William J. Snow-- Part 4: Post World War I

Back in last month, I was writing about Army General William J. Snow, the father of Lt. Col. William A. Snow, who engineered Snow's Cut in North Carolina near Wlmington.  Always, reaching the Snow's Cut Bridge on US Highway 421, meant you were entering Carolina Beach, my favorite all-time beach.

Major General Snow was a major figure in the U.S. Army's artrillery in the first part of the 20th century.  Much like Anne-Louis Toussard was for the Continental Army and early 1800s U.S. Army (I've been writing about him in my Cooter's History Thing blog last month.

AFTER WORLD WAR I

After World War I, Wiliam Snow continued to serve as Chief of U.S. Artillery.  This position was codified by law in 1920.  He served until retiring in 1927.  

During this time, he oversaw the artillery branch's postwar reorganization, including the beginning of testing and experimentation to determine how to transition from horse drawn equipment to mechanized and modernized processes for directing and  controlling  indirect fire to improve speed and accuracy.

--Cooter

Snow's Cut, Cape Fear Are Great for Flounder

From Carolina Sportsman site.

The waters of the Lower Cape Fear River and Snow's Cut are great for catching flounder, especially large flounder.  Indeed the state record for this fish, twenty pounds, was caight here in 1980.  However, flounder fishing isn't as good as it once was, but you can still catch ten pounders and heavier.

Snow's Cut is a manmade  channel that carries the Intercoastal Waterway from Carolina Beach to the Cape Fear River.  Named for Major William A. Snow, project manager for the U.S. Corps of Engineers for the initial dredging, it is about 1.75 miles long and originally dredged to 120 feet wide and  12 feet deep.

Many locals opposed its construction because of the introduction of more salt seawater through Carolina Beach Inlet into the Cape Fear River ten miles inland, the project was apprived and completed.  It killed many of the cypress trees lining the river banks.

--Cooter

About Major William A. Snow (of Snow's Cut)-- Part 1: (How You Know You've Arrived at Carolina Beach, NC)

From the May 2017 Federal Point Historic Preservation Society Newsletter.

If you're driving on U.S. Highway 421 south of Wilmington, North Carolina, heading to the beaches on what is now referred to as Pleasure Island, you may notice crossing a pretty big bridge over some water.  That is the Snow's Cut Bridge.

That bridge always excited me growing up because that meant I got my first glimpse of the ocean and my favorite beach of all time, Carolina Beach.  The old heart started going pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat.  We have ARRIVED.  Hot Dog!!

Of course,  speaking of hot dogs, we already would have stopped at Paul's Place in Rocky Point for their famous hot dogs (with that sauce!!).  Just part of the going to the beach thing.

Well, that stretch of water that the bridge crosses has a name.  It is Snow's Cut.  It took its name from the man who engineered it, Major William A. Snow, a World War I veteran.  That water the bridge crossed is part of the Intercoastal Waterway and connects the Cape Fear River on the west side to sounds on the east side.

--Cooter

Claude R. Pfaff-- Part 7: Fishing and Active in the Community

In the 1960s, Claude and Atha retired from the dairy farm and spent from early spring to late fall at the cottage at Carolina Beach.  Daughter Gerri says her father practically lived on Fisherman Steel Pier at Carolina Beach, coming home only when his wife demanded he eat or sleep.

In those years he became a member of the Carolina Beach Presbyterian Church and an active member in the life of the local community, often sitting on the benches of the boardwalk and people-watching while Atha played bingo.  There used to be a lot of bingo parlors and at one time the boardwalk was right by the ocean in the days before the dunes were established.

They saw Carolina Beach go into decline in the 1950s, which continued through to around 1980, when it started coming back to being the tourist destination it is today.

Claude died in November 1983 and Atha in September 1986.

Gerri Cohen is their last surviving child and currently lives in Wilmington, but still uses the cottage in the summer, sharing it with her extended family.  She is a member of the Federal Point Historical Society and generously offered her father's World War I uniform for display during the war's centennial.

--DaCoot

Claude R. Pfaff-- Part 6: Carolina Beach During World War II

Often during World War II, the Pfaff family ended up sharing their small cottage at Carolina Beach, "The Lullaby" with a family of strangers.  because of the shortage of housing in Wilmington area, property owners were required to rent out their houses in order to provide the families of the enlisted men due to ship out soon a place to spend a week at the beach before they separated.

