N.C. beaches continue to earn accolades

We're big fans of "Dr. Beach" and his annual list of the best beaches in America. We are also blessed -- and biased; beaches from North Carolina routinely make the list, and this year is no exception.

"For the third year in a row, an NC beach is making a big splash in national rankings. Ocracoke Lifeguarded Beach has been ranked as No. 2, same spot from 2019. ...

"Another North Carolina beach, Lighthouse Beach in Buxton on the Outer Banks checks in at No. 5 on Stephen Leatherman’s list."

No. 1 on the list this year was Grayton Beach State Park  -- on the Florida panhandle.

Leatherman, a coastal scientist and professor at Florida International University, has been drafting the list under the alias “Dr. Beach” since 1991.

Leatherman uses 50 criteria to evaluate beaches, with the most important categories being water cleanliness, safety and management of the beach environment and its facilities. Leatherman uses data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grade the beaches on water quality and has been to all the beaches on his list.

Two N.C. beaches make 'Best Beach' list

With one of the most expansive coastlines in the United States, it's not surprising that we have some great beaches here in North Carolina. We also have a history of our beaches ending up on Dr. Beach's Best Beach list from year to year. This year is no different, according to the Associated Press.

Stephen Leatherman, a coastal science professor at Florida International University, announced his most recent list of top 10 beaches. Kapalua Bay Beach on the Hawaiian island of Maui got the top slot Thursday. Leatherman's list even has a second Hawaiian beach, Hapuna Beach State Park, coming in eighth on the list.

But that wasn't the No. 2 beach on the list. North Carolina's Ocracoke Lifeguarded Beach earned the second spot, followed by Grayton Beach State Park in the Florida panhandle; Coopers Beach, Southampton, New York; Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Lighthouse Beach, Buxton, Outer Banks, North Carolina; Caladesi Island State Park, Dunedin-Clearwater, Florida; then Hapuna on the Big Island, with Coronado Beach, San Diego, California, in ninth place and Kiawah Beachwalker Park, Kiawah Island, South Carolina, coming in 10th.

More about the rankings via the AP:

Leatherman has been compiling his annual list of top 10 beaches every year since 1991. He uses 50 criteria to evaluate beaches, with the most important categories being water cleanliness, safety (meaning no rip currents or drownings) and management of the beach environment and its facilities. He also looks for fine, soft sand, and gives extra points for beaches that prohibit smoking. He doesn't collect water from every beach in test tubes himself, by the way, but he does use data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grade the beaches on water quality.

Leatherman's list has its origins in a class he taught at the University of Maryland. A student was writing an article for a travel magazine and asked him to come up with a list of the 10 best beaches based on his expertise as a coastal scientist. He began producing his official annual list in 1991 using his 50 criteria and his vast knowledge of U.S. ocean beaches. "I had visited every (ocean) beach in the U.S. for a Department of Interior study ... so that gave me the background data set to work from," he said.

His goal in producing the list each year, he says, "is to reward those beaches which maintain the high quality and the safety areas but also to encourage other beaches to do the same." He looks for beaches that "balance nature with the built environment."

But how come so many states with beloved beaches — in places like Maine, the DelMarva Peninsula, the Jersey shore, the Pacific Northwest and other coastal areas — never make the list, while the same names keep turning up year after year?

Leatherman says it's all about the math in his categories. Beaches lose points for water that's too chilly, sand that's too coarse, condo towers instead of dunes, riptides and drownings, erosion and limited public access.

Leatherman adds that he doesn't make money from the list. He just finds "it interesting to do" and hopes that the standards he promotes will encourage other beaches "to do the right thing and improve their quality."

For the famous Scotty McCreery, the OBX is where it's at

Garner's Scotty McCreery is big time. He has the No. 1 country album in America, and last night he sang the national anthem before Game 1 of the World Series.

But he's a North Carolinian through and through. He tuned up for the World Series by singing the anthem at a recent N.C. State football game, and he also recently spoke with Fox News about his favorite vacation destination, the Outer Banks.

Outer Banks, North Carolina is where I spent a lot of my summers growing up. I’ve got a seashell on the top of my dresser to remind me of some of the good times. I think there’s actually a picture in a magazine recently of me, my sister, and my mom and there’s a rainbow behind us in Outer Banks. We’d go down to Jockey’s Ridge, which is a 100-foot tall dune and eat at a lot of cool places.

