WHAT WOULD VIRGINIA DARE SAY?Legends Linger on North Carolina’s Outer BanksBy Martha Hollis
Today the marble, inspired by Lander’s visit to the British Museum, graces the sensual 16th century-style Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island not far from where Queen Elizabeth I’s ill-fated third attempt, organized by Sir Walter Raleigh, at colonization failed. One account of this tragedy, now in its 62nd season, is the stupendous, outdoor musical drama, The Lost Colony. During WWII performances ceased as patrolling German U-boats necessitated a lights out policy.
The grandfather returned to England for supplies, but was unable to return for several years due to England’s skirmishes with the Spanish Armada. The sculpture’s arrival at her temporary home in Boston was also delayed off the coast of Spain where her ship sank leaving her on the ocean floor for several years. This was only her first taste of a sea adventure travel. Today Roanoke Island Festival Park brings historical facts and speculations to life with the ship Elizabeth II and costumed period characters willing to assume their 16th century counterparts. Youngsters will particularly love the Outer Banks History Center with the large number of interactive exhibits including native foods, such as seafood and corn, introduced to the colonist by the local native Americans. Across from the ship’s mooring at Shallowbag Bay is Clara’s Seafood Grill on the Manteo Waterfront, featuring contemporary seafood styling such as Oysters Lafette blessed with lump crabmeat under Parmesan white wine cream or you’ll-probably-not-want-to-share-any-at-all crabcakes broiled, fried or blackened. Try a queenly lunch with nautical sandwiches of crabcakes, quick-fried oysters or fresh blackened yellowfin tuna. Shrimp, scallops, oysters, soft-shell crabs, fresh fish, and more of the abundant marine delicacies come broiled or deep fried seafood at the tucked away Fisherman’s Wharf in Wanchese and the easier-to-find Lone Cedar Café on the Nags Head Causeway. The later issues forth a version of cornbread that is so sweet, moist and deserving of seconds that you will request more unless you are forewarned of the peanut butter pie for desert. The perfect spot for a sunset over the Pamlico Sound after a day of deep-sea fishing is Breakwater Island Restaurant, Hatteras Village where the catch, hours off the boat, is prepared with contemporary imagination. Next door is the original Risky Business Seafood Market. Seafood lovers all over the country have probably eaten the bounty of blue crabs, soft shell crabs, eastern oyster, mussels, shrimp, scallops, clams, flounder, and tuna supplied by fishing vessels and trucked by the wholesaler Wanchese Fish Company. Under the command of Joey Daniels, the company founded by his grandfather and jointly owned by his 14 brothers and sisters, has developed scallop medallions using the sweet bay scallops formed into large dry packed scallops. Look for these in restaurants wrapped in hickory smoked bacon, as poppers (breaded and deep-fried), Stuffed Scallops St. Jacques or Alfredo or Newburg or Mexican Style. Despite Virginia’s visit in Boston with Lander and then in New York (where her purchaser’s home burned), she would appreciate the natural difference from their clam chowders, respectively in white and red, and the Outer Banks’ clear broth version that is chunked full of local clams, fresh potatoes and onions. Lander willed the sculpture (reclaimed after receiving no payment from her New York client) to the state of North Carolina. The sculpture traveled to the state capital, Raleigh, in the early 1900’s ultimately residing in a State Supreme Court Judge’s offices. Subsequent to an employee’s complaints that Virginia’s quasi-nudity, with a fish net and Indian laces for jewelry, was not appropriate office attire, she was banished to the basement, traveled again to the coast, and, stored in a shed behind The Lost Colony’s Waterside Theatre on the national historic site of Fort Raleigh. The National Park Service refused to display the statue as there was no authenticated proof that Virginia Dare ever became an adult. It is claimed that during ferocious storms she enjoyed more underwater adventures, even at the bottom of the sound. Perhaps her comments would be “another water experience is so appropriate as the 800 square mile Dare County has 409 square miles of water and only 391 square miles of land.” From this hydrotherapy she certainly witnessed thousands of commercial, charter and private boat going from Wanchese or Oregon Inlet to the Atlantic. Possibly she knew the catch and release programs for sports fisherman, or that Risky Business Seafood Market’s boats were bringing in fresh fish, shrimp, clams and crabs to sell to their customers down in Buxton Village where Beth Bailey’s care reflected in her flowers and herb garden is repeated in the perfectly filleted fish stored with care on fresh ice and covered with plastic (or at their market further south in Hatteras Village). Steve Bailey rose to the challenge with their seafood business as they are subjected to nature’s whims in providing fresh local seafood.
