The Cape Fear coast is believed to be littered with the remains of Blockaders and Blockade Runners.

Brent Garlington flew his drone high above the shipwreck at the east end of Holden Beach near Lockwood Folly Inlet and recently captured some amazing aerial views of it.

Experts believe the vessel is a large iron-hulled Civil War-era steamer. In the video, you can see the vessel is partially submerged in the ocean.

Researchers and archaeologists from the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology and the Institute of International Maritime Research made the underwater discovery in February 2016 during sonar operations.

According to NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the vessel could be the remains of one of three blockade runners used to penetrate the wall of Union naval vessels blocking the port of Wilmington during the Civil War.

The vessel is believed to possibly be the remains of one of three blockade runners used to penetrate the wall of Union naval vessels blocking the port of Wilmington during the Civil War. The goal of the Union blockade was to keep supplies from reaching the Confederacy through one of its most important ports and to prevent the export of cotton and other marketable items by the Southerners. The wreck is located 27 miles downstream from Wilmington near Fort Caswell at the mouth of the Cape Fear River and is the first Civil War-era vessel discovered in the area in decades.

“A new runner is a really big deal,” said Billy Ray Morris, Deputy State Archaeologist-Underwater and Director of the Underwater Archaeology Branch. “The state of preservation on this wreck is among the best we’ve ever had.”

Researchers will continue working to positively identify the vessel. Three blockade runners are known to have been lost in the area, the Agnes E. Fry, Spunkie and Georgianna McCaw. These operations are part of a major project funded by the National Park Service through the American Battlefield Protection Program.

Historical, cartographic and archaeological resources have been examined for the past two years to better understand the maritime components of the Fort Fisher campaign. Fortifications protected both entrances to the Cape Fear River from the Atlantic and were critical in keeping open a lifeline to the Confederacy until Fort Fisher fell in January 1865.

Researchers aboard the Research Vessel Atlantic Surveyor recorded the complete hull of the vessel. Students from the East Carolina University Maritime Studies Program will join the team as they continue gathering data on the new site as the weather permits.

Civil War Blockade Runners: During the War between the States, the Confederate States of America possessed only a [Read more…]

Back in 1905 a brightly lit pavilion in south Wrightsville Beach known as the “Fun Spot of the South” opened for the first time.

It was referred to by many names, “The Pleasure Palace of the South,” “The Fun Spot of the South,” and “The Palace of Light.”

In June 1905, Hugh MacRae who owned Consolidated Railways Light & Power Company, Wilmington’s electric utility, opened Lumina in a location near the last stop of Wrightsville’s electric trolley line.

His motivation for creating Lumina was to promote beach tourism, encourage folks to ride on the trolleys and start to use electricity.

He lit up Lumina with over a thousand incandescent bulbs lighting up his three story, 25,000 square foot dance hall.

The Lumina building was bright enough for sailors to navigate their ships by it.

The ground floor of Lumina featured dressing rooms, a promenade, a bowling alley, refreshment stands, a movie theater and other amusements.

The second level had a ballroom/dance floor with a restaurant with a fireplace for cold nights and a balcony and band shell for orchestras and big bands, like Cab Calloway’s or Louis Armstrong’s.

On the third floor a 15-foot wide promenade overlooked the dance floor.

 

Right from its opening day, Lumina was enormously successful soon expanding to double the size of the ballroom and adding the movie screen. The movie screen itself was marvel rising from the surf 50 feet out to sea, so that audiences could watch films right on the beach!

It attracted huge crowds and Lumina’s dance floor became known as “The South Atlantic’s Finest.”

The Wilmington Star stated that “if a woman didn’t have a Saturday night date for the Lumina, she was in disgrace.”

Lumina was “a glowing beacon” that called out to anyone who could get on a trolley and wanted to have a little fun.

The beginning of the end for the trolley system came when North Carolina began constructing highways in the area in 1935.

In 1940 the last trolley car ran, and although Lumina maintained its popularity into the 1950s, its best days had comer and gone now that folks could access the beach in their could automobiles

Then Hurricane Hazel damaged Lumina in 1954, and by the time the 1970s rolled around Lumina had deteriorated to the point that officials condemned the iconic structure.

In May 1973 bulldozers began demolishing the building. Eventually condominiums were built in its place.

Now just a fond memory Wrightsville Beach’s “Pleasure Palace of the South” is commemorated with the annual Lumina Daze festival at Wrightsville Beach’s Blockade Runner Resort remembering Lumina Pavilion’s heyday with a fun evening of food, big band music, and dancing.

When people think of “The Low Country” they generally think of South Carolina, however North Carolina has it’s own “Low Country”!

Definition of low country from Mirriam-Webster’s Dictionary:
a low-lying country or region; especially :  the part of a southern state extending from the seacoast inland to the fall line.

North Carolina’s Brunswick Islands ( just below Wilmington, NC and Cape Fear) are in North Carolina, however they lie to the south of Columbia, the capital of South Carolina!

North Carolina’s Low Country is the northernmost subtropical region on the east coast and enjoys a climate similar to that of South Carolina’s low country.

Over a dozen varieties of palm trees, hibiscus flowers, bananas and loquat trees thrive on these islands and on the mainland, giant live oaks draped in Spanish Moss abound.

In the prime of the rice plantation culture of the 17th and 18th centuries this area was also home to the northernmost of these plantations.

Orton Plantation near Southport is a prime example of a North Carolina low country rice plantation.

Starting at the border with SC are Bird Island (uninhabited), Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle Beach, Oak Island and Bald Head Island (which forms Cape Fear).

This area (NC’s Low Country) was originally part of South Carolina when the two colonies split in 1729.

In 1663 Charles II of England issued a charter granting the Lords Proprietor title to all of the land from the southern border of the Colony of Virginia at 36 degrees north to 31 degrees north (along the coast of present-day Georgia).

In 1729 the Province of Carolina was divided when the descendants of seven of the eight Lords Proprietors sold their shares back to the Crown. Only the heirs of Sir George Carteret retained their original rights to what would become the Granville District. Both the Province of North Carolina and the Province of South Carolina became English Crown Colonies in 1729.

The boundary was in question while surveying teams mistakenly redrew the border more than once. The North Carolina-South Carolina border veered miles away from the course British colonial officials intended, and then effectively disappeared as the trees it was marked on died.

This map from 1737 shows a nebulous line than simply disappears as it follows a course that is roughly the current border of today.

Museum quality Giclee’ prints of the antique map shown above can be purchased in a variety of sizes that fit standard frames by visiting our Island Living NC Store

Special: Save 20% on NC Map Print with Promo Code: MAP20

Enter code MAP20 at checkout for 20% Off Any Size Map Print (Ends 4/30/17)

About Giclee’ Prints:

The Giclee’ process offers perhaps the highest degree of accuracy and richness of the color palate of all the reproduction techniques available today.

Technically, the process starts with an extremely high resolution digital scan, then, a patented digital printing process uses microscopically fine droplets of special “archival” ink to create the image area. A single print can consist of as many as 20 million droplets!

The image is rendered onto cotton canvas, matte or gloss papers, and the image can have a life span of 75-100 years.

What does all this mean?

For color richness, luminosity, and brilliance….Giclee’ is the best print you can buy.

It cost a little more than conventional printing, but is worth a lot more in the finished print.