...

Fox411: You seem to know the Outer Banks intimately, what activities do you recommend?

McCreery: There’s always a lot of stuff to do. We never went hang gliding. We wanted to do that off Jockey’s Ridge but I think I was a little too scared to do that. But we’re always in the ocean and hanging out.

Fox411: Family seems to be a crucial element for a vacation at Outer Banks for you.

McCreery: My grandma used to have this little place, we called it “the tin can.” She had a little camper type thing and we’d go there for the summers and hang out. It’s not one of those commercial beaches where there are tall buildings behind the beach. It’s just a nice place with cottages, sand and water. The family has been split apart and on different sides of the country. So it’ll be nice to get together and we’ll be heading to the Outer Banks enjoying ourselves, bring the fishing pole and have a good time.

...

The uncertain future of N.C.'s wild horses

North Carolina has long been proud of the wild horses that roam our coast. (We even promote a link to the Shackleford Banks horse foundation under our links section.) But these animals face an uncertain future because of tourism, according to the AP.

On a stretch of barrier island without paved roads, some of the last wild horses in the eastern United States are seeing their world get smaller each year.

A boom in vacation homes in the last 25 years in this remote place has seen the descendants of colonial Spanish mustangs confined to a 7,500-acre sanctuary on the northern tip of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. And now the herd itself may shrink along with its habitat.

A plan backed by the federal government would see the herd reduced from about 115 horses today to no more than 60 in a bid to stop the animals, designated North Carolina’s state horse this year, from competing with federally protected birds for increasingly hard-to-come-by resources.

The Fish and Wildlife Service says the plan will reduce harmful behavior by a species it considers a nuisance. But residents who rely on the horses to bring in tourist dollars or who simply cherish the mustangs as a symbol of the country’s spirit worry it could bring about the collapse of the herd through hereditary diseases and other complications of a shallow gene pool.

“The American wild horse is disappearing from our country,” said Karen McCalpin, executive director of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, a nonprofit group that manages the herd. “To me, they’re as much a symbol of freedom as the bald eagle.” ...

Thousands of mustangs once roamed the Outer Banks, descendants of horses brought during an ill-fated Spanish colonial mission in the 1520s. But Highway 12 has been steadily moving north through the barrier islands, reaching Corolla in the 1980s and bringing rapid development with it.

Huge, brightly painted vacation homes now line the road, and even pop up behind the dunes on Corolla’s beach, accessible only by vehicles with four-wheel drive. Once the paved road ends, there’s no development except vacation homes, some as big as mansions. ...

The horses around Corolla are in a unique situation. Unlike their counterparts farther south in Shackleford Banks, the mustangs don’t have any kind of federal protection.

In fact, on its website, the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge describes the animals as something of a pest: “The Fish and Wildlife Service considers the horses to be nonnative, feral animals and not a natural component of the barrier island ecosystem,” it reads. “These animals compete with native wildlife species for food and fresh water.”

The management plan calls for the size of the herd to be kept at 60, meaning horses in excess of that number would have to be captured and put up for adoption to new homes off the island, while remaining mares would be treated with contraceptive medication to stop them from becoming pregnant. ...

Introducing your Official State Horse

From the News & Observer:

Buffeted by hurricanes and harassed by centuries of sand fleas, the humble colonial Spanish mustang has been enshrined as North Carolina's official horse.

The state House voted 116-0 Wednesday to embrace the descendents of steeds said to have been marooned on the Outer Banks by 16th century conquistadors. The Senate approved the bill last week, and Gov. Bev Perdue is expected to sign the measure into law.

The measure was herded through the legislature by one of its most powerful members, Senate leader Marc Basnight.

"They are part of our heritage," said Basnight, a Manteo Democrat whose coastal district includes islands where the horses roam wild. "They are a small horse in stature. They are quick. They are relatively tame, when not in season." ...

The (first) votes are in!

The list has been whittled down in the Land for Tomorrow's Top 10 N.C. Natural Wonders survey. You have until May 18th to pick your top five (or you can pick for the same natural wonder five times).

