Diamond City: a town that still grips the imagination 



If you hang around Harkers Island 

 long enough, someone will tell you 

 about Diamond City. Like the legen- 

 dary Atlantis, this defunct nineteenth 

 century community seems to take a 

 grip on the imagination. 



Until 1900 Harkers Island was a no 

 man's land. No more than a dozen 

 families lived there. But across the 

 sound on Shackleford Banks were 

 several flourishing communities, bear- 

 ing poetic names like Edge of the 

 Woods, Sam Winsors Lump and Mul- 

 let Pond. Their populations totaled 

 about 500. 



Just east of the Cape Lookout 

 lighthouse was Diamond City, one of 

 the largest of these settlements. It took 

 its name from the diamond shaped pat- 

 tern painted on the lighthouse. 



Harkers Islanders like to boast that 

 at one time Diamond City was the 

 third largest community in Carteret 

 County — "back when Morehead City 

 wasn't even thought of." Some of them 

 were born in Diamond City and many 

 can trace their ancestors back to this 

 little fishing and whaling community. 



Another era 



Today Shackleford Banks looks like 

 a dubious location for a settlement. A 

 narrow, rugged island covered with 

 dunes, it supports only marsh grass. 

 No one lives there year round. But dur- 

 ing the first half of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury the island was practically covered 

 with cedar pine and oak. Cattle and 

 horses grazed on lush grass. Settlers 



planted gardens and grew fruit trees. 



But between 1850 and 1900 a series 

 of storms changed the face of 

 Shackleford Banks. The storms swept 

 across the island, killing trees and in- 

 filtrating the soil with salt water. 

 Finally, wells began to dry up and the 

 island lost most of its vegetation. 

 Severe storms in 1896 and 1899 left 

 behind a trail of dead sheep and cattle. 



Beginning about 1900 Shackleford 

 Banks residents began to migrate to 

 other parts of Carteret County. Some 

 moved to The Promised Land, a sec- 

 tion of soundside property now in 

 Morehead City. But most of them set- 

 tled on Harkers Island, where the land 

 was going for $1 an acre. They disman- 

 tled their homes and carried them 

 across the sound on dories. 



Charlie Hancock mending a net 



