Lost Forests Of The Hatteras Island

''Where the green trees had stood in the sandy loam, a sand-ridge arose, which, receiving the breath of life from the northeast gale, started on a mission of death,'' Spears wrote. ''It's speed of travel increased with every year, for every inch that was added to the narrow sandy desert along the sea increased the area on which the wind could get a firm hold of the sand. Foot by foot, yard by yard, rod by rod the wave traveled inland.''

The sand waves -- some as tall as Jockey's Ridge, the 100-foot high dune in Nags Head -- towered over parts of Hatteras Island. Word of what was happening on Hatteras soon spread and the country began to take notice, sending correspondents such as Spears, and scientists such the renowned Collier Cobb to see the great dunes.

''The strong winds pile the sands into great barchanes or medanos, crescentic sand dunes known locally as whaleheads, which are moving steadily southward,'' Cobb wrote in a 1906 National Geographic article. The towering waves moved steadily across the island; winds lifting the loose sand and allowing it to settle around the trunks of live trees in the wave's path. Nothing was spared. Houses, fences, roads and cemeteries were covered by the enormous piles of sand. As the waves marched forward, pushed by the prevailing wind, they left a trail of destruction in their wake. Skeleton forests of still-standing tree trunks cast eerie shadow over the bleached bones uncovered from the island's cemeteries.

Many of the areas covered by the sand waves have never recovered. New trees that managed to find a bit of useful soil amidst the desert-like conditions were quickly devoured by the free-ranging livestock turned loose across the island. The animals -- pigs in particular -- cleared live oak saplings and acorns. Fast-growing pines, more adapted to the sandy soil, soon began to dominate the landscape.