Among the choices are:
-The Blowing Rock
-The Blue Ridge Parkway
-Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout seashores
-Chimney Rock
-DuPont State Forest
-Grandfather Mountain
-Great Smoky Mountains
-Jockeys Ridge
-Joyce Kilmer Forest
-Lake Mattamuskeet
-Linville Falls
-Linville Gorge
-Lumber River
-Merchants Millpond State Park
-Mount Mitchell
-Mountains to Sea Trail
-Natahala Gorge
-New River
-Ocracoke Island
-Pilot Mountain
-Pisgah National Forest
-Roan Mountain
-Eno River
-Outer Banks
-Wild Horse of Corolla

Some intriguing possibilities here. To be honest, I forgot about many of these; North Carolina is truly blessed. Hard to narrow down to 10.

Just looking at 'em, here are a few initial thoughts on some of the choices.

-The Blowing Rock: One of my personal favorites. It's "legend" adds to its aura.
-The Blue Ridge Parkway: At first glance, an easy top 10 ...
-Grandfather Mountain: ... as is this one ...
-Great Smoky Mountains: ... this one ...
-Jockeys Ridge: ... and this one.
-Joyce Kilmer Forest: Some of the state's oldest and largest trees reside here. An underrated place.
-Linville Falls: Very nice, but there may be more majestic falls.
-Lumber River: For thousands of years, this river was the lifeblood of natives.
-Mount Mitchell: Tallest peak east of the Mississippi seems like a no-brainer.
-New River: I think, aside from the Nile, this is the only river in the world that flows from south to north.
-Ocracoke Island: Famous for its own local "dialect," but I'm not sure it's a top 10 natural wonder.
-Outer Banks: No-brainer.
-Wild Horse of Corolla: A sleeper suggestion I hadn't thought about. Good choice.

Go here to vote.

What are N.C.'s top 10 natural wonders?

You've probably read about it by now, but Land for Tomorrow is hoping that people will vote on just what are the top 10 natural wonders in our great state. There are just a couple more days to vote.

North Carolina is a "state is full of natural wonders." However, "settling on a list of its most beautiful places is not so easy."

“We were trying to think of a fun way to get people involved in highlighting how important conservation is to them,” said Debbie Crane, of Land for Tomorrow, a statewide coalition working to preserve the state's natural resources and urging legislators to fund conservation. “People need to understand that the places they love, they don't just get saved on their own.”

Residents have until Thursday to nominate any landscape, natural feature, wildlife or plant life unique to North Carolina for consideration in the contest. More than 600 nominations have already been submitted.

There are some obvious front-runners: Grandfather Mountain; Jockeys Ridge; Linville Gorge; Pilot Mountain; the Blue Ridge Parkway; etc. But if "unique" plants and animals are options, that could allow for voting for things such as the Venus Fly Trap or the famous white squirrels of Brevard. The results are expected to be released May 18. Go here to vote.

Happy voting!

Quick hits: Duke back in Final Four, and the oldest shipwreck in N.C. found

Duke punches another Final Four ticket
"Duke senior guard Jon Scheyer fiddled absently Sunday evening with the loop he'd cut from the net at Reliant Stadium that represented a lifetime goal fulfilled," said Ken Tysiac.

"A baseball cap that proclaimed Duke regional champions sat on Scheyer's left knee as the last few reporters hung around the locker room. Scheyer and junior backcourt partner Nolan Smith had just shredded Baylor's zone defense, combining for 49 points to lift Duke to a 78-71 win in the NCAA tournament's South Regional final. ..."

Oh, and Duke's presence may have salvaged CBS' ratings.

Shipwreck may be oldest off N.C. coast

"Small waves lapped over Nathan Henry's rubber boots as the underwater archaeologist stood among the stubby hull timbers of what could be the oldest shipwreck on the North Carolina coast.

"It was low tide and the surf was receding in Corolla. A cold north wind penetrated even a hoodie pulled over a knit cap.

"Henry, a curator with the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch, had come here Tuesday with Richard Lawrence, the agency director, to further document the 400-year-old wreck before it disappears," said the Virginian-Pilot.

UK mayor to dig for Lost Colony roots

From the North Devon (UK) Gazette ...

THE search for links between Bideford and the earliest American settlers will take the town's Mayor, Cllr Andy Powell, to North Carolina next month.

