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Want to catch fat whiting? Try 13th
telephone pole above three cabins

north. We decided to make a fire break by driving the beachbuggy NASCAR style around the cabin. I went to bed that night hoping to not fall asleep.  he fire burned itself out in the marsh.  By the time we left the island there was only a small smoke flume remaining.
In the 1950s and early '60s old telegraph poles still ran the length of the island connecting the coast guard stations. They were along the back side of the island through the camp.   remember someone commenting that antique collectors would like to have those glass insulators. Each bar had four insulators.  There were hundreds of poles. I could not understand then why anyone would want the glass insulators. The telegraph poles were visible from the beach because there were no dunes. They served as mile markers to identify fishing holes.  There was a good whiting hole thirteen poles above the three cabins (possibly cabins 1-3 of today).  Other fishing holes were noted relative to a leaning pole, a missing pole or a twisted bar. 
The poles were sawed down in the early 1970s. You can see the remains of these poles on the beach at low tide as you approach the Drum Inlet area. They were once on the back side of the island, near the marsh grass. This is clear evidence of the westward migration of the island.  When you are there, look at the line of sight of these poles appearing to go straight into the ocean. Realize that today's Drum Inlet was blasted by the Army Corp of Engineers in the mid 1960s to bring it closer to the fishing town of Atlantic. The original Drum Inlet was a mile or more farther north.
Sterling Dixon built his own dock in the early '60s. It was near his house, just south of the current Alger Willis docks.

This is the third installment of Mark Weir's recollections of his early days on Davis Island. Mark is a DIFF Club member in Mocksville.
We want to publish similar items about island history. Send them to Frank Tursi, 3851 Willowood Dr., Clemmons, N.C. 27012 or by e mail to Ftursi@earthlink.net.

By Mark Weir

Fire on the island! 
Not a pleasant thought anywhere. We never knew what started the fire during a fall trip around 1970. The smoke was rising from a large fire a few miles north of the cabins.  It burned for a couple of days. The first night, it seemed to be getting larger. We stood outside the cabin wondering just how far away it was.  We could see the flames dancing under the smoke cloud. They would flare up and die down only to flare up in another spot. Apparently a large area of marsh grass was burning.
By the early 70s sparse vegetation was beginning to appear all over the island. I looked through the binoculars to see more detail of the fire. I could see the framing of a man-made structure totally engulfed in flames. Naturally, the wind was coming from the

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