"Ribbons of Sand"

Friday, December 18

“When I die I would like to become part of the salt marsh. Return me to these waters, to the gr asses and the tidelands, where there is no such thing as death, only the cycles sof life. Make my marker a lush stand of cordgrass. Watch it wave in the breeze, observe how it catches the light, and think of me.”

These words narrated by Meryl Streep and written by Curtis J. Badger in Salt Tide, his memoir and narrative on the last unspoiled barrier island ecosystem in the eastern United States, introduce the Cape Lookout Visitors Center film “Ribbons of Sand” and succinctly capture a sense of our daily 360 degree horizon. We are surrounded by waters and waves, grasses and sand dunes. Off in the distance on all sides we see the islands.

Hillary stands on a section of the beach just down from the black and white diamond patterned Cape Lookout Lighthouse. Instead of a snow fence, the sand fence has been erected to reduce the erosion from the powerful winds that lambast the beaches from all sides. A twenty minute powerboat ride delivered us to this island, and Carol marched all the way to the top of the lighthouse, 207 steps up. The view from the top is spectacular, 360 degrees including Shackleford Island to see the ponies, all the way to neighboring towns of Beaufort and Morehead City.

We are in a maritime culture, not "southern" in the classic sense of the word.  Someone said this is much more like the maritime regions of northeastern United States.  But this is OLD.  Dates can be found  since the 1500s of Spanish days.  The ports have been defensive and offensive sites including Civil War and World War II where about 100 boats were sunk of Fort Macon.  Cape Lookout Island, on which the lighthouse stands was a military base as late as World War II.  

Saturday night's visit to the Tyron Palace in New Bern, NC, only reinforced the "old-ness" of this area.  The palace was the home for the Carolinas governor, appointed by the King of England and built in the 1770s.  Even though parts were destroyed by fire, the entire three block area stands in tribute to the first colonial governors.  All this was going on down here while the fur trade industry was in its heyday in Grand Portage.  It's a helpful comparison!