Mr Powell is planning to join high profile archaeologist Professor Mark Horton, one of the team from the television series Coast, and a small group of Americans on a series of exploratory digs on the outer banks region of North Carolina. ...

Aim of the North Carolina project is to establish whether Bidefordians were among the founding fathers of America.

It is believed some could have been among the Lost Colonists who landed on Roanoke Island in the 1580s- more than 30 years before the Pilgrim Fathers set sail from Plymouth.

The 117 men, women and children disappeared, but it is hoped to establish that they did not perish, but moved on to live with the local native American tribes to become the first permanent settlers of the continent.

In collaboration with an American research group, next month's test digs will examine areas where artefacts have been discovered, including what appear to be Elizabethan bricks - known to have been used as ballast in the ships of colonists - pieces of pottery and even parts of what could be an Elizabethan ship. ...

Through genealogy and modern DNA testing it is also hoped to establish links between people from Bideford and families in America that can be traced back to this era.

After publication of a list of the Lost Colonists' names earlier this year, Barnstaple businessman Philip Milton became the first local person to have his DNA tested.

Although several matches were found with Americans, genealogical research has not yet been able to take these as far back in time as the Lost Colony.

Five other families whose names might fit with the list had now also come forward, said Mr Powell. DNA test kits had been sent for from a laboratory in Texas, which would also test them.

NY Times: Surfing, with a dark edge, on the OBX

The New York Times' Lens section has a nice piece on the photography of Chris Bickford, who documented -- in stark black and white -- the surfing scene of the Outer Banks. You can view the article here; click here for the amazing slide show.

Bickford's project a"bout the local surf scene on the Outer Banks of North Carolina was all about firsts: his first time shooting in water, his first time capturing a fast-action sport and his first time conceptualizing completely in black and white.

" 'I struggled, but that basically worked to my advantage,' Mr. Bickford said. 'If I had shot the tack-sharp images you see in surf magazines, there wouldn’t have been anything interesting about it.'

"During the six months he spent on this project, Mr. Bickford, 42, was constantly pummeled by waves and sucked under them. Treading water while equipped with fins, a digital S.L.R. camera and an AquaTech waterproof housing, he looked for riders coming down breaking waves. Then he swam as close as possible.

"The result? 'After the Storm,' a little book with fantastical photographs that make you feel as if you’re engulfed in the wild tumult of a raging ocean. In one, the silhouette of a surfer is spattered with thick spray. In another, an ominous wave arches straight up into sky. And his portraits of locals, set on beaches against a backdrop of stormy clouds, are just as dramatic. ..."

The ghost town of Buffalo City

Continuing with our recent theme of North Carolina places ...

I had no idea that there was a "booming" town of Buffalo City in Dare County way back when. In fact (according to Wikipedia), Buffalo City's population of 3,000 in the early 20th century "made it the largest community in Dare County."

Buffalo City was apparently "a logging and moonshine town in Dare County, North Carolina. It was on the mainland, 19 miles (31 km) west of Mantoe, near present-day Manns Harbor. The marshy land where Buffalo City once stood, near U.S. 64, is now part of the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The town's history lasted approximately 80 years from the 1870s to 1950s ... A hotel, post office, schoolhouse, general store, 100 miles (161 km) of railroad track, and rows of homes once stood on the now-abandoned area. Today, the only remnants of the ghost town include a road sign, rusted rails, and building debris now overgrown with weeds."

An interesting aspect of Buffalo City is that it was founded "shortly after the Civil War by the Buffalo Timber Company, Buffalo City was constructed on the north side of Milltail Creek by African-American laborers and more than 200 Russian immigrants. Many of these immigrants stayed and worked at the new logging town and composed half of the town’s population."

In 1920, Prohibition laws were passed in the United States and moonshine became a popular way for Buffalo City citizens to make extra money. When logging camps at Buffalo City began to close in the 1920s, moonshine became the primary revenue source for citizens. Almost every family in Buffalo City operated a still. Speakeasie throughout the eastern United States sold moonshine made in Buffalo City. The liquor was made deep in the woods and transported by the same methods as logging: by mules and boats. A 30-foot (9.1 m) boat named the Hattie Creef sailed down Milltail Creek and across the Albemarle Sound to Elizabeth City, where the liquor was sold. The boat returned with large amounts of sugar, an ingredient in making moonshine. Federal prohibition enforcers, called revenuers, began to crack down on Buffalo City’s moonshine industry. Several men in the town were sentenced to jail.

