Before the arrival of European explorers and settlers, Harkers Island was inhabited by Native Americans of the
Coree tribe, who likely spoke a language of the
Algonquian family, like most coastal tribes. The nearby
Core Sound and
Core Banks are named after the Coree. The Coree left little in the way of evidence of permanent habitation on Harkers Island, except for a large
mound of oyster shells at Shell Point on the eastern end of the island. Similar shell mounds were found by Europeans on the
Shackleford Banks and other islands of the Outer Banks. The exact purpose of the mounds for the Coree remains unknown, but varying cultures of
indigenous peoples in the
Southeast had been building major
earthwork mounds since 3500 BCE, the
Middle Archaic period, usually related to religious and ceremonial uses. In 1584, an English expedition financed by
Sir Walter Raleigh and led by Philip Amadas and
Arthur Barlowe explored the North Carolina coast for a suitable site for the first English colony in North America. Two Native Americans,
Wanchese and
Manteo, accompanied the expedition back to England in the fall of 1584. According to local island legend, Wanchese was a Coree from Harkers Island. The island was first charted on the maps drawn by
John White during the 1584 expedition, but it was unnamed at the time. The island appears on a 1624 map of the greater Virginia coastline created by
Captain John Smith. On that map, the island is labeled "Davers Ile", probably for Sir John Davers, one of the founders of
Jamestown in 1607. On December 20, 1707, Farnifold Green obtained the first
patent for land in the Core Sound area from the lord proprietor of the Carolina colony, which had been established by the English monarch
Charles I in 1633. This patent included Harkers Island, which was then known as Craney Island. On June 25, 1709, Green sold the island to William Brice for £5, who on the very same day sold it to Thomas Sparrow III (1674–1717) for £10. Sparrow soon sold the island to Thomas Pollock, who would twice be governor of North Carolina (from 1712 to 1714 and again in 1722). Pollock did not take up residence on the island, but had several farm buildings erected and then leased to settlers. The 1720 lease to a Captain Stone was £3 a year. Thomas Pollock's son George inherited the island upon his father's death on August 30, 1722.
Settlement of Ebenezer Harker George Pollock sold Craney Island to Ebenezer Harker on September 15, 1730, for £400 and "one boate twentey foot long with oars & mast". Harker had immigrated to
Massachusetts from England on a ship that set sail from
Wales. Living in
Boston, Harker had been involved in the
whaling trade, and became familiar with the North Carolina coast during this time. Harker had moved to
Beaufort, North Carolina, by 1728, where he was appointed a tax collector for the
whale oil revenue generated in the area. After purchasing the island, Harker took up residence there with his family and began building a small plantation and boat yard. Harker sold half of the island to his nephew John Stevens of
Onslow County on March 8, 1733, for £300, with many restrictions on its agricultural use. Prohibited from farming or ranching the land for profit, Stevens eventually sold his half of the island back to his uncle on June 9, 1737, for just £180. The Harker plantation and boat building facility were located at the western end of the island, near Harker Point, and grew to support an extended family with three sons, two daughters, and at least nine African slaves. Ebenezer would be the last sole landowner of the island. In 1752, he deeded approximately of the island to his daughter Hepsobeth and her husband Nathan Yeomans as a wedding gift. On his death in 1762, his son Zachariah inherited the western third of the island, an adult slave woman named Vilet, and a young female slave named Daisie. Another son, James, inherited the eastern third of the island, an adult slave woman named Hague and a young male slave named Peter. Ebenezer Jr. inherited the central third of the island, an adult male slave named Jeffrey, and a young male slave named Sutton. Hepsobeth inherited "one barrel of
corn", and Ebenezer's other married daughter, Sarah Freshwater, was given a female slave named Hope. The fate of an elderly female slave named Badge and a young male slave named Ben was left to the heirs to decide. In 1864, the first school on the island was established when Miss Jenny Bell came to Harkers Island from Boston, sponsored by the
Northern Methodist Episcopal Church. A
fish oil factory was built on the island in 1865 and remained operational until 1873. Despite these difficult beginnings, Harker's Island has one of the highest percentages of residents as members of the Latter-day Saints of any locality in North Carolina.
Twentieth century Harkers Island gradually became more connected to North Carolina and the world at large early in the 20th century. With the influx of new residents from the Outer Banks, a post office was opened in 1904. The first public road to extend the length of the island, Harkers Island Drive, was built in 1926 when a footpath was widened and paved with the oyster shells from the Coree mound at Shell Point. The road was hard paved by the county in 1936. The road and the post office were connected to the mainland by a ferry service until the Earl C. Davis Memorial Bridge was built in 1941. A wooden structure, the bridge connected the northwestern end of Harkers Island to the small town of Straits directly to the north. The location of the bridge was a matter of some local controversy at the time. Most islanders would have preferred a bridge to the west, connecting the island directly to the city of Beaufort with its commercial infrastructure and the county hospital. Local politics and the shorter distance to Straits likely dictated the final location of the bridge. A local political effort to relocate the bridge during its renovation to a steel structure in 1966 also failed. In November 1941, the construction of a new
United States Marine Corps Air Station at
Cherry Point, to the northwest of Harkers Island, brought more wage-earning jobs to the local economy. When the United States entered
World War II, Harkers Island was on the front lines.
German submarines patrolled the North Carolina coast and sank merchant shipping traffic, especially oil tankers. Island residents could watch the tankers burning offshore at night. Conversion of the Banks to a national park brought much turmoil to Harkers Island. Many Harkers Island fishermen discovered that cottages and other improvements they had made on the Banks were on land that would be
condemned. Many land
deeds had recording errors, some had been poorly surveyed, and natural changes to the shorelines affected many claims. Few of the cottages that had been built were on land that the builders owned. Legal eviction and condemnation proceedings lasted into the 1980s. The creation of the park also ended the open grazing of livestock on the Banks by December 31, 1985. A herd of wild horses, allegedly descended from Spanish horses that swam to shore from
shipwrecks in the 16th century, was allowed to remain on the Banks. In late December of that year, a series of arson fires destroyed most of the major structures on the Shackleford Banks, including a recently constructed park visitor center. An inquiry by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to discover the arsonists. The creation of the National Seashore marked the end of a lifestyle practiced by many Harkers Island residents. Fishing and boat building remain important components of the community's economy, but are increasingly augmented with
tourism. Visitors arrive at Harkers Island seeking access to the National Seashore, for
sport fishing opportunities, and to experience the local cultural heritage of the islands. ==Geography==