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Dare County, North Carolina

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles

—digitized titles

35historic places

—earliest paper

1870formed

36,915pop. 2020

5cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 35 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1966; 3 are also National Historic Landmarks. Most listings are in or near Nags Head, Manteo, Buxton.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for North Carolina is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Dare titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

10 of 35 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

35 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Ballance, Ellsworth and Lovie, House	Hatteras	Building	2001
Bodie Island Lifesaving/Coast Guard Station	Nags Head	District	1979
Bodie Island Light Station	Nags Head	District	2003
C.S.S. CURLEW (side-wheel steamer)	Mann's Harbor	Structure	2018
Caffeys Inlet Lifesaving Station	Duck	Building	1978
Cape Hatteras Light Station NHL	Buxton	District	1978
Chicamacomico Life Saving Station	Rodanthe	Building	1976
Creef, George Washington, House	Manteo	Building	1982
DIXIE ARROW (shipwreck and remains)	Ocracoke	Site	2013
Daniels, John T., House	Manteo	Building	2003
E.M. CLARK (shipwreck and remains)	Cape Hatteras	Site	2013
EMPIRE GEM (shipwreck and remains)	Cape Hatteras	Site	2013
Etheridge, Adam Dough, House	Manteo	Building	2025
First Colony Inn	Nags Head	Building	1993
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site	Manteo	Site	1966
Hatteras Weather Bureau Station	Hatteras	Building	1978
Herbert and Ann Creef House	Manteo	Building	2025
Kitty Hawk Life-Saving Station	Kitty Hawk	Building	1984
LANCING (shipwreck)	Buxton	Site	2013
LIGHT VESSEL 71 (shipwreck)	Buxton	Site	2015
Markham-Albertson-Stinson Cottage	Nags Head	Building	2006
Meekins, Thedore S., House	Manteo	Building	1982
Midgett, Mattie, Store and House	Nags Head	Building	2004
Midgett, Rasmus, House	Waves	Building	2009
Nags Head Beach Cottages Historic District	Nags Head	District	1977
Oregon Inlet Station	Rodanthe	Building	1975
Salvo Post Office	Salvo	Building	1993
Sam's Diner	Kill Devil Hills	Building	1999
Sea Foam Motel	Nags Head	Building	2004
U-576 and BLUEFIELDS (shipwrecks and remains)	Hatteras	Site	2015
U-701 (submarine) shipwreck and remains	Buxton	Site	2015
U-85 (submarine) shipwreck and remains	Nags Head	Site	2015
USS HURON	Nags Head	Structure	1991
USS MONITOR NHL	Cape Hatteras	Site	1974
Wright Brothers National Memorial NHL	Kill Devil Hills	District	1966

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Dare was formed in 1870 (1870-02-03) from Currituck, Hyde, Tyrrell.

DARE created from CURRITUCK, HYDE, and TYRRELL.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Dare County population from 1870 to 2020 (Census historical series).

1870	1880	1900	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
2,778	3,243	4,757	5,115	6,041	5,405	5,935	13,377	29,967	36,915

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

National Park Service sites nearby

NPS

Park units within about 40 km of the county centroid (from NPS Public POIs; no API key).

Site	Type	Dist.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore	Park unit	27.0 km
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site	Park unit	37.1 km
Wright Brothers National Memorial	Park unit	46.5 km

Source: NPS National Datasets / Public POIs. The NPS Developer API requires a free key and was not used.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

5 cemeteries and 1 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 5 of 5 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Austin Cemetery	36.06838	-75.73452
Baum Cemetery	36.05997	-75.70265
Hilltop Cemetery	36.01187	-75.69497
Shiloh Methodist Church Cemetery	35.70183	-75.74351
World War 2 British Sailor Cemetery	35.24814	-75.53325

Historical populated places — 1 of 1

Name	Lat	Lon
Roanoac	35.94378	-75.70879

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Dare County, North Carolina

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.