When prohibition ended in 1933, Buffalo City’s economy was severely affected. With the loss of moonshine revenue, citizens began focusing on the logging industry once again. Most good timber had already been felled, but the sawmill continued to operate for the next two decades. Outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, smallpox and the flu swept throughout the community in the 1940s. The combination of these diseases and lack of work resulted in Buffalo City’s population declining to 100 people. The sawmill closed in the early 1950s and the town was abandoned.

Fantastic OBX shots

Keeping with today's OBX theme are several shots from Manteo, Nags Head, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Rodanthe and Ocracoke from a fantastic "new" photographer (and friend), Kelly Capps. Be sure to click to enlarge to fully appreciate the shots.

Enjoy!

An official state horse?

North Carolina can boast a state reptile, gem, boat, dog, insect, etc. But up until now, there's been (as far as I can tell) very little clamor for a state horse. (After all, our northern neighbors in Virginia and Kentucky seem to hog the equestrian limelight.)

Now some students in Currituck County want to change that by campaigning for the Outer Banks mustang -- the banker -- to be the official state horse [says the Daily Advance].

Fourth-graders in the Currituck County Schools have started a letter-writing campaign to save the bankers — not the Wall Street kind, the equine kind.

Students have already written more than 400 letters to state lawmakers, asking them to make “banker ponies” — as the wild horses of Corolla are sometimes known — North Carolina’s official state horse.

“The marvelous Colonial Spanish Mustang is the perfect fit for North Carolina’s state horse,” writes student Lauren Cutler, in one of the letters. “So if the Spanish Colonial Mustang was our horse, maybe it won’t be endangered anymore.”

The horses, about 100 of whom roam the northern Outer Banks, are believed to be the descendants of the Colonial Spanish mustangs brought to the New World by Spanish explorers nearly 500 years ago. They’re called “bankers” because they live on the Outer Banks and ponies because of their small size — 14 to 15 hands, or about five feet from ground to shoulder.

Advocates for the horses worry about their future, particularly as the Outer Banks becomes more developed and their contact with humans increases. ...

School officials hit on the idea of making the wild herd North Carolina’s official state horse the subject of fourth-graders’ writing assessment this year. Students have to complete the writing assignment in order to pass their grade. ...

To prepare students for the writing assignment, each fourth-grader in the county schools learned about the horses’ history, how they came to the Outer Banks and how the breed has dwindled from human interaction, Jensen said. They also got to meet one of the horses — a tame 3-year-old named Uno who was rehabilitated after being injured, and now lives on a farm in Jarvisburg. ...

According to Netstate.com, 11 states have horses listed as a state animal or honorary equine, but only seven have an official state horse. North Carolina isn’t among them.

Organizers hope the letter-writing project creates more awareness about the wild horses and their place in the history of the Outer Banks, Jensen said.

“People don’t understand or realize about the history of these horses and how important it is to protect the breed,” she said.

Good luck to the students. I hope they are successful.

More on David Stick

We referenced the passing of author David Stick in our "Quick hits" this a.m. The Charlotte Observer's Jack Betts has more here. Here's a snippet:

Stick, by the way, was not a native North Carolinian, but you can't tell that from his writing. He came to us as a boy from New Jersey, and served as a combat correspondent in World War II in the Marines along the way. But he was otherwise as thoroughly North Carolinian as it's possible to be.

When I read of his death Sunday at age 89 it saddened me to know that such a productive historian and folklorist of the N.C. coast had passed away. His 11 books are a living memorial to the depth and breadth of his knowledge. He wrote among other things "Graveyard of the Atlantic" (1952), "The Outer Banks of North Carolina" (1958), "The Ash Wednesday Storm" (1987), "Roanoke Island: The Beginnings of English America" (1983) and edited my favorite, "An Outer Banks Reader" (1998). The latter is a marvelous compendium of other folks' writings about the Banks, from early explorers to contemporary times. Writers include Rachel Carson, who did groundbreaking environmental work in the marshes near Beaufort, John Dos Passos, who wrote about “The Campers at Kitty Hawk” named Wilbur and Orville, and Observer writer Elizabeth Leland's piece "The Crab Picker" from her own book "Our Vanishing Coast" in 1992.