Virginia’s sculpture might also almost comment that Outer Bankers often “Dare to do the impossible.” Many daring feats have taken place on the Outer Banks. The Wright Brothers in 1903 made the first successful powered flights in Kitty Hawk. In 1902 Reginald Fessenden made the first commercial radio communications. The U.S. Lifesaving Service also dared in 1874 by building stations along the Outer Banks along with the lighthouses to rescue vessels and people from the dangerous shoals offshore, called the Graveyard of the Atlantic. And let’s not forget the treachery dared by Edward Teach, Blackbeard the pirate in his day-to-day work.
And Cape Air has daringly established scheduled air service for the 30-minute flight from Norfolk, Virginia to the Outer Banks. On a space available basis they will help you bring home your souvenirs: seafood packed carefully in a cooler, Nags Head Hammocks, and “I saw Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Moved” tee shirts.
On the Outer Banks the sculpture would comment that there are so many outdoor activities—swimming, surfing, hang gliding, golfing, horseback riding, hiking, biking, birding, boating, deep sea fishing—that excess calories are needed. Possibly she saw the summer tourist and residents enjoying newer sports such as kayaking, paragliding, hang gliding, sailing, skim boarding. According to the legend many a brave fell for the beautiful Virginia Dare. One suitor, medicine man Chico, lured her back to Roanoke Island. Refusing him, he used his magical powers to turn her into a pure white doe. This doe became the prized leader of all the deer. As the legend goes, Chief Wanchese’s son shot the doe with a silver-tipped arrow, a gift of Elizabeth I to the Chief. As the deer fell she whispered “Virginia Dare.” Some claim the white doe still roams the Outer Banks. But all can today visit Virginia Dare as Paul Green returned the lovely statue to Roanoke Island as his generous donation to the Elizabethan gardens. Here she stands tall and proud in her changing horticultural gardens—a symbol of hope and the achievements of this country stemming from the initial efforts of The Lost Colony to establish a permanent settlement in North Carolina.
Dare County Tourist Bureau, Outer Banks, North Carolina, (800) 446-6262, http://www.outerbanks.org Cape Air provides regularly scheduled service with private plane luxury between Norfolk, Virginia to Dare County Airport on the Outer Banks (800) 352-0714, http://www.flycapeair.com The Lost Colony, Waterside Theatre, Roanoke Island, http://www.thelostcolony.org/ Wanchese Fish Company http://www.wanchese.com Risky Business Seafood Market, (800) 691-5569, http://www.riskybseafood.com/ Howard’s Pub & Raws Bar Restaurant, Ocracoke Island, http://www.Howardspub.com Lighthouse View Motel and Cottages, Buxton on Cape Hatteras, (800) 225-7651, http://www.lighthouseview.com Images: copyright 1999 SearchWrite |
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If only the sculpture of Virginia Dare—the first European white baby born in the New World who disappeared as a child—could talk. Virginia, stands hauntingly silenced in the white Carrara marble crafted by the American sculpturer, Maria Louisa Lander in her Italian studio around 1859. Lander was as inventive as a missing children artist surmising how the daughter of Elinor White and Ananias Dare lineage would appear as a young adult.
The sculpture would have known that playwright Paul Green, as a child, read Mrs. Sallie Cotton’s 1910 historical fiction poem, The Lost Doe or The Legend of Virginia Dare, one of the most poignant accounts of the disappearance of 117 brave settlers who arrived under the leadership of Governor White at these Atlantic barrier islands in 1587. His own daughter, Elinor married to Ananias Dare, gave birth to the baby christened Virginia Dare on August 18th. 
Hatteras, formerly a native village with reports of fair-skinned, blue-eyed Indians, is a vacationer’s paradise—the home of the 70 miles Cape Hatteras National Seashore (Nags Head to Ocracoke Inlet), Canada beach (favored windsurfing spot) and the villages of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras with motels, cottages, houses, condominiums, and camping.
The 208-foot brick lighthouse at Hatteras was moved 2900 feet inland to prevent its ultimate demise by the ocean’s currents and eroding sand. A good vantage point is the Lighthouse Motel-Cottages in Buxton. Virginia’s sculpture would appreciate being moved to a spot of safe appreciation thinking of the time she spent crated behind Ft. Raleigh before being moved to Paul Green’s backyard garden in Chapel Hill.
Others with different thresholds enjoy challenges such as the oyster-shooters on Ocracoke island’s Howard’s Pub & Raw Bar Restaurant. Since no liquor by the drink is permitted, fresh oysters dive into a glass with your choice of beer and a dash of heat from Texas Pete. Local’s prefer Bud, but Howard’s features more than 200 brews. Some fear the raw oyster others the hot sauce. 
Hurricanes are another serious threat to these barrier islands. But junk food addicts should not dare to miss the Hurricane fries, a huge order of fried potatoes loaded with a meat chili and lots of melted cheese at the Cape Hatteras KOA campground in Rodanthe. Currently they are seeking Guinness’ World Record fame for the largest s’more—graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow cookie.
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