During World War I, Allied troops depended on gas masks to survive the use of chlorine and mustard gas. But the life-saving filter inside each mask required charcoal, the same ingredient being gobbled up by every train and home in the country. When scientists stumbled upon the same active ingredient in a natural replacement — nutshells and fruit pits — the United States looked to its children.
In North Carolina, civic and religious organizations in Wilmington, Winston-Salem, Warrenton, Reidsville, and other towns united their kids in a statewide search for peach pits, walnut shells, and hickory nut shells. After the seeds and pits dried in the sun, kids sprinted to designated collection sites at grocery and department stores across the state.
In Asheville, locals filled the Bon Marche department store barrel to the brim every week for three weeks straight, and in Orange County, four full barrels were cataloged over the course of a month.
By the time the war ended in November 1918, North Carolinians had compiled enough nuts and pits to fill 100 railroad cars, proving that even the youngest among us can be heroes.
To commemorate our 90th anniversary, we’ve compiled a time line that highlights the stories, contributors, and themes that have shaped this magazine — and your view of the Old North State — using nine decades of our own words.
From its northernmost point in Corolla to its southern terminus on Cedar Island, this scenic byway — bound between sound and sea — links the islands and communities of the Outer Banks.
Us? An icon? Well, after 90 years and more than 2,000 issues celebrating North Carolina from mountains to coast, we hope you’ll agree that we’ve earned the title.
After nearly a century — or just a couple of years — these seafood restaurants have become coastal icons, the places we know, love, and return to again and again.
