Loved the lyrics. Here's some trivia about Oregon Inlet.

How Oregon Inlet Was Named

The Outer Banks are pierced at various intervals by geographic formations called inlets. The label is a misnomer, for actually they are outlets, a necessary safety valve that allows the waters of the inland rivers and sounds to drain into the sea. Throughout recorded human history on the Banks, over 100 inlets have opened and closed usually during hurricanes or Nor'easters, which slice the narrow islands and dredge out the openings.

Oregon Inlet is no exception. While the present-day inlet is one of the most commercially vital inlets on the Banks, in 1846, it did not exist. That year, a great hurricane moved up the East Coast and over the Outer banks. According to legend, the storm caught a sailing vessel on a return trip to Edenton, NC, from Bermuda in the open. As the crew of the ship struggled to keep their vessel from wrecking in the treacherous surf, the storm grew in intensity. Finally, a gigantic surge lifted the ship on its crest, depositing it safely on a shallow sand bar where it safely rode out the rest of the storm.

The next morning, the crew emerged to find their ship stranded in Pamlico Sound. To the east, a huge cut had been carved through the narrow island to the sea where none had existed before. Amazed, they worked to free their vessel, finally floating it and returning to Edenton, where they told their tale. And it was there that the ship called Oregon lent its name to the new inlet.

The Bonner Bridge crossing the inlet was opened in 1963. Before that a ferry was necessary to get to Hatteras Island. In 1990 a barge damaged some of the bridge supports during a storm and it wqas back to ferry traffic for a number of months until the bridge was repaired.


Oregon Inlet Oregon Inlet in North Carolina, the only inlet along a 170 km stretch of coast, supports an active commercial fishing and recreational boating industry. Severe erosion, because of the ongoing migration of the inlet resulted in NC constructing a terminal groin in 1990 to prevent the highway from being cut off from the south side of the bridge. As with most natural tidal inlets, Oregon Inlet has seen these dynamic changes since its opening in 1846, and has migrated more than two miles south of its original location. Monitoring programs are attempting to determine whether or not further engineering efforts are required to stabilize the inlet. A very controversial program has been around for quite a few years that would build two mile long jetties at the inlet to try to stop the natural movement of the sand. It would cost about $100 million. Some critics describe this as a $500,000 subsidy to each of the charter fishing boats operating from the inlet marina. Other critics including the US Fish & Wildlife Service say it would turn parts of the Bodie Island National Wildlfe Refuge and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore into a permanent construction zone, adversely affect an already threatened fishery, and destroy crucial wildlife habitat such as nesting areas for endangered sea turtles.


rich r