Our film explores this ongoing saga through the stories of individuals whose lives were integral to Outer Banks’ culture and development.

For instance, in the early 1900s one well-known Banker family, the Midgetts, adapted to the dramatic changes by catering to the vacationing aristocracy with the only grocery store near the Planters’ oceanfront homes. For years, Miss Maddie Midgett’s store had the only working telephone on the Outer Banks aside from the Coast Guard.  Her husband Jethro was a fisherman who supplied the Planters with fresh seafood, and occasionally rescued them from the ocean’s ravages.  Their daughter, Nellie Myrtle Pridgen, witnessed the enormous changes to her remote island home during the mid-1900s.  As she grew into adulthood while the tourism economy boomed, Nellie Myrtle became a cantankerous character who despised the visitors and resented their intrusion into the pristine environment that she loved.  She spent most of her days walking the beaches and sand dunes, gathering whatever relics she could find and saving them into a vast collection of artifacts that still exists in Nags Head today.

Another important story is that of Richard Etheridge, born enslaved on Roanoke Island. After the Civil War, Etheridge became the first African American to hold the rank of Keeper of a life-saving station in the United States. When he was appointed, the white surfmen refused to serve under him and Pea Island Station came to be manned entirely by an African American Keeper and crew. Five months after Etheridge took charge, arsonists burnt the station to the ground. After it was rebuilt, he went on to serve at Pea Island Station for 20 years, performing countless rescues with his famous crew. In 1996, the Coast Guard posthumously awarded Etheridge the Gold Life-Saving Medal for his heroism.

The documentary profiles other characters and entities who had important roles in Outer Banks history, such as the Wright Brothers’ successful achievement of human flight, the development of the small fishing villages into a global commercial seafood industry, the Casino – a dance hall near the Nags Head oceanfront – that became a famous entertainment venue, and the scientists and citizen conservationists who have worked to protect the environment.

In Nags Head, the Planters enjoyed their secluded beachfront summers for nearly a century before economic pressures led to dramatically expanded development in the 1960s and ‘70s.  When bridges were constructed connecting the mainland to the islands, real estate companies began promoting the Outer Banks as an opportunity for beachfront construction. Over time, thousands of new houses and multi-unit structures have been built.  Fortunately, large areas of the Outer Banks were protected by conservation efforts, and town governments have worked to balance the needs of developers with those of local communities.