Bus Service

The first bus line to Ocracoke Island was established ca. 1938 by Stanley Wahab to serve guests staying at his Wahab Village Hotel (now Blackbeard's Lodge).

Photo Courtesy OPS

Earl O'Neal, in his book, O'Neals of Ocracoke Island, Their Ancestors and Descendants, explains that the bus "was operated by Van Henry O'Neal [pictured on right]. Much of the time he picked people up at their homes, transported them to Hatteras Inlet Coast Guard Station [located on the north end of Ocracoke], then carried the passengers on a small boat without the vehicle, to Odens Dock in Cape Hatteras." Once on the other side of the inlet, passengers rode with the Midgetts [Anderson, Stockton or their dad] to Manteo, NC, where they met the Trailways bus to Norfolk, VA.

Earl points out that there were no paved roads on Ocracoke at that time. The "bus" had to negotiate rutted and bumpy soft sand trails or, when the tide was out, enjoy a smoother ride on the hard-packed beach just above the tide line.

Our Ocracoke Newsletter for this month is an article by Philip Howard, My Ocracoke, Living amidst 250 years of Howard family history. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news082116.htm.