PEOPLE & 



PLACES 



the process, she has rekindled a sense 

 of pride for natives like herself whose 

 island brogue she says inspired ridicule 

 when she was a child in school. 



Few communities, especially rural 

 ones, ever build museums, and then 

 they usually start with a benefactor, 

 says Wayne Martin, folklife director 

 for the North Carolina Arts Council. 



"Now they're doing something 

 that is absolutely amazing, and that is 

 building the Core Sound Waterfowl 

 Museum," he says. "This is unbeliev- 

 able. If you look over our state, I can't 

 think of another place at this time in 

 this day in this age, when a community 

 as small as Harkers Island is doing this 

 — it's phenomenal." 



Now operating out of a small 

 house and exhibiting mostly the work of 

 local decoy carvers, the Core Sound 

 Waterfowl Museum is expected to move to 

 a 16-acre site leased from Cape Lookout 

 National Seashore on the island's east end 

 in 1999. As director of the museum, 

 Amspacher was instrumental in pushing for 



the project and helping to raise more 

 than $1.3 million to build it. With most 

 donations coming from working people 

 giving between $ 100 and $ 1 ,000, the 

 museum is a testament to both the 

 community's devotion to its heritage and 

 Amspacher' s undaunted spirit. 



The museum will showcase the 

 talents that once supported Harkers 

 Islanders' existence — the making of 

 decoys, hunting, fishing, boatbuilding — 

 a way of life and its traditions. Its shape — 

 with an outdoor pond where visitors will 

 be able to watch wildlife, then step indoors 

 to see decoy carving or savor the island's 

 flavor in the kitchen — reflects 

 Amspacher's vision and yearnings to 

 preserve the Down East way of life she 

 knew as a child growing up on the island. 



A 42-year-old mother of two, 

 Amspacher is a force to be reckoned with, 

 persistent and tireless, expecting no less 

 from others. Like the trees that grow on the 

 island, she gains strength from her native 

 soil. In a time when everybody seems on 

 the move, Amspacher tries to hold onto a 



"What goes on in that kitchen 

 is more than carving. 

 It's keeping a community 

 together and has brought 

 about a whole lot of pride 

 in being who we are and 



how we came to be. " 



simpler era while reshaping the future for 

 islanders. 



"My heart wants to blow up the 

 bridge, rum out the lights and tell every- 

 body to go home — but I know we can't 

 do that," she says. "So my mind says, 

 'Karen, here are the facts: The people are 

 coming anyway.' People are on the move, 

 they're looking for places like Harkers 

 Island, and if we don't tell our story, 

 somebody will come and tell it for us." 



Bom into a family that for generations 

 built boats and fished, Amspacher 

 remembers being inspired by the tales of 

 her whaler uncle and by nights spent 

 camping out on Shackleford BanLs. Then, 

 as now, families on Harkers Island lived 

 close to one another, a fiercely independent 

 people, yet dependent on one other 

 emotionally, she says. 



She compares the character of 

 Harkers Islanders to those of North 

 Carolina's mountain people. Once, she 

 drifted away from home to the mountains 

 of Boone, where she worked three jobs at 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 27 



