Courtesy of N.C. Archives and History 



In this 1930s photograph, these hunters return from the marsh saddled with their catch 



close range. Sink boxes were outlawed 

 in the mid- 1930s, Conoley says. 



Word of Currituck's waterfowl lode 

 spread northward during the later 

 1800s and the wealthy of New York 

 and Boston came to isolated Currituck 

 County to see for themselves. Amazed 

 by the abundant waterfowl there, 

 many of these northerners formed 

 clubs and bought up large tracts of 

 marsh. Travis Morris, a Currituck 

 County realtor whose roots grow deep 

 in Currituck County, says the land 

 was sold for as little as 10 cents an 

 acre. 



The first club to form was the 

 Currituck Shooting Club in 1857. 

 Chartered by 15 members, the club im- 

 mediately built a clubhouse. Morris, 

 whose father, Chester Morris, a 

 lawyer, represented many of the clubs, 

 says records for membership in this ex- 

 clusive club included such names as 

 Morgan, Fairchild and Rockefeller. 

 The clubhouse was replaced in 1879 by 

 a larger house that stands today. The 

 only club still operating on a mem- 



bership basis, the Currituck Shooting 

 Club, has 12 members and an entry fee 

 rumored to be $100,000. 



While the Currituck Shooting Club 

 boosts the most exclusive membership, 

 the most striking clubhouse to grace 



the Currituck marshes belonged to the 

 Whalehead Club. First known as the 

 Lighthouse Club, the club was char- 

 tered in 1874 and passed through 

 several groups of stockholders before it 

 was bought by Edward Collins Knight 

 Jr. in 1922. 



Historians say Knight bought the 

 club because his new wife, who liked to 

 hunt, was not allowed at the Light- 

 house Club. 



Built between 1922 and 1925, the 

 new clubhouse carried with it the ex- 



travagance of the times. The three- 

 story house, built for a reported $383,- 

 000, had 20 rooms, 10 full baths and 

 two half baths on the three main floors 

 and 16 rooms in the basement. The 

 roof was copper, the pipes brass, the 



floors cork, the chandeliers tiffany 

 glass and the walls were covered with 

 corduroy, Morris says. 



Knight died in 1936 and the club 

 was sold to Ray T. Adams, a 

 Washington, D. C. meatpacker. 

 Adams named the property the Whale- 

 head Club and used the clubhouse to 

 entertain friends and clients, the likes 

 of which included governors, U.S. 

 senators and congressmen, Speaker of 

 the House Sam Rayburn and boxer 

 Jack Dempsey. 



"By buying up most of the marsh, the clubs preserved the 

 natural beauty of the land here. Our natural resources are 

 this county's main asset." 



— Travis Morris 



