The 2023 issues of Pine Knoll Shores’s The Shoreline are now available on Digital NC, thanks to our partner The History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores. With the exception of 2003, Digital NC houses a complete collection of Shoreline papers, dating back from 1973. This recent batch of uploads celebrates the 50th anniversary of PKS, with each issue highlighting a different fun fact of the town’s history – making this a rich resource for researchers.
In this beach town’s monthly paper, you can find celebration of both the nature of the town and its residents. Some coverage of local events in 2023 include garden clubs, fashion shows, local do-gooders, and children’s activities, like Wave Chasers. The Shoreline also highlights local culture by showcasing visual artists and poets throughout its pages.
The Shoreline alsooffers great content for nature lovers of the North Carolina coast.
The best coverage this year is the Sea Turtle Report from the August issue onwards. See how volunteers of PKS work alongside a biologist to protect their sea turtle populations. Click here to learn more about conservation of sea turtle populations in North Carolina, from the North Carolina Aquariums.
To explore more issues of the Pine Knoll Shores’s paper, click here. To check out other local North Carolina newspapers, click here.
The town of Pine Knoll Shores celebrates its 50th anniversary this year (2023). In commemoration, The Shoreline began a column in 2022 recounting some of the history of the area. Beginning in the February 2022 edition, several authors, including Barbara Milhaven, Phyllis Makuck, Martha Edwards, Walter Ellis Steele Jr., Michelle Powers, Deb Frisby, Jean Macheca and Susan Phillips, contribute small histories. The first is about a visit from Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian explorer, in 1524. In a letter to François I, then King of France, he described some of the native people he saw living along the coast (though it’s unknown whether they were in modern-day North Carolina or further north). The March 2022 edition follows up with a timeline of Pine Knoll Shores’ pre-history, from 1524-1954.
An illustration of a ship similar to the SS Pevensey, the remains of which lie near Pine Knoll Shores’ beach.
The December 2022 edition wraps up the pre-incorporation era with a careful mapping of how land was divided and sold along the coast as several of the beach towns we love today were formed. Now that we’re in the 50th anniversary year, we may get to learn even more about the beach town’s modern history—alongside articles from the present day.
In May 2021, Pine Knoll Shores residents got a visit from a special guest: a juvenile great horned owl with a striking resemblance to actor Al Pacino. These birds are actually common throughout the state, and though most people have never seen one, you’ve almost definitely heard their call.
The author of this piece, John Clarke—who aptly named the bird “Owl Pacino”—reached out to the local aquarium’s owl expert, Amanda Goble, for more information about his feathered friend. Goble said that great horned owls tend to have a long period of dependence on their parents, so it’s likely that Owl Pacino’s mother and father are nearby as well.
The NC Wildlife Resources Commission also notes that while it is a myth that owls can turn their heads in a complete circle, they can in fact turn them 180 degrees.
North Carolina is home to 21 species of turtles, including sea turtles and our state turtle, the box turtle (Terrapenecarolina, for the Latin-inclined). This article ran as a way to remind people how to handle turtles when they come across them. The short answer: leave them alone.
About half of the turtle species in NC (11/21) are either federally listed as threatened or endangered and/or listed by the state as an animal of “special concern.” The author of the article, Frederick Boyce, is the staff herpetologist at the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores; he clarifies that the common advice, “Put them off the road in the direction they were heading,” really only applies to our beloved representative the box turtle. Most of the time, the best course of action is to do nothing.
One more animal neighbor that appears in the February 2021 issue is the “sexy speedo,” more formally known as the six-lined racerunner lizard.
The six-lined racerunner is native to NC (The Shore Line, February 2021)
There are several whiptail lizards native to North America, but the only one east of the Mississippi is this little friend (according to Boyce, who also wrote this article). Interestingly, many species of whiptails native to the U.S. reproduce by parthenogenesis, meaning that all members of the species are female and are born from a single parent. Our North Carolina whiptails, though, have both male and female members and do not reproduce by parthenogenesis.
“I have always thought, however, that Jurassic Park would have been more convincing if Michael Crichton’s fictional scientists used lizard rather than frog DNA to fill in the gaps of their ancient dinosaur strands,” Boyce adds.
Twelve new issues of The Shoreline from 2020 are now available online thanks to our partner, the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores. This batch caps off DigitalNC’s The Shoreline collection; between 1973 and 2020, we’re only missing issues from 2003.
As the COVID-19 pandemic struck the globe in the early part of 2020, The Shoreline reported on the effects the “shut down” had on the Pine Knoll Shores community. Several events were cancelled in the first half of the year, such as the Kayak for the Warriors Gala. Additionally, due to the pandemic, The Shoreline did not put out an issue in May.
To view the entire collection of The Shoreline, click here. You can also find more digitized content from Pine Knoll Shores by visiting the History Committee’s contributor page. To learn more about Pine Knoll Shores, visit the town website here.
Thanks to our partners at The History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores, we now have a handful of new issues of The Shoreline, covering all of 2019 and a few months of 2018. DigitalNC now has a near complete collection The Shoreline through the years, from 1973 to 2019, with the exception of 2003.
