A screenshot of the new OBX Folklore Map homepage is shown as it appears Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (Screenshot of GIS map by Outer Banks Insider)
By staff reports
MANTEO — Longstanding legends of the Outer Banks now have their own interactive, virtual map.
Dare County GIS, in collaboration with the Dare County Library, released a new “OBX Folklore” Map in celebration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day 2024, which is Nov. 20, according to a Tuesday Dare County press release.
The map allows users “to virtually explore a wide array of spooky places along the Outer Banks—and to delve deeper into the many eerie and mysterious occurrences that have taken place over the years and have ultimately become legends that are passed down from generation to generation,” the release said.
“We chose stories for the map based on ones we knew growing up or ones that we hadn’t heard that spoke to us,” Dare County GIS Specialist Kristen Stilson said in the release. “The Outer Banks has a long history full of lore to choose from, from Native American tales to modern day frights. This made for a really diverse set of stories to educate and entertain both the readers and us.”
The map covers both familiar and lesser known “chilling and mysterious” stories of the barrier island area, the release said. These include the 1880s murder and subsequent alleged haunting at the former Kitty Hawk Lifesaving Station; the mysterious disappearance of the Carroll A. Deering schooner’s 11-man crew in 1921; and the 16th century vanishing of the 100-plus colonists at the first English settlement on Roanoke Island.
Folklore also features “larger-than-life” local characters, such as “the suspected witch behind the tale of the Cora Tree in Frisco,” the Gray Man who allegedly wanders the beaches of Cape Hatteras before a hurricane approaches and the Goat Man who is said to roam Nags Head Woods.
The Goat Man is the newest story included in the map of Outer Banks folklore released as part of GIS Day 2024, which is Wednesday, Nov. 20. (Screenshot by Outer Banks Insider)
Dare County Library will hold raffles in celebration of GIS Day on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, with a 24-inch-by-36-inch framed poster of the OBX Folklore Map available at each of its three branches:
Kill Devil Hills Library, 400 Mustian Street, Kill Devil Hills, NC
Manteo Library, 700 Highway 64/264, Manteo, NC
Hatteras Library, 57689 N.C. Highway 12, Hatteras, NC
Anyone interested in entering the raffle for a chance to win can visit their local library branch and fill out a free raffle ticket slip from Thursday, Oct. 31, through Tuesday, Nov. 19, the release said. The three winners will be notified after the Nov. 20 drawing.
Each library branch will also feature a display of the publications Stilson used in the OBX Folklore Map’s creation. Library staff members helped research and develop the write-ups that accompany each of the items on the interactive map, according to the release.
Dare County Librarian Meaghan Leenaarts Beasley said in the release that working with Stilson and Dare County GIS on the map was “a natural fit” for library staff.
“Not only do we have physical collections of celebrated folklorists, most notably Charles Harry Whedbee, but we also have little-known Outer Banks authors and locally written pamphlets of eerie tales and legends that often go overlooked,” Leenaarts Beasley said. “While some of these items reside in our reference collections due to their age or rarity and can only be viewed in our libraries, many are available for checkout by the public.”
Dare County GIS also offers interactive maps dedicated to many other facets of local life. Maps on duck blinds, flood zones, recreation, crosswalks, trash pickup, socioeconomic data and much more are available through the GIS website.
For more information about the map and the poster raffles, contact Dare County GIS Specialist Kristen Stilson at Kristen.Stilson@DareNC.gov or at 252-475-5598.
For more information about the array of books and other publications that were used to create the OBX Folklore Map for GIS Day 2024, contact Dare County Librarian Meaghan Leenaarts Beasely at Meaghan.Beasley@DareNC.gov or Dare County Adult Services Librarian at Theresa.Cozart@DareNC.gov or at 252-441-4331.
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