Until the village got its own post office in 1901, Salvo was called Clarks, presumably after its first or most prominent settlers. In 1879, the same year the Chicamacomico lifesaving station was built, another station was built on the beach at Clarks, and it soon became known as Gull Shoal, after a small island of that name located in the Sound. All that was required after that to put the little place on the map was a big storm and a daring rescue. And the hurricane that swept up from Puerto Rico and arrived off the coast of Hatteras on August 16, 1899 provided ample opportunity.That day and the following one, surfmen from the three stations north of Cape Hatteras ? Chicamacomico, Gull Shoal, and Little Kinnakeet, north of present-day Avon ? were exhausting themselves pulling from the surf the passengers and crew of three large sailing schooners, all wrecked within 15 miles of one another. Just south of the Cape, meanwhile, the heavy Diamond Shoals Lightship had dragged all the way in from the outer shoal and its nine crewmen were being rescued by surfmen at the station there.

On August 18, Rasmus S. Midgett was alone on his horse on pre-dawn patrol, south of Gull Shoal station near the remains of the schooner Aaron Repard where he had labored those two days before, saving three men and losing five to the sea. The memory of that attempt couldn´t have been too far from his mind when he heard new cries of distress as four passengers from the vessel Priscilla were washed overboard. His eyes must have just been able to make out in the night mist the outline of the vessel, already starting to break apart in the surf. Without time to report back to the station, Midgett took action. He waited until a giant breaker receded, then followed it into the surf to the foundering vessel. In this fashion he rescued ten people from the ship, one by one, and brought back the bodies of the four who had earlier perished. It was a feat unparalleled in the annals of lifesaving for which he received the highest honor.

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, which included the present-day villages of Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo, 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.

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.

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