path from the beach to the sound called Salter 

 Path," says Kemp. 



But others think the village was named 

 for Riley Salter, a Carteret County fisher. 



"But this isn't documented in oral 

 history," says Kemp. 



Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, 

 most residents worked the water and did odd 

 jobs to make ends meet. 



"In the fall, people fished for mullet with 

 nets and had camps set up on the beach," says 

 Bernice Reynolds, who has lived in the village 

 for more than 40 years. "The older ladies 

 would cook for the fishermen." 



Because there were no roads or 

 automobiles, residents had to take the mail 

 boat to go to the doctor or run errands in 

 Morehead City. 



"Grandpa George Smith ran the mail 

 boat and took it up to Morehead to pick up 



groceries, flour and meal," Willis says. 



And unlike many new residents today, the 

 Salter Pathers preferred living on Bogue Sound. 



"We didn't live on the ocean because it was 

 too much grit and sand," explains Helen Frost. 



When Christmas arrived, they observed 

 their own traditions. 



"When I was a little girl, we hung up a 

 sock on the outside doorknob the week before 

 Christmas," says longtime resident Vicky Frost 

 Dew. "If you were good, you got a treat in the 

 sock. If you were bad, you got an oyster shell." 



BOGUE BANKS QUEEN 



From the 1920s to 1950s, the Banks' most 

 prominent resident was Alice Green Hoffman, 

 a New York socialite who lived in what is now 

 Pine Knoll Shores. Hoffman's niece, Eleanor 

 Roosevelt, was married to President Theodore 

 Roosevelt's oldest son. 



Dubbed the "queen of Bogue Banks," 

 Hoffman lived in a large house with modem 

 conveniences like "electric lights" on her estate 

 facing Bogue Sound. To run her household, 

 she employed many from Salter Path, including 

 the legendary "Aunt Charity" who worked as 

 her cook. 



"Aunt Charity was the matriarch of the 

 community," says Kemp, who loves to spin 

 stories about the native and her husband, 

 George Smith. 



In the back of Hoffman's large estate, 

 which included much of the island, local 

 fishers used an old shack — nicknamed "Mrs. 

 Hoffman's tearoom" — for their nets. 



Some local folks despised Hoffman 

 because she did not allow them to roam about, 

 collecting firewood. 



"She wanted her share from the fishing 



Continued 



Coastwatch I Holiday 2006 I www.ncseagrant.org 9 



