Outer Banks Museums

Despite the favorable climate inviting visitors to engage in beach activities, the Outer Banks is a predominant cultural and historic region, so it is not strange to find a large number of museums and historical attractions scattered around the different communities and towns. Some of the most popular are the following:

The Graveyard Of The Atlantic Museum
Located in Hatteras Village, the southern most community on Hatteras Island, the building of this museum has a unique design with reminiscences of the once common timbers of the many shipwrecks, featured in the entrance court and devoted to the thousands of vessels buried in the waters off North Carolina's Outer Banks, where countless mariners lost their lives battling against the forces of nature, piracy or war.

More than just a collection of artifacts, the Graveyard of the Atlantic has the highest densities of shipwrecks in the world, holding some of America's most important maritime history, and premier cultural attraction for the Atlantic Seaboard, often referred as one of the finest and most innovative maritime facilities in the United States.

Frisco Native American Museum and Natural History Center
Housed in a building with a 100 years of history, this museum is located in the village of Frisco, this a non-profit educational foundation preserving Native American artifacts, art, and culture of the early Indian inhabitants, including exhibits and galleries featuring information on all Native Americans across the United States, as well as their crafts and art.

The main exhibition includes a dugout canoe that was discovered within the museum property, besides other items recovered from the site of East Carolina University's archaeological dig at Buxton Village. There are also many cultural programs, activities and special events, such as the Annual Inter-Tribal Powwow.

North Carolina Maritime Museum of Roanoke Island
This museum is located downtown in Manteo's waterfront on the grounds of George Washington Creek Park, and is the result of a collaborative work between the Town of Manteo, Roanoke Island Festival Park and the North Carolina Maritime Museum, serving to both, local community and visitors since 1998.

A variety of educational programs focusing on the construction, use and celebration of traditional watercraft and other maritime activities, with many interpretive exhibits throughout the year, including examples of traditional small watercraft built and sailed on the Outer Banks, as well as regional boat building and water safety courses.

North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island
One of three aquariums operated by the state and the largest North Carolina's saltwater tank. This is not only a public aquarium, but also a museum by itself because of the number of marine species featured.

Activities at the North Carolina Aquarium include touch tanks, marine exhibits, field trips, films and daily educational programs. The most recent addition to the marine life is the Bite, Shock, Sting exhibit with venomous animals including black widow spider’s rattlesnakes, and lionfish.

Roanoke Adventure Museum
An interactive museum with 8,500-square-feett located in Manteo, endorsing historical fun programs at Roanoke Island Festival Park, and exhibiting over 400 years of Outer Banks history, including the earliest America's Native roots, and learning of the English who were important players in the colonization of America. The museum features the Algonquians, the North Carolina tribe portrayed through John White drawings.

This is the only place in the United States where visitors can meet a pirate who sailed with Black Beard, going inside a Civil War tent, learn about lighthouses, lifesaving, hunt ducks in the museum's sink box blind, or site a star with an astrolabe wearing an Elizabethan costume or taking a shopping break to a 1900s general store.

Outer Banks History Center
Located in Mantoe, this is not a museum but a 6700-square-foot facility with a Halon fire-suppression system, and stacks designed to withstand a Category 3 hurricane, enclosing the impressive personal library collection donated by Historian and businessman David Stick. The center was opened to the public in 1998 featuring a reading room, and conducting genealogical and cultural programs.

Outer Banks History Center's historical archives were enriched with the Mr. Stick's library containing more than 100,000 manuscript items, 30,000 books and pamphlets, 30,000 photographs, 1500 periodical and serial runs, 5,500 maps and charts, and a large variety of drawings, paintings, prints, audio and video recordings, in addition to ephemera.

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
A 513-acre park built in remembrance of the 116 men, women, and children who disappeared in the first English attempt at the colonization of this region. The visitor center displays the original oak paneling and stone fireplace from a 16th century house belonging to early settlers.

This "Lost Colony" settlement was the birthplace of the Briton baby Virginia Dare, born in America before the mysterious colony's disappearance. Not properly, a museum but exhibiting reconstructions, exhibits, maps, live drama, talks, and educational programs, illustrates the British colonization.