The summer reading season is upon us and there are a lot of good books to read, but if you haven't read David Stick in a while, or ever, you can't go wrong with “An Outer Banks Reader.”

Quick hits: A slew of stuff to get to

Forum will field proposals for Gullah/Geechee corridor
"It could be a tinge in your accent, or a story you heard from your grandfather.

"If something tells you that you’re a descendant of the Gullahs or Geechees, the commission to preserve their heritage wants to see you Thursday evening," says the Wilmington Star-News. "The state representatives of the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission will have a public forum then at St. Stephen AME Zion Church to find out which projects people connected to that culture – or those interested in it – would like to see.

" 'Let them tell us their story,' Lana Carter, a commissioner from East Arcadia, said of Gullah descendants. People of that heritage came centuries ago as slaves from West Africa to the U.S. coast from Jacksonville, Fla., to Wilmington, and that’s now the length of the preservation corridor. ..."

AT hikers numbers increase 25 percent "Just days in, Murray McGill's path along the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail is just beginning," says Gannett News Service.

"His legs are getting tired, shoulders are starting to wear down from the heavy backpack and his brow is wet as he hunts for a water refill at Clingman's Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

" 'Why do it? I have no idea. I'm crazy I guess. I have no idea why you do this,' Murray McGill said.

" It's the kind of hike you can't find in his home state of Florida. The swamp just doesn't have the same terrain as the mountainous jaunt through 14 states.

" 'There is a Florida trail. But no one does it,' he said with a laugh.

" This spring, more and more people are starting that same journey. Maine to Georgia or vice-versa.

"According the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, it may be as many as 25 percent more setting out for the three to six month hike. ..."


19 places in N.C. added to National Historic Register
"Nineteen properties and districts across North Carolina have been added to the National Register of Historic Places, including three in Raleigh and one in Harnett County, state cultural resources officials said Tuesday," according to the News & Observer.

Among them are: Mount Hope Cemetery, just south of downtown Raleigh; Mary Elizabeth Hospital, built in 1920 at the intersection of Wake Forest Road and Glascock Street in Raleigh; and the Harrington-Dewar House near Holly Springs.


OBX author Stick dead at 89
"A man known for his writings about, and his love for, North Carolina's Outer Banks has died.

"Michael Stick of Chicago said Tuesday that his father, David Stick of Kitty Hawk, died of natural causes Sunday at Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City. He was 89," according to the AP.

"Stick's books include 'Graveyard of the Atlantic,' 'The Ash Wednesday Storm' and 'The Outer Banks of North Carolina,' ..."

Poe's bookcase stands in N. Raleigh

"In 1849, Edgar Allen Poe staggered to a drunken and delirious death on the streets of Baltimore, scattering to history some of the creepiest stories ever written -- the black cats and beating hearts that still scare children awake at midnight.

"And now, by an odd chance, you can see a sliver of Poe's literary life standing seven feet tall in Eliza Kraft Olander's sunny office, looking out on a cheerful garden of lilacs and roses," says the N&O's Josh Shaffer.

"She keeps paperback copies of Deepak Chopra and Anaïs Nin on the walnut shelves where Poe once stacked his own volumes. Though there's nothing tortured or black-hearted about North Raleigh, you can't help but picture his ghost floating past to flip through the pages.

" 'If it is haunted,' Olander said, 'I have a lot of religious stuff, too. I collect crosses from French cemeteries.' ..."

No more 'Earl' but 'OTH' renewed

NBC's "My Name is Earl" has reportedly been canceled, meaning no more TV presence (for now) for Kinston's Jaime Pressly.

It's been reported before that the idea for the show "just came" to creator Greg Garcia several years ago while he was vacationing on the Outer Banks.

GogoRaleigh.com stated that "Earl" is co-produced and co-written by Raleigh native Bobby Bowman, so it's a double boo-hoo for the Wolfpack State.

In other N.C. TV news, "One Tree Hill" has reportedly been renewed; however, a couple of the main stars (not going to give it away) will not be back.

