Blackbeard Island Wilderness

Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, a notorious pirate feared for his murderous, plundering raids, supposedly came here to "bank" some of his ill-gained fortune. Despite the myths about its name, Blackbeard Island was acquired by the Navy Department at public auction in 1800 as a source of naval stores for shipbuilding, and it is one of the oldest properties in continuous Federal ownership in the country. Preserved as part of the Bureau of Biological Survey in 1924, this maritime forest, salt marsh, freshwater marsh, and beach habitat became Blackbeard Island National Wildlife Refuge in 1940. Shorebirds, gulls, and terns use the refuge year-round, with spring and fall bringing warblers and sandpipers. Many migrant birds winter here, including hermit thrushes, ruby-crowned kinglets, yellow-rumped warblers, black-bellied plovers, sanderlings, and the endangered piping plover. Interconnected sand dunes, covered thickly with oak and palmetto, separate the numerous ponds and savannas that fill with seasonal rain and provide homes for waterfowl and wading birds across much of the northern portion of the refuge. Of the land designated as Wilderness on the southern half of the refuge, about 80% is salt marsh, with small portions including slash pines mixed with live oaks and white sandy beach. In the thick humidity of summer, the lush beards of Spanish moss hang from the trees and green manes of resurrection fern grow on the live oaks.