Only office space was exempt, so Atha designated one room as an office.

--Cooter

Claude R. Pfaff-- Part 5: Summers At Carolina Beach, N.C.

Gerri Cohen (their daughter) remembers that as soon as her school was out the family would get on US Highway 421 in Winston-Salem and take it to Carolina Beach where they would stay all summer until just before school began in September.

Now, that's the life.  Beach bum for the summer.  I'd only get to do that for about a week and definitely not every summer.  Perhaps if we had continued living in North Carolina and had Hurricane Hazel not destroyed my grandparents' cottage on Carolina Beach's Southern Extension, I might have been able to do that as well.

Us Highway 421 goes right through Carolina Beach and ends at the "Rocks" by Fort Fisher, about four miles away.  I have taken  US-421 from its northern terminus in Michigan City, Indiana, all the way to the "Rocks."  Before I-40, it was the way to go from Winston-Salem (which it passes through) to Carolina Beach.

Carolina Beach, One of My Favorite Places in the World.  --CootBum

World War I the Subject of the January Federal Point Historic Preservation Society

From the January Newsletter.

January Meeting, Monday, Jan. 16, 2017.

All meetings held at 7:30 p.m.., at the Federal Point History Center at 1121-A North Lake Park Boulevard, adjacent to the Carolina Beach, N.C., Town Hall.

The speaker was Jan Davidson, historian at the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science in Wilmington.  She discussed World War I and New Hanover County's role in the fight.  She concentrated on the impact on men and women and the items her museum has from them.

She has been at the Cape Fear Museum for 11 years and has been involved in a wide variety of research projects.  Lately she has been working on the history of World War I because of its upcoming centennial anniversary for the United States' involvement.

She has a PhD and has previously worked at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

I was lucky enough to attend this presentation.

--DaCoot

Wrestling Returned to Wilmington (N.C.) and Wrightsville Beach Has No Drownings in 1956

From the September 5, 2016, Wilmington (NC) Star-News "Looking Back" by Scott Nunn.

September 2, 1956--  Wrestling returned to the area for the first time since the beginning of the war.  Three hundred attended the "All Gal" card at Carolina Beach Town hall.  In January there was a night of wrestling in Thalian Hall in Wilmington.

**  September 9, 1956--  Wrightsville Beach got through the official summer season with no drownings.  They had 14 life guards on the beach.

--Cooter

Carolina Beach Declares Successful Summer Season in 1912

From the October 2, 2012, Wilmington (NC) Star-News "Back Then."

SEPTEMBER 11, 1912:  "The season at Carolina Beach, which was one of the most successful in its history, formally closed on Sunday and the Harper line of steamers to this popular resort in a few days will go on their regular Winter schedule.

"With the gallant Capt. Harper still at the helm, Carolina Beach this year was even more popular than ever and the statistics of travel show that during the season 104,300 persons were handled between Wilmington and the beach and the beach and Wilmington."

The river steamer Continental was the primary mode of travel to Carolina Beach.  Passengers got off on the east bank of the Cape Fear River and a small train took them to Carolina Beach.  There were very few people living at the beach full time.

This was before roads were built to Carolina Beach so by far the fastest way there was via boat.

A Favorite Beach of My Family.  --Cooter

The Beginnings of Carolina Beach, NC-- Part 2

From the Arcadia book "Carolina Beach" by Elaine Blackmon Henson.

For the 1888 season, Captain Harper purchased the steamer Sylvan Grove which could carry 600 passengers on its three decks.  On July 4, 1888, it made two trips from Wilmington, bringing over 800 people who swam in the surf, looked for shells and took a hack (carriage) to Fort Fisher. That evening, fireworks were shot off from the bow of the ship.

In 1889, the Sugar Loaf pier was moved to Doctor's Point which had deeper water for the new steamer and because of it, the railroad was lengthened a mile.  New cottages were built along with a windmill and reservoir.

In 1889, 19 more cottages were built, making a total of 34.  Lots were selling for $1 a foot.  That winter, a fire of unknown origins destroyed the Sylvan Grove.  Captain Harper went loooking for another steamer and found one in Wilmington, Delaware, which was already named the Wilmington.  It made its first  trip to Carolina Beach in 1891.

