Here’s 10 things to know about Kill Devil Hills:
- Chartered in 1953
- One of the most populated towns on the Outer Banks
- Is known as the “Birthplace of Aviation”
- Location of The Wright Brothers National Memorial
- First Flight Airstrip added to the Wright Brothers National Memorial in 1963.
- Location: 36* 1’ 32” N 75* 40’ 12” W
- In 2003, celebrated the Centennial of Flight—a weeklong celebration that included President George W. Bush and astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin among the thousands that came to the Outer Banks.
- Everyone needs to go to the Avalon Pier.
- How it got its name: Many visitors ask how Kill Devil Hills got its name. Several versions circulate on the Outer Banks. One legend suggests the pirates who once called these shores home are to blame. Apparently, one night while taking a “shore leave,” a surly lot of buccaneers were sitting amid the sand dunes that towered over the landscape, drinking moonshine that was “strong enough to kill the devil.” Another version holds that in the 1700s William Byrd of Virginia, apparently no admirer of the Carolinas, wrote that “most of the rum they get in the country comes from New England, and is so bad and unwholesome that it is not improperly called “Kill Devil.” Other lore suggests the town received its moniker from an old brand of rum that washed ashore at the dunes here, the only surviving cargo from a nameless shipwreck.
- For more information about Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina visit http://www.kdhnc.com/