A Chronological History of Knotts Island
This page is a running history of Knotts Island. The dates and events collected here are accounts from the residents and historical resources around the web.
To add your event, send an e-mail to history@knottsislandonline.com. Include your name, the date of the event, a description of the event, and any links to sites or other resources that will help make the account more detailed. Photographs are useful too. Any event submitted will be posted. Your name will be included as the source of the entry.
| 8000 B.C. | The Outer Banks are formed after massive continental glaciers melted, depositing silt at the shore as the rivers of ice-melt made their way to the ocean. Sand washed over the piles of earthen debris to form the beaches. Thomas Yocum One of the piles probably became Knotts Island. Shaun Kane
|
| May 18, 1728 | Commissioners
drove the first stake to mark the Carolina-Virginia
border. It was placed three mile northeast of the island.
This left the northern tip of the island in Virginia and
the rest in North Carolina.
Read about
it here. Historic marker at the entrance to the
island.
|
| 1811 | The first building of
the Knotts Island United Methodist Church was erected.
www.visitnc.com
|
| March, 1846 | A
Nor'easter blew in from the North Atlantic. Currituck Banks
(Carova) was buried and salt water intruded the Currituck Sound.
The salt water killed off the fish and the grasses so the marsh birds
had nothing to eat. The storm drowned livestock, salted the
fields, and killed the pines. This dealt a terrible blow to the
islanders. 60 years later, Knotts Islander Henry Ansell wrote,
"From this loss to this day the island has not recovered, nor can it
ever recover."
Quoted from "The Waterman's Song", by David S. Cecelski, published in 2001 by the University of North Carolina Press.
|
| 1876 | The
first Baptist church was built.
Knotts Island Elementary School site |
| 1902 | The current building
of the Knotts Island United Methodist Church was erected.
www.visitnc.com
|
| 1920 | Approximately 75
acres of land, located on the Virginia end of the island was purchased
from Walter W. Craft and the Knotts Island Gunning Club was formed.
Officers from Norfolk were R. D. Cooke, president, John D. Gordan, vice
president and T. S .Garnett, secretary and treasurer. A house on
the property was used as a club house and members hunted from stake
blinds on Back Bay. The charter was dissolved in 1926.
|
| December 30, 1960 | Mackay Island
National Wildlife Refuge was established by Congress.
|
| August 26, 1998 | Hurricane Bonnie, a
Category 3 storm, made landfall on southern North Carolina near Cape
Fear. She loses strength, but after passing over the Albemarle
Sound is again upgraded to a hurricane and passes Over Knotts Island,
damaging homes and leaving the islanders without power for five days.
The North Carolina National Guard set up field kitchens and a generator
so that residents could use the school for showers and water.
Shaun Kane from internet sources.
|
| September 18, 2003 |
Hurricane Isabel made landfall south of Cape Hatteras. As she drove northward toward western Maryland, she left a path of severe damage. Knotts Island received widespread damage and lost power for four days. Shaun Kane from internet sources.
|
| April 26, 2005 | A young girl was
evacuated to a hospital for emergency medical treatment by Nightingale
Air Ambulance using the helicopter landing pad located on the grounds of
the community park.
Read
about it here.
|
| Today | Another web surfer visited the Knotts Island Site. Knotthead |