The next few summers, more steamers began bringing people to the thriving resort: the Clarence, Murchison, Italian and Lillie.  Baseball became very popular and many teams formed playing the game on the beach

In 1910, a fire destroyed the Pavilion, Kure's Bathhouse and Smith Cottage in 1910.A new pavilion opened in 1911.

Carolina Beach Was On Its Way.  --Cooter

The Beginnings of Carolina Beach, NC-- Part 1

On one of the trips to "The Rocks, Joseph Lloyd Winner of Wilmington, NC, got off at Sugar Loaf on the Cape Fear River and walked across to the beach on the ocean.  He bought a large tract of land fromJames T. Burris in December 1880.  (The land had previously been owned by blacks.)  He laid out streets and named a new town St. Joseph.  It failed to prosper because of its remote location and lack of transportation.  However, St. Joseph Street is still in town and Winner's descendants still play a major role in Carolina Beach.

Seeing potential, Captain Harper, William Smith and some others bought a 24-acre strip of land for $66.50 from Robert Bruce Freeman which essentially is the north end of Carolina Beach today.  They began building a railroad in January 1887, and by June, passengers were cruising down the Cape Fear River on the Passport, landing on a pier at Sugar Loaf, boarding a little train named the "Shoo Fly" for the two-mile ride to the beach.

For the first summer, most came just for the day and used the facilities at the new pavilion.  Those wishing to stay found lodging at Bryan's Oceanic Hotel and ate at the Railroad Station Restaurant.  So many people wanted to go to the new resort that the 350-passenger steamer Passport started pulling a barge fitted to hold another 150.

Business Was Good.  --DaCoot

That Was ONE REALLY ROUGH Hurricane

The date was Oct. 15, 1954, when what is considered the worst natural disaster ever to strike the state of North Carolina, particularly along the coast, struck. And, that would be Hurricane Hazel.

At Carolina Beach, 98 mph winds destroyed 362 cottages, including the one belonging to my grandparents on the Southern Extension. Another 663 were badly damaged. I myself (at age 3), lived through it in Goldsboro, about ninety miles from the coast and even there, much damage took place.

At Topsail Beach, to the north of Carolina Beach, 231 cottages were destroyed (but not the concrete reinforced missile towers). Only 22 cottages were left.

One Big-Bad Storm. --Cooter

Now, That's a Doughnut!!-- Part 2

Continuing with the Britt's article in the July 2009 Our State magazine.

H. L. Britt opened the place in 1939 (70th anniversary last year). No mention, however, if it stayed open during World War II considering the mandatory blackouts along the coast.

Current owner Bobby Nivens worked for Britt from 1954-56 and bought it with his wife Maxine in 1974. Back then he had thoughts of turning it into a Dunkin' Donuts -type chain, but after a few years of seven-day-a-week work, decided against it. Plus, now it is open on weekends only from March to Memorial Day, then seven days a week, then weekends only through October. During the summer, twelve employees work it along with the Nivens.

Change doesn't happen here. As Booby says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Much of the spartan equipment is original to 1939 as is Britt's recipe, which is top secret and hasn't changed either.

This is a real treat. I'd have to say the best doughnuts I've ever eaten. It is located at #11 Boardwalk (no phone number)and definitely worth a stop. Don't be surprised, however, by the crowds that gather.

Bet you can't eat just one.

You'll Be Glad You Did. --Cooter

Now, That's a Doughnut!!-- Part 1

And, we're talking about those mouth watering concoctions served up at Britt's Donut Shop at Carolina Beach, North Carolina. The July 2009 Our State magazine for North Carolina did me no favors by running a five page spread on one of my favorite places anywhere to eat. "Sugar Rush" by Kathy Grant Westbrook.

Even worse, they had pictures with two full page donuts and the owners holding some in that plastic paper.

Current owners Bobby and Maxine Nivens have been using the exact same recipe for the glazed doughnuts that has been around since the 1930s. The only food the place sells besides drinks (coffee, milk, and pop) is that glorious sugar-glazed item.

"A Britt's doughnut is always fresh and warm, and no matter how gingerly you hold it, it is impossible not to compress it between your fingers and your thumb." Plus, it is so light, you'll want another and another... and then another.

I'll Have a Britt's. --Cooter