In addition, NBC has renewed "Parks and Recreation," which features Asheville native Paul Schneider as Mark Brendanawicz.

OBX pier retooling appears to be a win-win-win-win ...

Let's see ...

Restore a treasured landmark?

Check.

Create jobs?

Check

Protect the environment?

Check.

Not bad.

"Gov. Beverly Perdue says retooling an old Outer Banks landmark will create hundreds of jobs and help visitors learn about North Carolina marine life and nature," says the AP. [Emphasis mine.]

"Perdue signed into law Wednesday a bill to pay for construction of the North Carolina Aquarium Pier at Nags Head, using admissions money at state aquariums and outside sources. The Legislature gave its final OK to the $25 million plan Tuesday. ...

"The bill says the pier's refurbishment could create more than 550 jobs.

"The pier will include a stormwater system designed to protect the sounds and beaches from runoff."

Watch this, dingbatters

A book I highly recommend to those interested in North Carolina culture and linguistics is Walt Wolfram's "Hoi toide on the Outer Banks," which does a marvelous job of studying the Ocracoke brogue.

This YouTube clip gives some nice insight into the quirky pronunciations and unique words of the Outer Banks residents.

Enjoy it, dingbatters!

OBX set to be the real star of 'Rodanthe'

Early reviews of the Nicholas Sparks-penned movie, "Nights in Rodanthe" have concluded that the real star of the movie is not Richard Gere or Diane Lane but the North Carolina coast itself.

On September 24 in Kill Devil Hills, the behind-the-scenes folks who worked on the movie -- which is set on the Outer Banks -- will get to see a screening of the movie. The next night, people in Wilmington will do the same.

The movie is based on the novel by Sparks, who lives in New Bern, and focuses on a relationship that develops when Gere's character visits an inn that Lane's character is caring for during a nor'easter," says the AP. A real nor'easter that later became Subtropical Storm Andrea developed during filming in May 2007.

In an interview last month, Sparks said the movie shows off North Carolina's coast.

"There are these scenes in Rodanthe, and you just get the wind-swept, austere beauty of the Outer Banks," he said. "It's co-mingled with a story that I'm proud to have written and that translated well to film."

Carolyn McCormick, managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, told the media she is working with Warner Bros. "for promotions such as a free stay on Hatteras Island and hopes to market the area abroad, where the bureau typically couldn't afford such promotions. In addition, the movie is targeted to women ages 40 and older, the same target market for the bureau, she said.

" 'They hit our target market, they showcase our incredible island' and it will show in international markets 'that we can't afford to be in on our own,' she said. 'And the title is Nights in Rodanthe. It couldn't get much better than that.' ..."

(Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.)

'Stay-cation, happy to get away'

If there is one brightside to the rising cost of gasoline, it is that tourists -- both from North Carolina and from our nearby neighbors -- may opt to enjoy what the Old North State has to offer instead of heading off to Disney World or Paris.

"Visitor spending increased 7.4 percent across North Carolina last year, to a record $17.1 billion, according to information released Tuesday by the state Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development," and according to WRAL.com.

“Our very important state tourism industry continues to grow, even as the national economy is struggling,” Gov. Mike Easley said in a statement. “Tourism is a key economic driver, particularly for several of our rural and urban counties, and plays a critical role in adding new jobs to our economy and supports our other economic development efforts.”

Domestic travelers' expenditures reached $16.5 billion, up 7.2 percent from 2006, while international travelers’ expenditures increased to $607 million, a 13.2 percent jump from the previous year.

Visitor expenditures created 198,900 jobs and nearly $4.2 billion in payroll income statewide last year. Employment increased 2.2 percent, and payroll jumped 4.3 percent from 2006. Visitor spending also generated close to $2.7 billion in tax revenue for federal, state and local governments, up 4.6 percent from 2006.

Earlier reports had stated that our nice, clean beaches saw an increase in visitors, but apparently so did most Triangle-area counties.

"Wake County was one of six counties to register double-digit growth in visitor spending, with a 10.7 percent increase to almost $1.5 billion. Nash County saw the largest jump statewide at 12.7 percent, to $218 million," said the report.

"All Triangle-area counties saw increased tourism spending, except for Lee County, which registered a 0.4 percent decrease."