• The population of Ocean Isle Beach from 1955 to 1963 according to the World Book Encyclopedia was listed as four, being the George Sloane Family.
• Ocean Isle Beach was named Hale Beach prior to 1949
• The first inhabitants of Ocean Isle Beach arrived here about 10,000 BC and were mostly Cape Fear Indians.
• A popular dance hall existed in the 1920’s on Gause Hill where the Odell Williamson home is located today (to the right of the causeway as you come on the island)
• A 20 person Coast Guard Station was located on Gause Hill during World War II.
• Both Indians and pirates were virtually exterminated from Ocean Isle Beach in 1720.
• A live oak tree located at Shallotte Point is over 2,000 years old.

Local Author and Illustrator Miller Pope brings us his “Secret History Of Brunswick County” – From the earliest days of European exploration to the golf courses and beach resorts in this fascinating and fast-growing region, Brunswick County has attracted settlers, invaders, and visitors of all descriptions.

In these pages you’ll read about Steve Bonnet, the “Gentleman Pirate,” who hid his ships in Brunswick’s moss-draped creeks but unfortunately underestimated the ebbing tide; “Mrs. Calabash,” who’s said to have lent her name to the famous sign-off for Jimmy Durante’s classic radio shows; and Topsy the Elephant, who swam for the Brunswick riverbank after breaking loose from circus handlers in the 1920s.

Follow the struggles and victories that shaped Brunswick County, from the first contact of Europeans with native Americans, to successive administrations of the Lords Proprietors, the royal governors, the British crown, and the leaders of a new nation—many at whom hailed from this small but influential corner of North Carolina. Discover Brunwick’s rich Civil War history, scenic roadways and waterways and current-day towns and townships.

Tales of the Silver Coast, recounts the tales of privateers and plantation owners, politicians and Prohibition rum-runners and the many colorful people and diverse places of southeastern North Carolina.

Hard Cover $24.95

The nest, which is near the Concord Street beach access, started to hatch the night of Sunday, July 18th, Gloria Hillenburg, coordinator of the Ocean Isle Beach Turtle Patrol, said.

Baby loggerhead sea turtles began emerging around 8:30 p.m., and were still hatching as of the following Tuesday afternoon. Hillenburg said 70 turtles had left the nest so far.

Hillenburg said about 250 people gathered Sunday night to watch the babies emerge.

The nest was the first of 16 on Ocean Isle Beach this year, but there have been as many as 87 nests in one season. Sea Turtle nests take between 55-60 days to hatch, but this nest near Concord Street began to hatch on the 51st day.

Hillenburg attributed this to the heat, noting turtle babies usually come out at night.

The Ocean Isle Beach Sea Turtle Patrol meets at 7 p.m. every Tuesday at the Ocean Isle Beach Community Center. Their meetings are open to the public and Turtle Patrol T-shirts are available for a $10 donation at the meetings or at the Second Street Bar & Grill.

The Turtle Patrol is still looking for information about the theft last year turtle of 83 babies that were taken from their nest on Ocean Isle Beach. There is a $5,402 reward which will expire Aug. 8. Anyone with information is asked to call Special Agent Jack Baker with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or Hillenburg at 754-9513.

NESTS ON OCEAN ISLE BEACH THIS SEASON

Sea turtle laying 209 eggs on bird island:

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Sea Turtles Hatching at Sunset Beach,NC during August, 2009 near midnight:

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A Sea Turtle makes his (or her) way to the ocean!:

You can help the turtles when you visit Sunset Beach by following a few simple guidelines:

Do Not Disturb: If you see an adult sea turtle coming on shore, stay quiet and keep your distance! Otherwise she may get scared and go back into the ocean without nesting. They are an endangered species and it is a federal offense to harass them.

Turn Off All Flashlights! Lights may scare or confuse the adult female and cause her to leave without nesting.

Lights Cause Hatchlings To Go In the Wrong Direction: Please turn off all outside lights each night. Also if there are curtains or blinds use them so your indoor lights do not lead the hatchlings away from the ocean.

Never Pick Up A Hatchling. It is critical that they crawl on their own.
Do Not Disturb The Nest Area. Watch for the nest markers.

Stay Off Sand Dunes & Do Not Pick Sea Oats. Sand dunes provide critical habitat for sea turtles and help prevent flooding during times of extreme tides and storms. Foot traffic kills plants and severely damages the sand dunes. The penalty for failure to adhere to this requirement is a $100 fine.

Help Us Keep Our Beaches Clean -Sea turtles may mistake a plastic bag or other forms of litter for a jellyfish (they eat them). All personal items and equipment must be removed from the beach each day- these items may trap a sea turtle.

Please Fill In All Holes On The Beach When Done Playing.- Holes can trap sea turtles and are a safety hazard to humans.

