Ocracoke History


Ocracoke Island's first residents were members of the Wocon tribe, and the island was known as Wocokon. European settlers would drop the "W" and the name of the island would eventually evolve into "Ocracoke."



On November 11, 1719, John Lovick, Secretary of the Colony of North Carolina was granted the 2110-acre island, which would be used predominantly to raise sheep and cattle. Its location in shallow waters would make it a favorite location for small merchant vessels transporting sought-after goods - which would then attract Ocracoke's famous pirates. Blackbeard was among the many pirates who called the island one of his homes, and was famously killed in a naval battle on November 22, 1718. Many residents of the island are descendants of the island's next owner, William Howard, who purchased the island in 1759. Fort Ocracoke, now abandoned to the shifting waters of the Outer Banks and mostly destroyed, was the site of a Union naval attack in 1861.

The British Cemetery on Ocracoke is the final resting place of four sailors of the HMS Bedfordshire, which was torpedoed by German U-Boats in 1942. Island residents found the bodies after the incident and buried them under the shade of several ancient oak trees. Today the graves are under the care of the British War Graves Commission and the US Coast Guard.



Ocracoke's wild ponies, believed to have been brought by the earliest settlers or to have swum ashore from nearby shipwrecks, are a staple of the island. Even today, horses remain a part of Ocracoke culture. The island is home to the nation's only mounted Boy Scout troop.

Today, Ocracoke sees growing numbers of vacationers, thanks in no small part to the over 14 miles of beautiful, undeveloped beaches - beaches that will remain that way as a part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.



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