SWAN ISLAND

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January 16, 2012. SWAN ISLAND FLYWAY STOPOVER by Hortense Poyner Parkerson

Photo from Daniel O'Neil. January 30, 2010.

Swan Island Club was founded by a group of hunters who were proceeding south from Good Ground, Long Island, New York in November 1870 in their yacht Anonyona. During a storm they entered the Currituck Inlet and anchored next to Crow Island now known as Swan Island in Currituck Sound. As a result of the tide subsiding the hunters were not able to get the boat out of the sound and there it remained until 1877 when it caught fire and burned to the water.
Once their boat burned they were in need of living quarters, so the members purchased Crow Island and the marsh and converted Hatfield's farm house into a club house.
Around 1900 the farm house burned and shortly after a new clubhouse was built. In 1910 the second clubhouse burned. The third clubhouse was built in 1913-1914 and is in use today.

The inscription on the board on the fireplace basically means "This place appeals to me more than any place on earth".

The Swan Island Club's 38-foot power boat "Teal" is shown with club members and a harvest of ducks and geese in 1919. On a return trip from Currituck Courthouse on November 12, 1925, the Teal struck a submerged piling and sank, the men were rescued by a passing schooner.

Fred Waterfield sitting on a Club air-boat.

Ted Flannagan, Club superintendent, sitting in a one-man coffin blind made of wicker and covered with waterproof canvas used by members in the 1920's.

Anonyona

October 22, 2010. From Priscilla Warren. Pieces of wood retrieved from the Anonyona.

September 9, 2010. Comment - Jane Brumley: This is the sketch/drawing by Hortense Poyner Parkerson from her book, Swan Island Flyway Stopover, Copyright 1988. Mrs Parkerson was a child of 10 months old in 1910 when she moved to Swan Island with her parents. Her father was caretaker there for many years. For more information about HORTENSE go here.