Rodanthe and Waves at a Glance

We like to say that the Outer Banks holds something for everyone, and nowhere is that more appropriate than on Hatteras island .Long the choice of fishermen and vacationers seeking a less developed, more natural setting, as well as being home to a hardy, proud and independent population of year round residents, Hatteras Island has recently seen a development boom similar to that of the more northern Banks. The difference is that privately held land (not to mention the resources necessary for growth) is severely limited on Hatteras Island. This is because all land, except that contained in the boundaries of the seven existing communities, is restricted from private ownership and protected from development under the jurisdiction of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Less than a third of the way down Hatteras Island, soon after the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge (and just beyond the location of a former inlet that made Pea Island an island) the land widens. Here, on state highway 12, one comes suddenly upon Rodanthe. If the name sounds strange, consider that it came about through the efforts of the Post Office Department to select a name easier to spell and pronounce than Chicamacomico, the Indian name by which the area had been known before 1874. Just south of the community of Rodanthe is village of Waves, formerly known as South Rodanthe. 

This stretch of Hatteras Island is the easternmost point of the Outer Banks, even more easterly than Cape Hatteras to the south. From it, the Wimble Shoals project into the Atlantic, like a smaller version of the Cape´s treacherous Diamond Shoals. It is conjectured that these shallows may have been dry land long ago, forming a massive cape. But whether or not the island once extended far into the ocean there, the Chicamacomico region was probably one of the widest stretches along the entire Outer Banks when settlers of English descent arrived there; and we know there used to be a deep woods on the sound side where they built homes and established a small community well before the Revolutionary War.

In 1744, when a survey was done of a land claim known as the Granville Grant, sightings were made that began at the ocean, six and a half miles south of the then-existing inlet, and followed a westerly line that passed within 25 feet of one Thomas Wallis´s house before ending in Pamlico Sound. By the census of 1850, the Chicamacomico region, including two settlements that had grown up to the south of present-day Rodanthe, listed 37 families and a total of 206 residents. According to the year 2000 census, there are 567 permanent residents living in Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo. That means the population has not quite tripled in 150 years.

In 1874, the same year the Post Office Department was officially doing away with the region´s long, rhythmic Indian name, the federal government began constructing lifesaving stations along the Outer Banks. The National Park Service and National Register of Historic Places list that date for the first Chicamacomico station. But local history, much of which was recorded by Ben Dixon MacNeill in his 1958 work of fact and legend, The Hatterasman, places its construction in the year 1878-9 and under the supervision of Bannister Midgett, one in a long line of surfmen of the same name and, by many accounts, one of the island´s most independent characters. It was said that Bannister was illiterate, but it seems that any deficiencies he might have had along those lines would only surface when he was required to fill out tedious Lifesaving Service reports. Midgett became keeper of the Chicamacomico Station and remained in that capacity during the construction of a much larger station in 1911 and until the Lifesaving Service was merged into the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915. At that point, evidently, he resigned, refusing the title "boatswain´s mate," finding it an inappropriate description of his rugged lifelong profession. He was followed in the keeper´s position by two other men, surnamed Midgett, none of whom claimed kinship to Bannister or to each other, according to writer MacNeill.

When the gasoline-laden British tanker Mirlo struck a mine laid by a German submarine off Chicamacomico during the first World War, of the six surfmen who earned the Coast Guard´s highest commendation for pulling 42 crewmen from the fiery, gale-swept sea, all but one was named Midgett. In recent years, thanks to the pressure of local citizens, the Chicamacomico station has been beautifully restored and is the site of many interesting activities for children and adults that retell of the life and lore of the island.

The people of Rodanthe have kept alive another tradition that seems likely to have been carried over the centuries from their English roots, in the same way many islanders have retained the distinctive accent of their origin. On the night of January 5, they celebrate "Old Christmas", a festival that may well have originated when the English monarchy, in 1752, adopted the Gregorian calendar, advancing Christmas and everything else by 11 days, but didn´t get the word to the folks on Hatteras ? or, more likely, the news arrived in due time, and the Hatteras colonists simply resisted the change. The festival coincides with the Anglican Church´s observance of the Epiphany of Christ, but Rodanthe´s celebration is distinctively secular in nature, for what appears to expectant onlookers is "Old Buck," the apparition of a bull that is thought to represent one that terrorized the community in the old days until felled by some strapping ancestor of those fearless surfmen.

Nature and long-time residents of the island have their own ways of discouraging over-development. Limited growth and rising property values, therefore, are the most likely outcome for this relatively undeveloped 70-mile stretch that includes, north to south, the towns and villages of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras.

For more information on Hatteras Island real estate, give us a call today.