Finding the OBX

The Outer Banks, like much of northeastern North Carolina, has hosted a remarkable historical pageant.

Now award-winning writer Kip Tabb has brought together all the tools to unearth the stories. Combining a historian’s research ability, a journalist’s interviewing skills, and a talented writer’s story-telling, he shines a light on sometimes hidden events and the often heroic people behind them. We meet war heroes and suspected traitors, entrepreneurs and fraudsters, and brave rescuers who risked—and too often lost—their lives to save passengers aboard sinking and sometimes fiery ships.

We meet Joachim Gans, the New World’s first practicing Jew, whose research found important metal deposits. There’s Reginald Fessenden, whose broadcasts from the Outer Banks helped kick-start radio. There’s Dexter Stetson, designer of three of the nation’s most famous lighthouses, and William Tate, an
important friend to the Wright Brothers. And Rad Tillett, a grand old storyteller who helps keep the past alive.

Oh, and Blackbeard of course.

What really was behind his killing?

We learn about a failed Colonial development on Colington Island and an enormous fraud in Buffalo City. We see what happened when eastern North Carolina was a key player in Civil Rights and what happened when Coastal North Carolina was the front line in the Battle for the Atlantic in World War II. We’re there for a massive pandemic, historic fires, and devastating hurricanes.

In short, this is the Outer Banks we only thought we knew. This is the book we’ve been waiting for.

Hardcover, 300 pages