The heroes of 'Song of an Unsung Place' include Dorothy Collins, left, who picks and cleans birds for hunters. She is pictured here with her sister, Lillian Spence. 



The people of Hyde County made 

 Mansfield's job easy. "They are friendly and 

 generous. They fed me. They let me into their 

 homes and opened their lives to me," he says. 



"I wanted the book to represent the good 

 people of Hyde County so when they read it, they 

 will say, 'Yes, that's who I am.' " 



He says his book is by no means a complete 

 picture of Hyde County. "There are so many I 

 didn't get to talk with. There's so much to know 

 and understand," he says. He regrets that time 

 and resources ran out before he could delve into 

 the commercial fishing sector of the county. 



He does, however, provide a glimpse into 

 the maritime culture of the county that is 

 wrapped by the Pamlico Sound and the Alligator 

 and Pungo rivers. 



Mansfield writes: 



"Water regulates the geography and plays 

 a profound role in shaping tlie region 's traditions. 

 While sounds and swamps insulate the natives 

 from mainstream society, the water also provides 

 them with three important maritime traditions: 

 boat building, crabbing, and tying fishing nets. 

 These keepers of traditions also adapt to new 

 demands in order to compete in a keen market." 



He introduces Robert Ross, one of Hyde 

 County's remaining traditional wood boat 

 builders. 



"Bora in Swan Quarter in 1934, he never 

 relied exclusively on boat building to make a 

 living. Like many people in Hyde County, he 

 followed several occupations to make ends meet. 

 Ross has operated a saw mill arid a gristmill in 



partnership with his father. He has also repaired 

 engines, crabbed, fished, trapped and worked as 

 a carpenter building houses and hunting 

 blinds. " 



Ross learned the skill from his father and 

 older boat builders in the community. 



Sadly, the market for wood boats was 

 shrinking by the 1970s, and Ross was forced to 

 retire from that occupation. 



"When one way of making a living 

 evaporated, Ross turned to another in order to 

 stay at home, " Mansfield says of Ross' 

 resourcefulness — also a Hyde County tradition. 



Take Percy Carawan, who learned to make 

 decoys from his father. Carawan, who was bom 

 in 1910, tells Mansfield: 



"My dad made decoys back there fore I 

 was bom. He made working decoys. He 'd make 

 a sleeping duck with his neck turned right 

 around. Looked like his bill stuck in his down. 

 My dad was a man that could do anything he 

 wanted to do. " 



Like his father, Carawan carves decoys 

 using a hatchet to shape the body. He uses roots 

 from black gum to form the head and neck. No 

 shortcuts. 



Folk art collectors pay big money for 

 decoys that look old, Mansfield tells him. 

 Carawan turns the table and quips back: "People 

 want my decoys because of my age. " 



The Next 

 Generation 



Scott Taylor has been photographing 

 coastal North Carolina for more than two 

 decades. Rapid changes in recent years gives 



him a sense of urgency about recording the 

 coastal culture before it changes or is over- 

 whelmed in some places. 



That was one of his motivations for 

 accepting the invitation to accompany 

 Mansfield. 



He was happy to see that many traditions 

 are being kept alive by older residents. He is 

 disturbed, though, to find "the lack of younger 

 folks to carry on the traditions. I see older men 

 fishing, for instance, often times without their 

 sons or grandsons on the boat as it once was." 



He adds, "I hear stories from these men 

 about learning to work the waters from their 

 grandfathers, yet I don't see their grandsons. 

 That worries me." 



Mansfield, too, is concerned about who 

 will carry on the traditions. Figures from the 

 2000 census puts the Hyde County population at 

 about 5,800 — about half of what it was in 1900. 



"There has been no large migration of 

 people here as there has been in other coastal 

 counties," he says. 



Margie Brooks, tourism director for the 

 Greater Hyde County Chamber of Commerce, 

 says that while the county is rich in natural 

 resources, it is limited in tax revenues. Much of 

 those prized natural areas are federal or state 

 protected reserves. "That means that the county 

 collects $55,000 in revenue for land with a tax 

 value of $410 million." 



She's asked Sea Grant to join with county 

 commissioners, the Partnership for the Sounds 

 and other local groups that are looking to spur 

 economic development based on natural and 

 cultural assets. 



14 SPRING 2002 



