Since the 1920s, when Hatteras islanders first began paying taxes for road construction, they had waited for their turn. The situation persisted for more than 20 years, and the people grew tired. They banded together and worked for their cause.
During World War II, a group traveled to Raleigh to meet with Governor J. Melville Broughton and to lobby for the construction of a road. They brought a special calling card from the Outer Banks: fresh shad.
''These are the first shad eaten in Raleigh the day after they were caught and if we can get a highway, we will have a better market for our products and the consumer will get a better product,'' said Maurice Burrus, a former Major League Baseball player, Hatteras native and spokesman for the group.
The governor pledged to travel to Hatteras, ''the only place in North Carolina where I have not been.'' But he was careful not to pledge the road.
He might have been questioning his decision the following year when he made the trip. After crossing Oregon Inlet, Broughton began the trip down the sand tracks in the company of island dignitaries. The Hatteras delegation was led by Burrus and a company of familiar local names.
The motorcade became so stuck in the sand that even the governor himself was enlisted to push the vehicles out of trouble. He left with sand in his shoes and promises of action, but without delivering the ''meat and bread road'' to the islanders.
The islanders still had no road.
Governor R. Gregg Cherry, Broughton's successor, had made the Hatteras Island road project one of his campaign promises. In a stump speech in Manteo, Cherry promised an all-weather road during his administration.
But not everyone on the Outer Banks seemed to think that a road along the southern reaches of Dare County was such a good idea. Rumors of perfidy and intrigue buzzed along the Outer Banks.
''Consideration, dissatisfaction and even anger is expressed at the attitude of one or two people further north who are believed to have consistently blocked road improvements to Hatteras Island, in hope of getting all the available money spent in more distant areas,'' reported the Dare County Times in an April 1946 editorial.
''It is well-known that one or two hotel people at Nags Head do not want any road-building south of Oregon Inlet,'' the newspaper reported.
More Coastal Articles by Yocum
More articles, ghost stories, and tales in CoastalGuide's HELMSMAN
