Outer Banks Beachcomber Museum

"The Human Spirit needs Places that Have
Not been Rearranged by the Hand of Man."

Author unknown..........


"The old register at the grocery fell silent a quarter century ago.
Worn wooden shelves that once showcased canned peas and
collards are now crammed with beach glass, feathers, shells,
sand, bricks and bottles. Glass cases that once tempted children
with peppermint sticks and licorice whips are littered with whalebones,
peace pipes and driftwood. Walls are draped in fi shing tackle.
Frayed lengths of rope coil like cobras under chairs. Chunks of old
shipwrecks lie stranded on shelves. A watermelon sized wicker basket
overflows with children’s toys. A slender cash drawer cradles miniature
china dolls. A fat orange buoy lounges contentedly in a corner.

All of it-every Cracker Jack toy, every set of false teeth, every spyglass,
every shell, every World War II flashlight-
was spit from the sea.
And all of it was gathered off a mile long stretch of Outer Banks beach by Nellie Myrtle Pridgen, a Nags Head native who combed the shore at dawn and again at dusk nearly every day for nearly 60 years. Now that she’s gone, we’re left to wonder:

What will become of the riches she gathered and the beach she loved?"

From "The Collector" ~ by Lorraine Eaton

Complete story can be found here:

http://www.oldnagshead.org/about-us.php

Two articles on the museum can be found
on our website here:

http://www.oldnagshead.org/press.php