Nags Head on the Outer Banks of North Carolina is one of the top vacation destinations on the East Coast — and it has been since the early 1800s. For centuries, travelers have made their way to this barrier island community to enjoy the wide Atlantic Ocean beaches, the warm, shallow Roanoke Sound and the great expanses of sand in between. This is a place to enjoy nature’s beauty and outdoor recreation to its fullest, including surfing, swimming, fishing, hang-gliding, watersports and much more.

Eleven miles long and rarely more than a mile wide, Nags Head is one town on the island (it’s actually a peninsula) that runs from the Virginia state line down to Oregon Inlet. The island includes Corolla, Duck and Southern Shores on the north end, Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills Nags in the middle and Nags Head and a portion of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the south end. Nags Head’s narrowness (in most places) means that walking or biking to the beach is always a possibility.

Location

Nags Head is perfectly positioned at the center of the Outer Banks. It neighbors Kill Devil Hills, home of the Wright Brothers National Memorial. It’s just five miles from Roanoke Island, home to charming Manteo and some of the top Outer Banks attractions. Nags Head is the gateway to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, where undeveloped beaches and even more recreational opportunities await. It’s just eight miles from world-renowned Oregon Inlet Fishing Center and Oregon Inlet that leads to Hatteras Island.

For those flying into the area, Nags Head is 10 to 15-minute car ride from the Dare County Regional Airport on Roanoke Island. Car rentals are available at the airport. The National Park Service’s First Flight Airstrip in Kill Devil Hills is about 5 or 10 minutes from Nags Head, but no car rentals are available there.

Nags Head is home to the Outer Banks Hospital, the only hospital on the Outer Banks. The town is also a commercial hub of the region, offering numerous shopping and dining options.

Attractions

Jockey's Ridge State Park

Besides the beach, Jockey’s Ridge State Park is the most popular attraction in Nags Head. At 420 acres, Jockey’s Ridge is the largest sand dune system on the East Coast and it has been preserved as a park for everyone to enjoy. Visitors can climb 100 feet to the top of the ridge to see both the ocean and sound, fly kites on the windy dune tops, hang glide from the ridges, learn about sand dunes in the museum or participate in year-round nature programs.

Nags Head Pier

Nags Head offers two fishing piers — Outer Banks Pier and Nags Head Pier. A third, North Carolina Aquarium Jennette’s Pier, is under construction and will be complete by May 2011. It will include a 1,000-foot-long pier, a 16,000-square-foot building with exhibits, educational areas and more.

A stretch of historic oceanfront homes is one of the town’s most cherished features. These homes are prized for their unique "Nags Head-style" architecture and are known as the "Unpainted Aristocracy." You’ll find them around milepost 13, though none of them is open to the public.

Nearby Attractions

Wright Brothers National Memorial

Just a 5 to 10 minutes’ drive from Nags Head are the renowned Roanoke Island attractions — The Lost Colony outdoor drama, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, The Elizabethan Gardens, the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, Roanoke Island Festival Park, Roanoke Island Maritime Museum and the charming waterfront town of Manteo with its shops, galleries and restaurants.

To the north, the Wright Brothers National Memorial is in the neighboring town of Kill Devil Hills. About 40 minutes north is Corolla, home of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, The Whalehead Club Historic House Museum and the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education.

To the south, Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge offer some of the most beautiful undeveloped beaches and natural areas you’ll ever see. The famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is about an hour’s drive from Nags Head.

Recreation

In terms of outdoor recreation, watersports and amusements, Nags Head has the largest and most varied number of options on the Outer Banks.

Of course, the ocean and sound figure prominently in Nags Head recreation. Watersports enthusiasts will appreciate Nags Head’s wealth of watersports outfitters located around milepost 16 and on the Nags Head-Roanoke Island causeway. These include outfitters for kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, kiteboarding and Parasailing, all of which are done in the shallow Roanoke Sound. Surfing lessons are taught in the ocean, of course.

