A gathering of the descendants of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Keepers will be held next year on the weekend of May 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2001. The event will be held at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society and the National Park Service will cosponsor the event, which is titled "Hatteras Keepers Descendants Homecoming."

The event, the first of its kind to be held at the lighthouse next year, will give the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of all Hatteras Keepers a chance to imagine what life was like for their Keeper ancestor and to learn more about the legacy of the United States Lighthouse Service. The event will also give descendants an opportunity to meet other families who share the heritage of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and to climb the lighthouse stairs of the present tower, much the same as their ancestors.

Special programs are planned for the Keepers descendants. Experts will talk on various subjects including illuminants, lighthouse lenses and their care, family life at the light station, and the history of the United States Lighthouse Service to give descendants a glimpse into the world of the lighthouse Keeper.

The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society is launching a search for direct descendants of the Cape Hatteras Keepers so they can be invited to this event. A book of oral histories about the lighthouse will be published to commemorate the event.

The official rededication ceremony for the Cape Hatteras Light Station by the NPS will take place on Saturday, May 5, 2001, as part of the Hatteras Keepers Descendants Homecoming weekend. The NPS is beginning to prepare an agenda for the rededication ceremony, which is about a year away. More details of both the homecoming and light station rededication events will be released as plans are finalized.

"We are looking forward to working with interested groups such as The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, U.S. Coast Guard, Dare County, our Lighthouse Volunteers, and others in the development of the agenda for the Light Station rededication," said Robert Woody, PIO for the Outer Banks NPS Group. "We want to make this a really special event for everyone who has a connection to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and Station."

Media inquiries about the Hatteras Keepers Descendants Homecoming should be directed to Bruce Roberts. Direct descendants interested in receiving an invitation and sharing information on a Keeper's family can email hattkeep@outer-banks.com, or call 252/995-6891. Descendants, donors, and interested individuals may write the executive planning committee at Hatteras Keepers Descendants Homecoming at P.O. Box 550 Buxton, NC 27920.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Now Open
June 16, 2000
Robert Woody
FOLLOW UP
BUXTON, NC

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, closed since November 22, 1998, reopened its doors to the general public at 10 AM, Friday, May 26, 2000. The lighthouse was closed 550 days, during which time it was prepared for relocation, lifted, moved 2900 feet, set down on a new foundation, and made ready for public visitation once again.

While the light station grounds will not be available to the public until mid-July, a 10-foot wide safety corridor leading from near the Buxton Woods Picnic Area along Cape Point Road and through the woods will take visitors to the lighthouse entrance. Park volunteers, as in years past, will staff the lighthouse making access available to the public on a regular and continuing basis. National Park Service negotiations with JHC, Inc., the contractor building the infrastructure facilities for the station, has enabled the lighthouse, once it is opened to the public, to remain open throughout the summer and up to the traditional closing date of Columbus Day, October 9, 2000.

Entry into the lighthouse is free this season, but the lighthouse will become part of the NPS Fee Demonstration Program in 2001. An implementation plan for the collecting and dispensing of revenues will be developed this year and will be submitted for approval before the lighthouse opens next year.

Summer hours for the lighthouse will be from 10 AM to 4 PM daily. The lighthouse is subject to closure whenever weather conditions make it unsafe for visitors, or when other conditions present unacceptable public safety risks or create adverse resource impacts to the structure.

Lighthouse Tour

Driving Directions to all North Carolina's Lighthouses
May 6, 2000
Cheryl Roberts
ANNOUNCEMENT
MOREHEAD CITY, NC

Most people visiting the Outer Banks of North Carolina want ot visit at least one of the lighthouses. The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society has prepared a Driving Tour from north to south along coastal North Carolina.

Of the existing towers you have a choice of seven lighthouses to visit, and you can see the ruins of an eighth light. Theses lighthouses are so interesting days can be spent in the surrounding area of each one. You are invited to visit a lighthouse soon.

After two years of expansion construction, the new North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, near Manteo, N.C., opened its doors Friday, May 19.

At approximately 68,000 square feet, the "new" North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island will be twice its former size and features hundreds of animals found in North Carolina's diverse aquatic environments. The Aquarium is also home to the state's largest ocean tank.

Sandbar Sharks swim around replica of the USS Monitor

The centerpiece of the expanded North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island is the 285,000 ocean tank, which houses the skeletal remains of the recreated USS Monitor shipwreck. The 1/3 scale replica of the Monitor is amazingly realistic - so much so that many of the small reef fish in the exhibit try to feed off of it. Large sharks, schooling fishes and sea turtles combine to make this exhibit spectacular.

Administered by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Aquariums are designed to promote an awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the state's diverse aquatic environment.

AQUARIUM EXPANSION QUICK FACTS

Expansion of the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island will increase: