Cape Lookout, Shackleford & Diamond City

What is now known as Cape Lookout and Shackleford was once home to more than 500 whalers, fishermen, boatbuilders, lilghthouse keepers, lifesaving servicemen, teachers, preachers -- men, women and children -- who made a life along the shores of Core and Shackleford Banks.

Cape Lookout, Diamond City & Shackleford

  • The first Cape Lookout Lighthouse was built in 1812, and then deemed too short. The present lighthouse was constructed and lamp lit on November 1, 1859. The Cape Lookout Lighthouse is 167 feet tall and is painted with a “Diagonal Checkers” pattern. The majority of Cape Lookout Lighthouse Keepers were local residents.
  • Cape Lookout Village is located near the lighthouse and is on the National Register of Historic Places. In the historic district are the 1887 U.S. Life-saving Station and the 1917 U.S. Coast Guard Station.
  • Cape Lookout and nearby Shackleford Banks were home to several communities / family groups, collectively known as “Diamond City.” A series of storms in the late 1800s gradually drove residents off of the island, with the turning point being the Storm of 1899. These residents moved primarily to Harkers Island, the Promise’ Land in Morehead City, Marshallberg, and Salter Path.
  • The residents of Cape Lookout / Shackleford Banks communities were fishermen and whalers. They often named their whales and perhaps the most famous one landed on Shackleford Banks hangs in the North Carolina Museum of Natural History. Its name is the “Mayflower Whale.”
  • Before the Storm of ’33 there was no Barden’s Inlet separating Shackleford and Cape Lookout, but rather a small “ditch” that folks could walk across.  The strong tide during the storm “broke open” the inlet that was later dredged into the deep water inlet it is today.  It was named for US Senator Graham Barden who helped get the work done.
  • Cape Lookout was first home to the Cape Lookout Lifesaving Station, the Lighthouse Service and then the home of a US Coast Guard station from 1916until 1982 when the station became part of Cape Lookout National Seashore.   The station was particularly active during WWII. There was a small store located near the lighthouse in the 1950s through the 1970s run by Les and Sallie Moore that catered to fishermen and hunters on Cape Lookout. They also owned and operated a few fishing camps on the site. Sallie was known for her vast collections of shells, bottles and other articles that washed up on the beach. 
  • On the west end of Shackleford there is a small cemetery maintained by the NPS, one of the last remnants of the communities that was known as Diamond City.