. The legend goes that a man named Gray was killed by a sudden storm near Cape Point. Now whenever a storm is threatening the area, the Gray Man shows up on the beach between Cape Point and the Hatteras Lighthouse. In 1966, a hurricane was on the outskirts of Cape Hatteras and heading that way. The Coast Guard went out to warn residents to leave or batten down the hatches. After they were done, one of the newer Coast Guard members spotted a man down on the beach. This figure appeared gray and was waving its arms and pointing. Before one of his fellow guardsmen could stop him, he ran towards the beach to help this person. Just before he reached the man, the man disappeared. The Coast Guardman looked all around like, where did this guy go. When he got back to the rest of the crew who were waiting for him in a vehicle, they informed him that what he had just seen was the Gray Man of Hatteras. A picture was captured of the Gray Man during Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

One of the most well known legends connected to Hatteras Island is the story of Hatteras Jack. Hatteras Jack was apparently a white dolphin and sailors claimed he had the soul of a sailor who lost his life at sea. The treacherous waters were hard to navigate, of course, and the story goes that Hatteras Jack was good at guiding ships to safety. The dolphin would circle a ship to get its attention and then lead the way when it was safe. Some ships would blow their fog horn to call Hatteras Jack. After he guided a ship to safety, he would jump through the air and even walk on his tail as if celebrating. As time passed, technology improved and the need for Hatteras Jack went away and he seemed to go away too. People believe that the sailor's soul was now at rest.

The Lower Islands of the Outer Banks are both beautiful and crowded during the summer season. Many people love to spend their summer vacations here. And then there are the Bankers who call the Outer Banks home. Both residents and visitors have experienced strange things. Are any of these legends based in fact. Are the Lower Islands of the Outer Banks haunted? That is for you to decide!