Cape Lookout Lighthouse

Standing on "Shell Point," a spit of land at the tip of Harkers Island, one is embraced by the waters of Core Sound. Looking southeast, the Cape Lookout Lighthouse stands in solitude across a marsh-studded sound on South Core Banks, overlooking Lookout Bight on the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. These waters have carried the great people who have lived here: lighthouse keepers, life-saving surfmen, boatwrights, fishermen, net makers, whalers, and all those who formed independent communities that made a living from the sea. South Core and Shackleford Banks were once a contiguous barrier island prior to a hurricane in 1933 and formed the center of local maritime activity beginning in the early 16th century when explorers came in search of the great western sea.