10/01/2018
The shoulder seasons, October in particular, highlight the beauty of Hatteras Island like none other. Crowds are smaller, days are shorter, sunsets are richer, nights are cooler and the holidays are creeping up, starting with Halloween at the month’s end. What better place to celebrate the fun of Halloween than on Hatteras Island? Bring your own tales to the table, but don’t forget to explore the dark happenings of the old days on this secluded little sandbar! Happy haunting!
Be Young, Be Ghoulish, Be Happy: Top 5 Ways to Spook Yourself on HI
1. Pay Homage to “The Cora Tree”: There are various tales passed down from the ol’ timers of Hatteras Island, but none leave behind the eerie evidence quite like the tale of Cora. On the coat tails of the Salem Witch Trials, Cora was deemed a witch and then tied to a tree in Brigand’s Bay to be burned with her baby in her arms as punishment for her sinister ways. As the story goes, in a scuffle the baby turned into a cat and fled, and instantaneously a storm rolled in, striking the tree with lightning. Once the smoke cleared, everything was as it had been, except for the tree had been split and four letters were burned into it spelling “CORA”. Read the full tale here.
2. Take it to The Outer Dimension: Among the Island’s many oddities is our eccentric spaceship off of Highway 12 in Frisco. Located just south of Scotch Bonnet Marina, this fun little pit-stop is a great way to boost your Instagram while drinking in some of the Island’s light-hearted and unconventional quirks that make it the place we (and the extraterrestrials?) like to call “home”.
3. Get Ghostly Around a Fire: Between the souls lost in the Graveyard of the Atlantic and the rich history involving the Native Americans and the Lost Colony, there are an abundance of ghost stories that are set on these shores. Build a fire (don’t forget your beach fire permit), grab some s’mores and prepare to get spooked on the very beaches where some of histories eeriest moments and real-life mysteries took place.
4. The Lighthouse, After Dark: By day, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is a beautiful attraction where you can learn aplenty about the old days on an island prior to bridges and modern roadways. By night, as you cross over the boardwalk under the light of the full moon, it’s not terribly difficult to be overcome by a spookiness that you just can’t shake. In the darkness as the insects sing their chorus and nature rustles around in the trees, you can almost feel the spirits of lightkeepers past as their guarded beacon shines bright overhead.
5. Scary Movie Night: Several of our houses boast theatre rooms where you can sit in front of the big screen in the privacy of your own rental home. Grab the popcorn and snacks and some Halloween classics and make a fright night all of your own. Maybe take a late night beach walk afterwards. You may get a little spooked, but it’s just you and the ocean…or is it???