Families will enjoy Nags Head’s selection of putt-putt courses, bumper boat operators and go-cart establishments.

Surf Fishing

Fishing is big in the Nags Head surf and on the two piers in town (soon to be three). Anglers taking inshore or offshore charters frequently choose Nags Head as their base because of the town’s close proximity to Oregon Inlet Fishing Center, Pirate’s Cove Marina in Manteo and Broad Creek Fishing Center or Thicket Lump Marina in Wanchese.

Nags Head is one of the few places where you can learn to hang-glide. Jockey’s Ridge State Park is a popular place for learning and practicing the sport.

Hiking on the dunes of Jockey’s Ridge and along the trails in Nags Head Woods are also popular activities in Nags Head.

Fresh Seafood

Dining/Shopping

Spread over the length of the town, you’ll find grocery stores, drug stores, beach stores, souvenir shops, art galleries, boutiques, clothing stores, movie stores, nationally known superstores, a Tanger Outlet Center and much more.

The town offers a wide range of dining options, including several soundfront restaurants with fantastic water views. You’ll find familiar chain restaurants, locally owned seafood restaurants, laid-back dives, beach-style walk-up eateries, ice cream parlors and restaurants serving pizza, sushi, Chinese, Mexican and much more.

History of Nags Head

The moniker "Nags Head" has been used since at least 1738 when the name was documented on a map.

The origin of the name has been lost to time, but everyone’s favorite legend about the name is this legend that was printed in Harper’s News Monthly in 1860. It’s said that land-based pirates would hang a lantern around the neck of a banker pony, also called a nag, and walk it along the beach at night. The up-and-down motion of the light resembled the light of a ship in the night, and other vessels would steer for it, thinking they were steering away from dangerous shoals. Of course the vessels were steering for land, where they would run aground in the surf and the pirates would pillage the ship.

Another story is that back in the days when horses, or nags, roamed free on the island, there was a tree that all the horses would visit to scratch their backs and necks. One horse, it’s said, got its head caught in the crook of the tree and couldn’t get free. It died there and as its body rotted away, the skull of the nag remained stuck in the crook of the tree for years to follow.

A less imaginative origin for the name is that a visitor from England once remarked that he found a striking resemblance between this place and a place on the English coast known as Nags Head.

Aerial View oF Nags Head, 1950s

In the 1830s prosperous farmers from the mainland began spending summering on the soundside in Nags Head. By 1840 there was a major hotel on the soundside of the island. The Nags Head Hotel was headquarters for Confederate General Wise during the Civil War Battle of Roanoke Island, and the Confederates burned it before they left to keep it from falling into Union hands.

After the Civil War, vacationers returned and a new Nags Head Hotel and a half-mile-long dock were constructed. Visitors to the hotel and neighboring homes were transported by mule-drawn carts and later trolley cars from the hotels across the island to the ocean.

At that time, the permanent residents of Nags Head lived in the protected area of Nags Head Woods. No one would have dreamed of living in the harsh conditions of the beachfront.

South Landing in Nags Head

In 1855, W. G. Pool of Elizabeth City built the first summer cottage on the ocean side of the island. Pool and his family were lonely out there all by themselves, so Pool bought up the surrounding land and sold lots to his neighbors back home for $1. By 1885 there were 13 cottages on the oceanside. Nags Head’s oceanfront orientation only continued to grow from there.

Sand dunes have always attracted people to Nags Head. The tallest and most impressive of all the dunes on the Outer Banks, Jockey’s Ridge, has long been a playground for Nags Head locals and visitors. Other well-known dunes on the Outer Banks include Run Hill, Round-About Hill, Scraggly Oak Hill, Graveyard Hill, Engagement Hill, Pin Hill and Seven Sisters, though most of these natural features have been developed.

To learn more about the history of Nags Head, see Susan Byrum Rountree’s book, Nags Headers (John F. Blair, Publisher; 2001), which is available in most local bookstores.