Keep Dogs On Leashes At All Times!- No dogs shall be permitted on the beach strand between the hours of 9:00am and 6:00pm during period of Memorial Day through Labor Day regardless of whether they are leashed or not.
Fireworks can scare off nesting sea turtles and leave behind trash that may be mistaken for food by marine wildlife.- Discharge of fireworks is not permitted per North Carolina state laws.

Please Report all sightings of nesting turtles, dead turtles, unmarked nests or crawls (looks like a bulldozer came out of the water).

Call the Ocean Isle Beach Turtle Patrol at 910-754-9513 or 910-232-7232

You can send donations to: OIB Turtle Watch, PO Box 5172, Ocean Isle Beach, NC 28469. Please include your name, the name of your nest and your mailing address. Keep up wtih the Turtle Patrol at: http://www.oibturtlepatrol.com

The story was entitled “Oil spill sends some Florida beach goers to North Carolina” and featured footage of the oceanfront pool, some of the guests and star reservationist Beth Turner (we call her Super Beth)!

The Winds is not actively trying to lure people away from other beaches due to the tragic oil spill. However, we are thrilled to be featured in Charlotte News 14 Television story.

Our hearts go out to all of those effected (humans, animal and plant life) and pray the spill is curtailed soon!

Water Aerobics – Yoga – Water Zumba – Surf Lessons By Jeff

(Surf Lessons are not affiliated with The Winds or Parks & Rec. )

Classes are open to the public but guests of The Winds can participate at either greatly reduced fees or for free!

For Information on the Programs, Schedules and Fees PLEASE CLICK HERE!

Louis Moore Bacon, who now resides in London but was born in Raleigh, has purchased almost the entire 5,000-acre property – including the historic plantation house and its famous gardens – from the Laurence Sprunt family who have owned the Brunswick County landmark since 1884.

The Plantation and Gardens will close indefinitely on May 31st while plans for the future and other renovations are made. Hurry to see this incredible place while this years gardens are still available to you!

Current Orton manager David Sprunt, will retain that position, said the family has kept the land around the plantation’s pond.

He said he’s excited about the plans for the plantation, but it is hard for the property leave his family’s ownership after all of these years.

A press release states that Bacon is directly descended from Roger Moore, who built the original Orton residence in 1725. Bacon’s mother’s family has strong ties to nearby Wilmington.

Many are relieved to hear that Mr. Bacon has a reputation for buying historic properties such as Orton Plantation and keeping them in their natural state. Also the N.C. Coastal Land Trust holds conservation easements covering much of the Orton property. The executive director of the Land Trust states that Bacon is noted as a conservationist and a supporter of numerous environmental organizations.

Forbes magazine notes Bacon, age 53, is a native of North Carolina who manages several hedge funds and now resides in London, and the London Sunday Times notes that that he is the richest hedge fund manager in Britain having a nearly $1.7 billion fortune.

Orton Plantation, which recently opened for the 2010 season, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the gardens. Extensive renovations were made in the gardens to open up panoramic views to the Cape Fear River, remove competing vegetation, redesign and enhance the flower beds and restore and preserve the colonial rice fields.

Among the predominant species in the garden are live oaks, camellias, azaleas, flowering fruit trees, daphne, hydrangeas, crape myrtles, dogwoods, and colorful spring and summer annuals. Lawns and water gardens lend variety to the lush vegetation.

Plan to come spend a day at Orton Plantation! The gardens are in their glory right now! The historic landscape designed around the 1735 mansion and colonial rice fields overlooking the Cape Fear River and 20 acres of secluded walking trails surrounded by hundreds of acres of rice fields make Orton Plantation Gardens a wonderful place to visit.

One of the oldest plantations on the Lower Cape Fear and the only one with a manor house still standing, Orton has become a privately owned tourist attraction, celebrated for its elaborate gardens. In recent years, the plantation and its grounds have served as locations on a number of motion pictures.

The house and grounds are located at 9149 Orton Road S.E., Brunswick County just off N.C. 133, close to the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site.

Get directions click here!

Hours are 8am to 5pm March – August and 10am – 5pm September – November (except they close for Thanksgiving Day).

Confessions of a Madman

A life lived through the years of the greatest change in human history, a tale of the Camelot period among the canyons of Madison Ave. and the publishing world in New York and Boston through the eyes of an illustrator.

A story that spans eighty years beginning in the Appalachian hills of Tennessee and evolving into the fast-paced world of art and advertising on Madison Avenue. Follow along and experience life in the upper strata of New York City society during the days when the Martini lunch ruled.

“From Madison Avenue to Island Sands” is one of those rare, thoroughly entertaining autobiographies that works because, unlike many autobiographies, it isn’t about a celebrity or a politician, but about a regular guy who has lived life to the fullest and then some.

