Where Imagination Runs Free - The Crystal Coast - North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks - (Page 2) History & Heritage Spanish explorers landed on these shores in the 1500s. Union and Confederate troops fought over them during the Civil War. Pirates, including Blackbeard, controlled these waters in times passed. Today, their footprints still remain on the sands and in the waters everywhere you look. S hackleford Banks, an island just off the coast, is home to a herd of wild horses descended from Spanish horses that swam ashore hundreds of years ago. With the lighthouse in the background, they roam the island, giving visitors a window to the past. In Beaufort, life during Colonial times waits to be discovered. The quaint streets are lined with period homes and guides in period costumes that will lead you through the state’s third oldest town, complete with the oldest wood-framed courthouse and one of the state’s oldest cemeteries, the Old Burying Ground. 2
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