The primary resort destination on these barrier islands for more than a century, Nags Head has been the official name of the area since at least 1738, when it first appeared on maps. Historians say the beach town got its name from the horses that once roamed throughout the islands. The much more colorful legend we Insiders prefer is that Nags Head was derived from a custom locals used to lure ships to the shores. Securing a lantern from a Banker pony's neck, residents would drive the horse up and down the beach, the light swinging with the same motion as a sailboat. The unsuspecting offshore vessel would steer toward the light and proceed to get grounded on the shoals. The locals would then promptly ransack the hapless ship. In the early 1830s, a Perquimans County planter explored the Outer Banks "with the view of finding a suitable place to build a summer residence where he and his family could escape the poisonous miasma vapors and the attendant fevers," wrote author and historian David Stick in The Outer Banks of North Carolina. "He explored the beach and the sound shore and picked his house site overlooking the latter, near the tallest of the sand hills." The planter paid $100 to an unknown Banker for the 200 acres and built the first summer house on the Outer Banks in Nags Head.
In 1838 the Outer Banks's first hotel was built in Nags Head midway between the sound and the sea. A two-story structure, the grand guesthouse had accommodations for 200 travelers, an elaborate ballroom, a bowling alley, covered porches, and a 5-foot-wide pier that extended from the hotel's front a half-mile into the sound. The 1850 census showed that 576 people, including 30 slaves, lived year-round in Nags Head, but hundreds more came each summer. By that time the soundside community had become a wellknown watering hole for the families of mainland farmers, bankers, and lawyers. Elizabeth City doctor William Gaskins Pool was the first to build a home on the seaside in 1866, according to a 19th-century journal kept by Outer Banks resident Edward R. Outlaw Jr. On September 14, 1866, Pool purchased 50 acres "at or near Nags Head, bordering on the ocean, for $30" and constructed his onestory cottage 300 feet from the breakers. "But over there by themselves, his family was very lonely," Outlaw wrote in his book, Old Nag's Head. Seeing that the Pools survived beside the sea, more people began building on the eastern edges of Nags Head.
By the early 1900s, homeowners were erecting their cottages on logs so they could roll them back from encroaching tides. Some of the houses moved three or four times during residents' lifetimes. Oceanfront house moving is still a common practice in Nags Head today. The houses are jacked up, mounted onto a flatbed truck, and slowly inched away from the encroaching sea. Nags Head became an incorporated town in 1961. This beach area continues to attract anglers and surfers, nature lovers and shoppers, families and fun-seeking adventurers. A half-century ago, Newman's Shell Shop opened as the first store on the beach. Charter boat captains Sam and Omie opened a restaurant at Whalebone Junction more than 50 years ago serving breakfast to their fishing parties. The small wooden eatery still bears their names -- and still serves some of the best she-crab soup around.
Another Nags Head natural attraction is the Nags Head Woods Preserve, actually in both Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. Hikers, bird-watchers, and nature lovers delight in this wooded anomaly, where diverse flora and fauna can be enjoyed in stunning silence (see our Natural Wonders chapter). Nags Head is well known for its recreational opportunities. A paved bike path stretches almost the entire length of the town. A Scottish links-style golf course, The Village at Nags Head Golf Links, is one of the area's most beautiful and challenging courses. The village stretches along the Roanoke Sound, offering sound views and the opportunity to see a variety of water birds and wildlife. Dolphin tours, airboat rides, boat rentals, JetSki rentals, kiteboarding lessons, windsurfing, and sailing are all offered on the sound in lower Nags Head, around MP 16 and on the Nags Head-Manteo Causeway. Minature golf and go-cart tracks also cluster in this area. One of the barrier islands' few amusement parks, Dowdy's, has a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, and a merry-goround at MP 11. Nags Head has the YMCA complex and the area's only bowling alley. Shoppers flock to Nags Head's namebrand outlet stores and to its several strip malls and grocery stores. Nags Head is home to many art galleries, including an artists' enclave known as Gallery Row. Restaurants and nightspots lure diners and revelers to Nags Head. Owens' Restaurant has been a Nags Head institution for more than 50 years; Kelly's Tavern is the most well known nightspot on the Outer Banks. Since it's centrally located on the Outer Banks, Nags Head is a favorite destination of people who want to take daytrips to Hatteras Island and Corolla. If you don't want to get back in the car once you've arrived at your vacation destination, you can get everything you want within walking distance of most Nags Head hotels and cottages. Whether you're looking to escape the bustle of the beach by taking a quiet hike through the Nature Conservancy's Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve or dance the night away at a beachside tavern, this Outer Banks town remains one of the area's most popular resorts.
Address: 3005 S Croatan Hwy
Nags Head, NC---Operating since 1963---- Roller Coasters: Tornado Steel Sit Down-Operating..