In some respects, it’s a tale of two islands: Manhattan and a little place off the coast of North Carolina called Ocean Isle.” Lynn Jessup – The Wilmington Star News

Tales of the Silver Coast

A Secret History Of Brunswick County – From the earliest days of European exploration to the golf courses and beach resorts in this fascinating and fast-growing region, Brunswick County has attracted settlers, invaders, and visitors of all descriptions.

“Miller has done an exceptional job keeping the tone light while still being informative. Each story is only two to three pages long, with illustrations liberally spread throughout, making it perfect for children. Young and old will love the story of the Barefoot Felon, where a captain uses a simple trick to save his ship from pirates.”

- Brunswick Alive! Magazine

Miller Pope’s Book Of Pirates

From Captain Kidd to Blackbeard to the pirates of the orient . . . From bloody battles to walking the plank- from blunderbusses to cutlasses, With nearly 150 original illustrations, this volume is sure to please and inform pirate fans of all ages.

• Race for Riches: a history of the origins of piracy
• Greed and Gold: a pirate’s life aboard ship and in battle
• Tools of the Trade: weapons, vessels, and pirate culture
• Rogues and Raiders: profiles of pirates through history
• Other Pirates, Other Times: the past and future of piracy
• A Roster of Infamy: a list of pirates and their vessels

“The illustrations are incredible, from the actual pirates to their ships, battles, maps, tools of the trade and treasures. For every generations’ fascination with pirates and the exotic and exciting life they supposedly led, this book will satisfy that hunger for the actual and imagined part of pirate lore.
Miller Pope is as exceptional a writer as he is an illustrator, writing with the visual in mind, always crafting his words from an illustrators’ perspective and then backing that image up with the very picture the words so masterfully created.”

- Island Living Magazine

Drawing BC-Before Computers

This hot off the press book describes and illustrates the techniques of illustration during the mid-century days before the reign of color television and computers when great short story magazines ruled.

In these pages artists may find inspiration and those who remember the simpler times of the decades following the second World War will find nostalgia for a bygone time.

Younger people who were born into the world of color television and computers may discover in these pages a glimpse into the past.

Drawing techniques of Illustration’s Golden Age. Miller Pope relates the techniques and mediums used by some of the finest illustrators before the rise of computers in the world of publishing.

“Before moving to Ocean Isle Beach, Miller Pope (”Tales of the Silver Coast,” “Miller Pope’s Book of Pirates”) was a top illustrator in New York publishing, working for advertising agencies in the “Mad Men” era and creating artwork for The Saturday Evening Post, Reader’s Digest and other publications, as well as a number of textbooks.

He recalls those days in “Drawing B.C.” as in Before Computers (Island Press, $16.95 paperback). Pope demonstrates techniques that he and other commercial artists used in predigital days to get eye catching effects that conveyed the message. (Helpful hint: “Less is More.”).

Younger artists can learn a trick or two; the rest of us will be transported into a color-filled retro-world.”

- Ben Steelman The Wilmington Star News, Wilmington, NC

Buy them at MillerPope.com

Books by local Author, Illustrator – Miller Pope! Buy them at MillerPope.com

In this video he waves at us as he travels past Ocean Isle Beach NC on December 6, 2009.

Mr. Drowne left Wilimington NC on November 9th – he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry as he makes his way to Key West!

He used treated lumber to create the nearly self-contained habitat.

Drowne said “It’s very simple, this went together in about 5 months”

Drowne made his 11-foot tall Earth Ball for less than $600. It is a place that where he will have a lot of time to spend.  He is traveling in his Earth Ball to Key West, FL and hopes to complete the trip in 45 days.

Drowne hopes to spread the message of ecology and economy during his month and a half long voyage.  He believes that with his craft he can cut his impact on the environment by 90%.

“The wind generator up top gives me my 12 volt batteries – I have 2 batteries, and that’s enough for refrigeration and lights, it powers my computers, my inverter, so I have 110 power on board. It’s all here.” said Drowne.

He has all the amenities that one might find necessary for a voyage of this long distance including primitive necessities, modern conveniences and of what all homemade hexagonal wooden boat captains need on board – life jackets.

The military veteran plans to travel around the world in his Earth Ball after his trip to Key West,.

Click here to watch a video of an interview with Mr. Drowne on Wilmington’s WECT News

Here’s what they had to say about The Winds:

“Enjoy a two-night “Endless Summer” package at The Winds Resort Beach Club includes accommodations (Camellia Guest Room) with a wet bar, microwave and refrigerator, sitting area and an island view deck; hot Southern breakfast buffet; champagne for a private toast and use of complimentary bikes to explore the island from $199 on Sunday-Thursday arrivals from October 4-29.”

Click here to visit the site to see the entire “Top 10 Off-Season Getaways” list:

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