A short Outer Banks history for visiting RVers — from the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight at Kill Devil Hills, to the wreck-strewn Graveyard of the Atlantic, to the Life-Saving Service stations that became the Coast Guard. Knowing a little OBX history makes the lighthouses, museums, and beaches you’ll pass between campgrounds far more interesting.
The Outer Banks is a chain of barrier islands that has played an outsized role in American history — aviation, maritime commerce, the Civil War, and the development of the U.S. Life-Saving Service. This page is a short orientation, not a deep history, but should give you useful context as you drive NC-12.
First flight
On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled, sustained, powered flights of a heavier-than-air machine on the dunes at Kill Devil Hills. The Wright Brothers National Memorial preserves the site and is a short drive from any Northern Beaches campground.
Graveyard of the Atlantic
The waters off Cape Hatteras have claimed hundreds of ships over the centuries — shifting shoals (Diamond Shoals in particular), the collision of the Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream, and brutal nor’easters combine to make this one of the most dangerous coasts in the world. The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras Village tells the story.
Life-Saving Service
Before the Coast Guard consolidated maritime rescue, the U.S. Life-Saving Service operated a chain of stations along the OBX, staffed by crews who launched surfboats into Atlantic storms to rescue shipwrecked sailors. The Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station in Rodanthe is preserved as a museum and is one of the best ways to see how that service worked.
Lighthouses
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (the tallest brick lighthouse in the U.S.), Bodie Island Lighthouse, Ocracoke Lighthouse, and Currituck Beach Lighthouse to the north together form one of the densest lighthouse clusters in the country. Cape Hatteras was famously moved 2,900 feet inland in 1999 to escape beach erosion.
Ready to Choose Your Park?
- Kill Devil Hills & the Northern OBX — 4 parks
- Tri-Villages: Rodanthe, Waves & Salvo — 4 parks
- Hatteras Island: Avon, Buxton & Frisco — 3 parks
- Ocracoke: The Remote Ferry Destination — 1 park
Or jump to all OBX RV parks, the map view, or the Ultimate OBX RV Guide.
Outer Banks history in context
Most of these Outer Banks history sites — the Wright Brothers Memorial, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station — are within easy driving distance of the campgrounds in our directory. The Wright Brothers National Memorial (NPS) in Kill Devil Hills and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore historic sites are both worth a half-day visit on the way to or from your campground.
Lifesaving Stations and the Graveyard of the Atlantic
Few stretches of American coastline carry as much shipwreck lore as the Outer Banks. The shifting Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras have claimed more than a thousand vessels, earning the region its grim nickname. The U.S. Life-Saving Service — the predecessor of the modern Coast Guard — built a chain of stations along these barrier islands beginning in 1874, and surfmen rowed open boats into hurricanes to rescue stranded crews. Visitors interested in this chapter of outer banks history can tour the restored Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station in Rodanthe and the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, both essential stops for any RV traveler exploring the islands.
The Wright Brothers and the Birth of Flight
On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright launched the first powered, controlled, sustained flight from a sand dune in Kill Devil Hills. The brothers chose the Outer Banks for its steady winds, soft landing surfaces, and isolation. Today the Wright Brothers National Memorial preserves the original launch site, the reconstructed camp buildings, and a granite monument crowning Big Kill Devil Hill. RVers staying in nearby campgrounds can walk the actual flight paths marked in stone — a tangible piece of outer banks history that helped change the world.
Lighthouses, Forts and Lost Colonies
The Outer Banks shoreline is punctuated by four working lighthouses — Currituck, Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, and Ocracoke — each open seasonally for climbs and tours operated by the National Park Service. Inland on Roanoke Island, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site marks the location of England’s first attempted New World settlement, the famously vanished Lost Colony of 1587. Together these landmarks tell a layered story of exploration, navigation, and survival that defines the broader arc of outer banks history. For deeper background, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore history pages are an excellent starting point.
The Outer Banks and RV Camping: A Historical Connection
The Outer Banks have drawn travelers seeking isolation and wildness since long before the modern RV era. The same qualities that make the OBX exceptional for camping today — the dramatic barrier island setting, the uninterrupted coastline, the proximity to shipwreck history and maritime culture — are rooted in centuries of human activity on these shifting sands. Understanding the history of the OBX enriches the camping experience and explains why this stretch of the North Carolina coast was chosen as the location for America’s first national seashore.
The Lost Colony and the First English Settlement
The Outer Banks were the site of the first English attempts at permanent settlement in North America. In 1585 and again in 1587, English colonists under the patronage of Sir Walter Raleigh established settlements on Roanoke Island — the island immediately behind the OBX barrier chain, visible from Nags Head across Roanoke Sound. The 1587 colony, which included Virginia Dare (the first English child born in the Americas), disappeared entirely between 1587 and 1590 in what became known as the Lost Colony mystery — one of the enduring unsolved puzzles of American history. Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in Manteo preserves the site and hosts the outdoor drama “The Lost Colony” each summer.
The Graveyard of the Atlantic
The Diamond Shoals — shallow, shifting sandbars extending 14 miles offshore from Cape Hatteras — created one of the most dangerous maritime hazards in the Western Hemisphere for four centuries of sailing and steam navigation. The convergence of the cold Labrador Current moving south and the warm Gulf Stream moving north creates the weather volatility and fog conditions that compounded the danger. More than 1,000 ships are known to have wrecked in the waters off Cape Hatteras, earning the area its grim title: the Graveyard of the Atlantic. The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras Village and the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station in Rodanthe are the two best places to explore this maritime history.
The Life-Saving Service and the United States Coast Guard
The United States Life-Saving Service established a chain of stations along the Cape Hatteras coast beginning in 1874 to rescue survivors from the near-constant shipwrecks on Diamond Shoals. The surfmen who staffed these stations — many of them local Outer Bankers — performed extraordinary rescues under brutal conditions, rowing through surf and gale to reach stricken vessels. The most famous rescue in the service’s history took place off Chicamacomico in 1918, when the crew of a British tanker torpedoed by a German U-boat was rescued in one of the most dramatic and technically challenging rescues ever attempted. The Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station in Rodanthe preserves this legacy in extraordinary detail.
The Wright Brothers and Kill Devil Hills
Orville and Wilbur Wright chose the Outer Banks — specifically Kitty Hawk and the Kill Devil Hills sand dunes — as the testing ground for their powered flying machine experiments between 1900 and 1903. The consistent north winds, soft sand for crash landings, and isolation from curious crowds made it ideal. On December 17, 1903, on the flat plain just north of Kill Devil Hills, the Wright Flyer made four successful powered flights, the longest covering 852 feet in 59 seconds. It was the first controlled, sustained, powered heavier-than-air flight in human history. The Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, operated by the NPS, preserves and interprets this history for the millions of visitors who pass through annually.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore: America’s First
In 1953, Cape Hatteras National Seashore became the first national seashore in the United States — a recognition that the barrier island coastline needed federal protection from the development pressure that was already transforming the northern beaches. The seashore designation preserved 70 miles of coastline from Oregon Inlet south to Ocracoke in essentially natural condition, creating the framework within which the NPS campgrounds operate today. The decision was controversial at the time, displacing some local residents and restricting commercial development, but it is now recognized as one of the most consequential conservation decisions in the history of the North Carolina coast.