Currituck Beach Light Station

How many photos have I taken of the Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla?  I think every time we have visited I have taken photos, because it is a beautiful, unpainted brick lighthouse, and the keepers houses are carefully restored.  Yesterday, we drove to the end of Highway 12, north from Duck through Corolla, and then to the very end of the road.  Here Highway 12 ends as a road and continues as a drive (at low tide) on the beach.  We know some people who have rented houses out in this area, far from shopping centers and restaurants, and accessible only by four-wheel-drive vehicles (at low tide).

We did not see any of the wild horses this time - the so-called "Banker Ponies" - thought to be survivors from Spanish ships that came here 500 years ago.  A study has actually shown that the horses are genetically related to Spanish horses, so it is likely that these stories are true.  Several years ago, we went on a Wild Horse Tour (a popular activity out here) and saw some up close, and one year we happened to see a new-born foal, right across from this place where the road ends and where the horses are safely fenced-in from traffic.

Then we headed south, back to Corolla Village, where one of the restored buildings is occupied by Island Bookstore, where we spent some time looking around.  James Comey's book was prominently on display, but I do not want to devote any time to him (or, even more, to the vile little man who fired him) in this blog.  Can we leave all that behind for a couple of weeks?

Just around the corner is the iconic lighthouse, visible over the top of the trees for a long way, standing tall enough to be seen from the ocean.

Across the round courtyard is the main light keepers house, and the grounds are sweet with daffodils and dogwood trees just beginning to bloom.

The lighthouse was built in 1875, and the keepers house completed a year later.  But in 1933, the lighthouse was electrified, and the keepers were no longer necessary.  By the 1970s, this building had fallen into disrepair, open to the elements, vandalized for its pine floors and wainscoting.  The Outer Banks Conservationists (OBC) took over the site in 1980 and over time have restored it.  The smaller keepers house was so completely covered in vines and brush that, at first, nobody realized it was there; now it is a gift shop, with a nice bench on the front porch where a person with may sit all afternoon and people-watch.

It had been several years since we climbed Currituck, and the clear blue sky seem to invite us to go upward today, and so we climbed the 220 steps, all the way to the top.

The main keepers house down below looked like a doll house; the grounds were well-maintained, and we could see those who were not able to climb, it seemed to us, gazing wistfully upward.  We stopped at the second landing from the top and let a healthy young man pass by; he took a look at this old guy, I guess, and said "Almost there!" in the same tone of voice as the young man who these days offers to carry my groceries to my car at Ingles.

What a view!  Walking around the perimeter at the top, we could see to the north and the south how narrow this strand is, this barrier island, bounded on one side by the sound and the other by the ocean, as it extended to the Virginia state line.  And there below us was the Whalehead Club, a privately-owned manor built in the 1920s by wealthy northerners interested in hunting waterfowl.  Local literature refers to it as "The Original Beach House."

It is a beautiful building, and we had a picnic on the grounds out in front of it at a little table under the pine trees.

This arched bridge is a favorite of mine, and I have a photograph of it hanging in our house, taken several years ago on an old 35mm camera.

We concluded this restful day by visiting a shopping center called Timbuck II, which I love if only because of its name.  And we don't have to go to Mali to shop there.  And, finally, a stop at the Waterfront Shops before heading homes for dinner.  These shops are just a little over a half-mile from our house, Ocean Watch, the northern terminus of the Town Boardwalk, and the site of next weekend's "Duck and Wine Festival," which we will be attending thanks to our foresight in getting tickets on February 1, which required us to stay up until midnight to get on line - they sell out rapidly!

So it was a good day, climbing a lighthouse, wandering through the grounds of beautiful buildings.  I think we may be inspired to climb another lighthouse or two while we are here!