Legends and Lore from the Outer Banks Islands

Rum, wrecks, and pirates

Visitors often want to know how Kill Devil Hills got its unforgettable name. Around the Outer Banks, more than one explanation has been handed down. In one tale, the name traces back to pirates who once treated these beaches as familiar territory. During a night of shore leave, a rough crew of buccaneers supposedly gathered among the high sand dunes and drank moonshine so fierce it could do in the devil himself. Another account points to the 1700's, when William Byrd of Virginia, who was apparently not fond of the Carolinas, described the New England rum found in the area as so bad and unwholesome that people called it Kill Devil. A different strand of local lore says the name came from an old rum brand that drifted in at the dunes, the lone cargo left from an unnamed shipwreck.

The story behind Nags Head reaches into the piracy era, when word spread about rich cargoes moving along the coast and being seized by rogue figures such as Blackbeard. According to the legend, one of the first Outer Bankers found inspiration there and helped give the place its horse-related name. A lantern was fastened to the neck of an old, calm horse, and the worn-out nag was walked along the highest dunes of Jockey's Ridge so its light could be seen from offshore. To a captain at sea, the softly moving glow could appear to come from a vessel anchored in a protected harbor. When the captain tried to steer toward that imagined refuge, the ship would crash onto the dangerous shoals, which shifted and twisted beneath the water. The coastal thieves then forced the crew overboard, stripped and burned the unlucky vessel, and escaped with the spoils.

Another Outer Banks name has origins that can sound either grim or questionable, depending on which version of history you accept. Bodie Island is properly pronounced body, though first-time visitors understandably say it phonetically, and older maps once labeled it Body's Island. Even the lighthouse’s architectural keystone identifies it as Body's Island Lighthouse in 1871. A common piece of local lore says shipwrecks happened as regularly as car accidents do today, with victims washing onto the beaches often in the years before modern marine navigation. Others say the name came from a local landowner named Body, making it his island. Although Bodie Island is no longer a true island, it once stood apart from the peninsula it now shares with Nags Head and the other northern beach towns. At some point, maps adopted the spelling used today, whether through repeated misspelling or simple propaganda.