Learn the history of boat building on the Outer Banks. They have an amazing Volunteer Program where you can spend some time in the boat shop restoring boats, or on their free sailing trips for an adventure on Shallowbag Bay!
Roanoke Island History & Arts
Experience Arts & Culture in the Manteo Area
Roanoke Island Maritime Museum
Marshes Lighthouse
The original screw-pile lighthouse that once aided mariners in Croatan Sound was a cottage built over the water, with the lighthouse serving as both beacon and residence. Stroll to the end of the pier on the Manteo Waterfront to see this lighthouse, containing exhibits highlighting Roanoke Island’s maritime history and information on the lighthouse and its keepers.
Roanoke Island Festival Park
Roanoke Island Festival Park, .5 miles from our Outer banks bed and breakfast, offers a new adventure in an old world, and allows guests to experience first-hand what life was like for the first English settlers in 1585. Historic costumed interpreters throughout the Settlement Site and on the Elizabeth II ship demonstrate how the first settlers lived, and Indian Town features interactive exhibits for all ages.
Roanoke Island Historic Farm
The Farm is the living story of the everyday Outer Bankers, living on Roanoke Island in the mid-1800s. Here, an island family experienced the impacts of the Civil War, performed harrowing rescues as members of the US Life-Saving Service, and assisted the Wright Brothers in their dream of achieving powered flight, all while feeding chickens, fishing the sounds, and growing corn for grinding at the windmill.
North Carolina Aquarium
The “Waters of the Outer Banks” are waiting to be discovered. Marvel at the largest group of sharks in the state. Witness our conservation efforts in the Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation (STAR) Center. Interact with scuba divers. See an alligator. Touch the stingrays. Wonder at the playful river otters.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
Fort Raleigh preserves Roanoke Island history and England’s first New World settlements from 1584 to 1590. This site also preserves the cultural heritage of the Native Americans, European Americans and African Americans who have lived on Roanoke Island. It is also home to The Lost Colony, an outdoor drama that has run annually almost every summer since 1937.
National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center
See how the Outer Banks will change as the sea level rises. Experience a short film in the old Dare Forest Supply Store about Buffalo City as a bustling logging and moonshining town! Find the critters in the pocosin diorama in the main lobby. Have a picture taken as a genuine wild lands firefighter! Take a short nature trail through the woods behind the center. (Visitor center temporarily closed due to Coronavirus. Trails open.)