"We look for people who have a strong 

 connection to the region, who have learned their 

 maritime skills through their family or their 

 community, and who can tell the story of the 

 rich traditions found along the coast," says Betty 

 Belanus, the fesitval's program curator. 



Cere, Albemarle Sounds 



The festival will bring together maritime 

 workers and artisans from the mid-Atlantic 

 region that stretches from Long Island, N.Y., 

 to the Outer Banks, including the Core and 

 Albemarle sounds. 



"The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is a 

 great opportunity to feature two regions of the 

 state with strong living cultural traditions that are 

 often overlooked by visitors and even residents 

 of North Carolina," says Wayne Martin, N.C. 

 Arts Council folklife director. 



The Albemarle region, which includes 

 Columbia in Tyrrell County and surrounding 

 communities in northeastern North Carolina, 

 is rich in timber, farming, hunting, fishing and 

 trapping traditions. 



"Hunting for such game as bear, deer and 

 ducks is still popular in the coastal counties," 

 says Chapel Hill folklorist Jill Hemming, who 

 conducted a 1995 survey of northeastern North 

 Carolina. "There used to be a good market for 

 trappers, but that has fallen off in the last decade. 

 People also pole fish in the canals and work on 

 the water." 



The Core Sound region stretches from 

 Beaufort to Cedar Island through vast expanses 

 of marshes and small communities. It also is 

 comprised of the uninhabited Cape Lookout 

 National Seashore, which includes Shackleford 



and Core Banks. Because of the region's 

 proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and Core Sound, 

 boatbuilding, hunting, commercial fishing and 

 decoy carving thrived. 



Herring and Shad Fisheries 



In both the Albemarle and Core regions, 

 people have worked the water for centuries. 



When the first explorers arrived, they found 

 the Chowan, Jamesville and Roanoke rivers teem- 

 ing with shad and herring. 



Later, commercial fisheries for shad and 

 herring were established on several of the state's 

 rivers. 



To fish for shad, fishermen often used a 

 shad boat, which is the official state boat of North 

 Carolina. A replica of the Tom Dixon, which was 

 built by the N.C. Maritime Museum's George 

 Washington Creef Boat Shop in Manteo, where it 

 is on display. 



The shad boat was developed just after the 

 Civil War by Creef or "Uncle Wash" who needed 

 a stable boat for shallow waters around Roanoke 

 Island. 



"With simple tools — frame saws, 

 handplanes, broad axe and adze — Uncle Wash 

 began building his shad boats out of native 

 cypress and white cedar," according to Connie 

 Mason, N.C. Maritime Museum history specialist. 

 "He usually worked on two boats at a time." 



When his wife, Margaret, became ill in 

 1 893, Creef lovingly fashioned two coffins, 

 one for her and the other for himself, tucking 

 them away in his shop's rafters, adds Mason, a 

 folklorist. 



The shad boat era ended in the 1 930s 

 when boats became too expensive to maintain. 



However, they were widely used until the 1950s. 

 Now, only a few boats are left. 



Crabbing, Shrimping 



Blue crabs lie at the heart of North 

 Carolina's entire fishing industry. Crabbers move 

 their pots through the season as the crabs migrate 

 across the estuary. 



Both hard and soft crabs are a big industry 

 in North Carolina. Soft crabs emerge when 

 hard crabs go through a molting process called 

 shedding. 



At the festival, a North Carolina fisherman 

 will demonstrate how to make a crab pot. 



The Albemarle region has one of the most 

 diverse and interesting crabbing cultures in the 

 state, according to University of North Carolina 

 at Chapel Hill researcher William Stott, who is 

 compiling an oral history of crabbers. 



"The Gallup, Daniels, Phillips, Perry and 

 Tillett families — to name a few— are rich in 

 tradition and knowledge," adds Stott, director of 

 the Albemarle Ecological Field Site. "Many of 

 these folks are smart, aggressive and adaptive 

 — not unlike the prey, I suppose." 



"Their knowledge of the water, robust 

 work ethic and insights into markets and local 

 ecology have been shaped by crabbing the 

 Albemarle Sound, Alligator River, Kitty Hawk 

 Bay, among other locations," he adds. "Also, 

 individuals like Murray Bridges and Donald 

 Dough pioneered soft shell crabbing in the state 

 more than 30 years ago." 



In addition, Stott says the waterman's 

 culture in this region is ethnically diverse. 

 "Though conflicts arise, the ways these men and 

 women negotiate and fight out differences are 



EARL Y SUMMER 2004 



