[peaceful music]
- [man 1] Sometimes occasionally you get the
hustle and bustle, but man, you come up here and just relax.
- [woman 1] We're the Northern Outer Banks,
we're where the road ends, basically.
- [woman 2] Our ocean and our beaches are beautiful.
You can spend an entire day really enjoying yourself here.
Even if you left the beach out of it.
- [woman 1] We've just got a lot of special things here.
- [man 2] That combined to form a place that's unique
in all kinds of ways, starting with it's pronunciation.
- [woman 2] Our town is pronounced Corolla.
- Corolla.
- Corolla, not Corolla. This is not a Toyota.
- [man 2] But to it's core, Corolla and it's people
are welcoming and plenty accustomed to a mispronunciation
here and there.
- We're used to it. Even my mother says Corolla
and I've worked here forever.
- [man 2] In addition to their beaches,
Corolla and Currituck County are perhaps best known for
wild horse tours,
but the area has many other attractions.
And four of them are located within steps of each other
at historic Corolla park.
- People can just come park their car or come by boat.
They can climb the lighthouse. They can see whalehead.
They can go to the wildlife center in the Currituck maritime
museum.
- We are a destination location, and a lot of people
don't realize what made us who we are here.
So this park, this whole park as a whole
with all the entities really tells our story.
- [man 2] A story told through four special places
each with its own significance.
Let's start with the most prominent,
which also happens to be the tallest and the oldest.
- [Meghan] The Currituck beach lighthouse was first
illuminated in 1875.
It illuminated the last dark space on the Atlantic ocean.
It's 162 feet to the top of the building and it has 220
steps to the top.
- [man] Even if you're completely out of shape,
you can still come up here cause there's plenty of places to
stop. You can stop at each landing,
learn a little bit about the lighthouse, catch your breath.
Then when you get up here, it's a million dollar view.
- [Meghan] We don't rush people out of the lighthouse.
So you get to the top, you can spend a while just thinking
and enjoying life.
- [Mark] You get up here that you don't have a care in the
world.
Even if you come up twice a day,
you're going to see a different view,
you're going to see the colors change in the ocean.
- [man] Between eighty and a hundred thousand people visit
the Currituck beach lighthouse each year,
and when they're finished, many of those folks stroll over
to another historic attraction,
just a few hundred feet away.
- [woman] The Whalehead club is a 1920s era house museum.
It's a lot larger than it looks from the outside.
It's a five story building 21,000 square feet.
People do compare us to Biltmore and they say Biltmore
the Outer Banks.
- [man] And like the Biltmore estate,
the whalehead club was the creation of a wealthy family
for the Northeast.
Edward Knight Jr. and his wife Mary Louise
envisioned the whalehead club as a coastal
retreat and hunting lodge.
Construction was completed in 1925 with the full
restoration coming about 20 years ago.
- [woman] It's just in a beautiful setting.
I mean all around us with the sound.
What we're known for is our art nouveau style.
There's very bright colors in the rooms,
like the kitchen is candy pink. It's just a happy place.
We do a self guided audio tour on iPods
with different stops, and people can go at their own pace.
- [man] The waterfowl and other wildlife in the area
were a huge draw to the whalehead and other hunt clubs
in the early part of the 20th century.
That heritage is still on full display,
just across from the whalehead at the outer banks center
for wildlife education.
- Most people that come in look around and go,
what is this place?
And they come to find out that we have an outstanding
gallery.
It'll take you through all the parts of the county, people,
places.
And of course, one of the most outstanding Mid-Atlantic
decoy collections around.
At some point in our future, we'll be back
with our programming,
which will include things like fishing, crabbing, archery,
kayaking, and sound sampling,
and give them little Pluff mud between your toes.
- [man] The community is focused on its coastal heritage
and culture is front and center at the newest attraction
at historic Corolla park, the Currituck maritime museum,
which opened in the summer of 2021.
- [man] We're going to be showcasing in the museum right
around a dozen historical boats that were all built here
in Currituck,
different styles that were used here.
We have a series of AB screens around the museum that tell
different stories about boat-building, about hunting,
fishing, decoy carving.
Those stories have really been captured, you know,
through some historical perspective,
but then also through continuing traditions that we're still
doing.
- [man] Giving modern day visitors and perhaps even some
full-time residents,
a more complete history of Corolla and a greater
appreciation for how the coastal community has evolved over
the decades.
- [man] There wasn't a road to Corolla from Dare County
until 1984.
So the only way to access Corolla was by boat or four wheel
drive vehicle.
It's a totally different world here now than it was back
then.
So getting to tell the story of how we got where we are is a
really unique experience.
- [Deborah] For more information on the Currituck Beach
Lighthouse, the Whalehead Club,
and so many other attractions in and around Corolla,
head to VisitCurrituck.com.