12/30/2024
Route 101
That's what the Outer Banks locals called the multitude of roads, or paths, that permeated the sandy barrier islands from Nags Head down to Buxton and beyond. It was named such because there were 101 different paths to take to get from here to there. The recommendation was to take the freshest looking set of ruts, as they were most likely to be made newer in order to avoid the problems of yesterday.
Seen in this picture not only is the old Oregon Inlet ferry, but the Manteo Hatteras Bus line, which was started, just barely, by Stockton Midgett, who bought the bus and created the business in 1938, only two months before he passed away. Families had little time to grieve, and his three sons, Harold, Anderson, and Stocky had to carry on with the business. The fact that Stocky was only ten at the time and couldn't see over the dash without sitting on a stack of catalogs didn't matter much. Then, as now, a family had to eat, and the bus route made money for the family.
The sons drove the buses, wore them out, and bought replacements. People used the service greatly, even though they occasionally were terrified as Stocky or another brother plowed over a dune at breakneck speed. They ran the route up until paved roads allowed locals to get their own transportation. The drive from Hatteras to Oregon inlet took four and a half hours through the occasionally flooded spider web pattern of roads, and cost $2.50, but it allowed a regular contact between the coast and Manteo, as the boys ran the route seven days a week on a regular timed schedule.
If you would like to know more about what it was like to drive up and down the coast on the sand, I highly recommend Kinnakeet Adventure, by Stanley Green. It tells a more intimate description of the adventures people had in the not too distant past on the coast of the Outer Banks as they drove up and down the shore, with different measures of success. www.joesledge.com/books-1/kinnakeet-adventure