The Shoreline is the local newspaper for Pine Knoll Shores, N.C., located on the Bogue Banks barrier island in Carteret County. As the inaugural 1973 newsletter declared, this newspaper is for “giving residents and non-residents a change to fill us all in on what’s happening to them, how they feel about life down here, and just generally brining the whole group together…”. The Shoreline continues that spirit today, covering Pine Knoll Shores through articles focused on local events and organizations, like public library updates and Pine Knoll Shores Women’s Club news.
While Pine Knoll Shores may be small in population, reaching 1,339 in the 2010 census, they have a lively community. This is evidenced through the community projects laid out in The Shoreline; from watching over the seasonal sea turtle nests to planting trees after a devastating hurricane season, Pine Knoll Shores residents are active around town.
To view the entire collection of newspapers from Pine Knoll Shores, click here. You can also find more digitized content from Pine Knoll Shores by visiting the History Committee’s contributor page. To learn more about Pine Knoll Shores, visit the town website here.
Nine new issues of The Shoreline from 2018 are now available online, thanks to our partner, the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores. This new addition contributes to a large volume of already digitized papers from 1973 to 2017. The paper documents the activities of the Pine Knoll Shores community by showcasing events, activities, and news. Featured articles include notes from the mayor, biographic pieces about community members, book reviews, public safety reports, and summaries from local outings. A sudoku puzzle and crossword are also often included.
The April issue featured a photo spread from the Women’s Club Fashion Show Fundraiser. Members of the Club modeled Spring fashions and raised funds for their scholarship fund and local charities.
The “Women’s Club Fashion Show Fundraiser,” April 2018
Pine Knoll Shores Garden Club cleanup, November 2018
These issues span 2018 with a notable exception: the community did not publish a paper in October due to the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. The November issue shares information about how the storm affected the community, including flooding throughout the area, the real estate market, the local country club, and others. Mayor Ken Jones also included an uplifting note of thanks to first responders and community members. “We are realizing just how thankful we should be,” he wrote. “We live in the great state of North Carolina, but better than that, we live in Pine Knoll Shores. We have beautiful beaches, peaceful and clean neighborhoods, very nice facilities, and many other things that sometimes we take for granted.”
To view more issues of The Shoreline, from 2018 and preceding years, click here. To learn more about the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores, visit their partner page here or their website here.
The Shoreline is a monthly newspaper that covers different parts of life in the Pine Knoll Shores area, including articles on community events and groups like the local Women’s Club or Garden Club, stories about the local businesses, news from the mayor and local county commissioners meetings, and book reviews. It also includes tips and helpful advice for locals, such as investment information, and in one issue, advice on how to prepare a prime rib roast for the summer. Another article offered a list of activities around the area, including special programs at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.
Having these issues in our collection gives us a greater picture of what it means to live in a small coastal community. Click here to view nearly 40 years of The Shoreline. To learn more about the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores, take a look at their partner page, or website.
The Shoreline is a monthly publication that covers various aspects of life in Pine Knoll Shores, and includes articles on community events and clubs, stories about local businesses, notes from the mayor, book reviews, and more. As Pine Knoll Shores is a beach town located along Bogue Banks, there is an emphasis on the great outdoors, including news stories and event coverage pertaining to fishing, hunting, hiking, and beach-going.
A recent article in the December 2016 issue of The Shoreline tells the story of the 1871 discovery of a new species of snake, the pine wood snake, by botanist Dr. H.C. Yarrow, in present day Pine Knoll Shores. Pine wood snakes are common throughout the southeastern coastal plain, and are completely harmless to humans and pets. They are considered in the article to be “a living piece of Bogue Banks history.”
Click here to view over 40 years of The Shoreline. To learn more about the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores, take a look at their partner page, or website.
More than 40 years and 5000 pages of newspapers from Pine Knoll Shores, NC have been added to DigitalNC.
Pine Knoll Shores is close-knit population of nearly 1,500 members. It is located in southwestern Carteret County, along Bogue Banks. However, this beach town is anything but sleepy. Documented through the 40 years of newspapers, the Pine Knolls Shores community is bustling, taking an active role in the lives of its members. Clubs, volunteerism, safety, and events fill the pages of theShoreline and represent the personality of the small coastal town.
With a population of roughly 650 in the early 1980’s, the town has grown into a vibrant community. Over the decades, it is interesting to see the technological and graphic changes that occurred across each issue, with each decade becoming more complex. This is a useful resources for those interested in genealogical research or information about small community planning. Pine Knoll Shores has created an excellent record of how a small town can grow together over several decades.
You can view the entire collection of newspapers from Pine Knoll Shores here. You can also learn more about the town of Pine Knoll Shores and the History Committee by visiting their contributor page.
From left to right, 1st Row: Pine Knoll Shore Line, 1975, The Shore Line, 1985, The Shoreline, 1995
From left to right, 2nd Row: The Shoreline, 2005. The Shoreline, 2015
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This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.
