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Features 



Page 16 



Traipsing Through Time 



When was the last time you visited an old cemetery? North 

 Carolina's coast offers some of the oldest and most intriguing 

 burying grounds around. Coastwatch staffer Jeannie Faris Norris 

 takes readers on a tour of graveyards in Beaufort, Cedar Island 

 and New Bern. The history from these sites could fill a textbook 

 — but why not fill an afternoon with a visit to these repositories 

 of our past? 2 



Speaking from the Grave 



Sometimes folks are outlived by the tales of their lives. They don't 

 have to be especially famous to go down in history — just 

 interesting. Meet some of the more colorful characters interred at 

 the Old Burying Ground, a Cedar Island family graveyard, Cedar 

 Grove and Christ Episcopal Church cemeteries 7 



What Can You Read from a Tombstone? 



Without even reading epitaphs, you can learn something about the 

 people they memorialize by studying the tombstones. The designs 

 and materials used since the mid- 1700s can tell you when people 

 died, how wealthy they were and how old they were. Tombstones 

 also reveal something about peoples' attitudes toward death in 

 centuries past. Coastwatch staffer Jeannie Faris Norris explains 

 some basic tombstone symbols and designs 1 1 



Signaling the Return of Spring 



It's spring. Longer days. Warmer temperatures. New growth. 

 Increased activity. Lots of baby critters. Along North Carolina's 

 coastal shores, these are among the signals that the cycle of life 

 renews itself. Free-lance writer Odile Fredericks reminds readers 

 what spring is all about in coastal estuaries and wetlands 1 2 



Up Against an Ocean of Odds 



Sea turtles have survived on Earth for millenia, but only recently 

 have humans begun to keep track of them. Those who do so — 

 from biologists to volunteers — are concerned because the 

 number of sea turtles that strand on our beaches has increased. 

 Coastwatch staffer Daun Daemon investigates this trend and 

 explains why researchers cannot provide clear conclusions about 

 its cause. She also introduces readers to the Sea Turtle Stranding 

 and Salvage Network, an organization working to understand 

 turtle mortalities and perhaps one day turn the trend around. ..16 



A Historian 's Coast: 



Henry Ansell's Recollections of Knotts Island 



When a nor'easter blew over Knotts Island in 1846, homes 

 disappeared under the waves, dunes and forests vanished, and 

 livestock were swept away in the surge. "All stood aghast" in the 

 aftermath, according to Henry Ansell, a Knotts Islander who 

 recounts the furious nor'easter in his book Recollections of a Life 

 Time and More. Now, more than 150 years later, free-lancer 

 David Cecelski makes a wintry trip to Knotts Island and revisits 

 the storm in the pages of Ansell's book 23 



COASTWATCH 1 



