Meghan Agresto is the site manager of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse 5 On the Beach Sharon Meade is the curator of the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education Currituck Beach Lighthouse The beam from Currituck Beach Lighthouse stretches 21 miles, but not as bright as the smile Site Manager Meghan Agresto flashes when she starts talking about this 162-foot, redbrick beacon that’s stood since 1875 to protect mariners from this section of ocean called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” “This was the last, tall, brick lighthouse built on the North Carolina coast. This tower and dwelling are still preserved (and) may be the best example of an 1870s light station you’ll find these days. The sense of place here is unique and exceptionally authentic.” Call Agresto a Renaissance woman as her work encompasses all aspects of the lighthouse from researching its past to enlightening guests who view the site. Calling her the lightkeeper is tempting, because it would be easy to imagine her carrying fuel up the 220 steps, trimming the four-inch-wide wicks, and living in the keepers’ home, a duplex that housed 24 people in 1880. Agresto loves it when visitors want details: the lighthouse is one of only nine still standing in the U.S. with an operational, first-order Fresnel lens; a million bricks were used in its construction. Agresto promises, “We have a history, we have a story, and I want you to know it because it’s an interesting one.” A small fee is charged to climb the lighthouse. Open daily from Easter to Thanksgiving (closed Thanksgiving Day). 1101 Corolla Village Rd. • Corolla, NC 27927 252-453-4939 • www.currituckbeachlight.com Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education The Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education offers educational programs and has models of hunting and fishing boats, a duck blind, a milliondollar decoy collection and what many visitors especially like — what’s waiting outside. “We like to call it the best backyard around,” Curator, Sharon Meade, says of the historic boat basin with an 80-foot dock plus 950-foot boardwalk available for free center activities. “The view over the sound is amazing, and you just never know what you’re going to see... raccoon, fox, snakes, these are things we can show you.” The Center sits between the ocean and the Currituck Sound, water that helped put this area on the map for waterfowl hunting at the turn of the 20th century. Meade knows the area’s history: “Currituck County has been a tourist destination for quite some time. People came here for the waterfowl. It was known, literally, the world over.” “We were a phenomenon in terms of the migratory path of birds. We honor that (hunting and fishing) culture. We can help you explore it, because we go from history to right outside making some of our own: crabbing off the dock, teaching how to fish, exploring our maritime side down on the ocean. We try to offer a well-rounded bounty of what we have available here.” 1160 Village Ln. • Corolla, NC 27927 Admission is free • 252-453-0221 www.ncwildlife.org/obx
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