Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Announces Final Summer Programs
Chicamacomico’s Summer Programs will end this week of August 26 through the 29th. The site, however, will remain open for self-guided tours Monday through Friday until November 29, the Site’s “End of Season Festivities” with Santa’s visit and the exciting Season-Long Raffle drawing.
A typical Chicamacomico Summer Program scene on the porch of the 1911 Life-Saving Station. The original 1874 Life-Saving Station is also seen in the far right background, two of the Site’s eight historic buildings.
If you have not yet seen or heard any –or all- of Chicamacomico’s Summer Programs, this week will be your last chance this year for these unique experiences:
Monday Linda Molloy, Site Operations Manager, will give the details of her role with Richard Gere in the Warner Brothers movie Nights in Rodanthe and share the “behind the scenes” Hollywood experience;
Tuesday you will marvel at the nearly unbelievable history of the United States Life-Saving Service (direct predecessor of today’s Coast Guard) and will be dumbstruck by the telling of the ultra-dramatic rescue of the SS Mirlo there in 1918. It became, and remains, THE most highly-awarded maritime rescue in all of American history! Happened right here and the actual rescue boat remains on display.
Wednesday is your last chance to hear about some of the traditional Hatteras Island Cooking back when Chicamacomico was an operational station. Local village restaurants (Atlantic Coast Café, Good Winds and StingWrays) are volunteering their time and resources to not only talk about these dishes, but also to provide free samples! Capping off this unusual presentation is the unique experience that village elder Elsie Hooper provides in the Chicamacomico 1911 Cook House telling all about island food and cooking “back in the day.” Absolutely priceless.
Thursday, of course, is the perennially popular Beach Apparatus Drill (a.k.a. “Breeches Buoy Rescue Reenactment”). There are real bragging rights here: Chicamacomico is the only place in the world where the full drill is done weekly in the summer performed by active-duty United States Coast Guard volunteer personnel! The best real show on the Outer Banks, and very patriotic. You will be proud.
All of these programs are held at 2pm, all are outdoors, and all are FREE with regular paid site admission. That admission includes a self-guided tour of the eight building oceanfront site with private beach access allowing visitors to go at their own pace. All of the buildings are original, dating from 1874 to 1911, and any one of them alone is worth the price of admission, so really all the rest of the buildings, their numerous artifacts and exhibits, the free programs and the beach visit are all icing on the cake! No better deal on the Outer Banks. (The Friday program has been discontinued and will be replaced by a new and unique program for next season.)
This largest and most complete oceanfront historic complex of the United States Life-Saving Service remains open Monday through Friday from 10am to 5pm for not only the self-guided tours, but also for fascinating discussions, questions and answers and true stories with the staff and volunteers about one of America’s least-known yet most amazing parts of her history.
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