|
Currently, no one -- not
even seashore personnel -- live year- round on the 55-mile-long seashore that
occupies the barrier islands between Ocracoke and Beaufort Inlets. Unlike Cape
Hatteras National Seashore to the north, which is linked to the mainland by a
highway, Cape Lookout is accessible only by private boat and several small
ferries.
The only high-rise on
Core Banks is the Cape Lookout Lighthouse, its black and white diamond sides
and blinking light a comfort for a nearly a century and a half. The long, low
island, distinguished by a hook shape jutting into the Atlantic, once
supported small fishing villages, but storms and changing times forced
permanent residents to the mainland years ago. Only day visitors and those
with links to the land venture here now.
When land along the
barrier island was purchased for the seashore in the 1970s, about two dozen
property owners who did not want to sell and had deeds that the government
disputed were given 25-year leases that allowed them to continue using their
houses.
Now the time is up for
several leaseholders, and other leases will expire in the next few years, so
the federal agency is preparing to take over.
But some leaseholders say
that they were pressured into accepting the arrangements and that they want to
retain some rights. Davis and five others recently filed a lawsuit in federal
court asking a federal judge to order the park service to let them continue
using the property.
Hugh R. Overholt, a New
Bern attorney who prepared the lawsuit, said the previous property owners have
been good stewards who have invested time, money and emotion in the houses.
The structures may not be fancy, he said, but they are special to people who
have used them for generations.
Without the maintenance
the private owners provided, the lawsuit said, the houses would rapidly
deteriorate. "The cape, while beautiful at times, can be extremely
inhospitable to man-made structures," the lawsuit said.
And the group is
particularly worried that the park service will demolish some of the houses or
simply halt maintenance and let the harsh conditions obliterate them.
Karren C. Brown, the
seashore superintendent, said the agency has no plans to raze the structures.
Instead, she said, plans call for a preservation specialist to examine them
and determine the best use and what maintenance would be required.
She said the houses might
be suitable for a historic-property leasing program that allows private
individuals to lease structures in exchange for maintaining them. Six
buildings in the abandoned village of Portsmouth are included in that program.
"We can have all of that
here," Brown said. "I'm not trying to rob people of their heritage."
The catch, as far as
current users are concerned, is that leases would be offered for bids
nationwide, not just to previous property owners or area residents.
About 15 people already have asked about leasing structures when the 25-year leases are up, Brown said.
She said the park service
is not authorized to grant special-use permits in the seashore. The permits
can be approved in federal lands for original property owners who have primary
residences, she said, but at Cape Lookout, the ownership is disputed and the
structures are used on weekends or during vacations.
She said she understands
the families' attachment to the sandy land and the laid-back way of life at
the cape. But many other families that were moved off without leases felt the
same, she said.
In this case, the park
service couldn't appease locals even if leases were granted. Many of those who
were forced to give up cottages vigorously oppose giving the current
leaseholders continued privileges.
The issue has revived
smoldering resentment against the park service in the close-knit fishing
communities where locals derisively refer to outsiders as "dingbatters." Ill
will was pegged as the motive for a series of suspicious fires that destroyed
abandoned cottages on nearby Shackleford Banks when that island became part of
the national seashore several years ago.
The disputed properties
are a mile or two from the lighthouse, scattered among the low grasses on the
sound side or nearly hidden in thickets of pine, cedar and myrtle. The
Coca-Cola house used to be painted red but now it is a weathered brown with a
wrap-around porch.
Davis and others who have
held onto the properties also hope to maintain a kind of recreation that is
markedly different from the resorts of Atlantic Beach to the south or Nags
Head to the north.
"It's hard to explain why
people here love going to the cape so much," said Davis, a retired newspaper
printing employee who lives in the mainland community of Straits. "There's
nothing over there but sand, beach and the hook."
Samuel L. and Sara
Daniels of Morehead City come almost every weekend during the summer to the
house they bought in 1969, a two-story wood-frame structure originally built
for the U.S. Lifesaving Service in 1888. The roof has bare spots like a
balding old-timer, and white asbestos shingles nailed over the original wooden
siding by a previous owner look out of place, but the house is solid and
comfortable.
The couple, who observed
their 56th wedding anniversary last week, said during a visit on Friday that
they have passed up trips to exotic locales including Hawaii to spend quiet
time talking with each other, visiting the few neighbors and watching the
wildlife at the cape.
"It's like being in
another world," Sara Daniels said.
Staff writer Jerry
Allegood can be reached at (252) 752-8411 or at
jerrya@newsobserver.com | 
