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Ribbon of Sand: The Amazing Convergence of the Ocean and the Outer Banks
Alexander and Lazell's delightful study of North Carolina's Outer Banks contains a wealth of statistics and facts . . . A Ribbon of Sand --written in romantic prose--is more like a novel. . . . Small and lightweight with chapters of less than 20 pages, this is the perfect book to take on a trip to the North Carolina coast. Interesting and informative, you'll look at a grain of sand or a wave with a whole new perspective.-- TasteFull
Ribbon of Sand is a rich and beautifully written exploration of the unique natural history and romantic past of the Outer Banks, the fragile barrier islands that stretch for almost two hundred miles down the North Carolina coast. A new preface discusses recent developments on the Banks, including the discovery and excavation of a wreck believed to be Blackbeard's ship and the continuing threat of offshore oil drilling, and throughout the book the authors reveal the controversies, natural wonders, and fascinating legends that make the Outer Banks one of the nation's most beloved treasures.
<!-- "Whether describing Nature's part in Blackbeard's dramatic last battle or explaining the environmental issues of today's coast, this fine book paints a distinct portrait of a delicate ecosystem and how humans have forever affected it.-- In Southern Words
"A delight and an education....Fixing their vision on the intersection of natural and human history, the authors offer compelling insights into the past, present, and future of the Outer Banks.--Tom D. Crouch, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
"Leaves the reader with a clear sense of place and an understanding of the forces of wind and water.-- Publishers Weekly -->
Ribbon of Sand is a rich and beautifully written exploration of the unique natural history and romantic past of the Outer Banks, the fragile barrier islands that stretch for almost two hundred miles down the North Carolina coast. A new preface discusses recent developments on the Banks, including the discovery and excavation of a wreck believed to be Blackbeard's ship and the continuing threat of offshore oil drilling, and throughout the book the authors reveal the controversies, natural wonders, and fascinating legends that make the Outer Banks one of the nation's most beloved treasures.
<!-- "Whether describing Nature's part in Blackbeard's dramatic last battle or explaining the environmental issues of today's coast, this fine book paints a distinct portrait of a delicate ecosystem and how humans have forever affected it.-- In Southern Words
"A delight and an education....Fixing their vision on the intersection of natural and human history, the authors offer compelling insights into the past, present, and future of the Outer Banks.--Tom D. Crouch, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
"Leaves the reader with a clear sense of place and an understanding of the forces of wind and water.-- Publishers Weekly -->
- GenresScienceNonfiction
238 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1992
6 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
John Alexander
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There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 27, 2023
The “ribbon of sand” is the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This set of barrier islands is like no other along the East Coast of the United States of America, as one can see simply by looking at a map. While most barrier islands cleave close to the coastal mainland that they protect, the Banks extend as much as 40 miles out to sea, establishing large shallow-water sounds between the Banks and the mainland, and causing the Banks to look like a ribbon thrown onto the floor and curving back upon itself. It is a uniquely beautiful region, and authors John Alexander and James Lazell make clear their appreciation for its beauty, and their concern for its welfare, in their 1992 book Ribbon of Sand.
Alexander, at the time of this book’s publication, was a former journalist who had become president of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina; Lazell was president of The Conservation Agency, a non-profit organization based in Jamestown, Rhode Island. Accordingly, it should be no surprise that these two co-authors, in their look at The Amazing Convergence of the Ocean and the Outer Banks (the book’s subtitle), focus on two core themes: the importance of preserving the unique and fragile ecosystem of the Banks, and the equal importance of finding innovative leaders who can make policy decisions that will keep the Banks alive and healthy.
The various chapters of Ribbon of Sand look at how sand, land, and water work in an unusual sort of harmony along the Outer Banks. Several factors – (1) the longshore current that moves from north to south along the coastal waters of the Banks, (2) the outflow current that pushes brackish water from the sounds out through coastal inlets into the sea, and (3) the oceanic overwash that occurs when big storms push sand off the beach, over the line of sand dunes, and westward toward the sounds – ensure that some of the old inlets that divide the islands from each other will inevitably close, while others will just as inevitably open up.
Oregon Inlet, today the headquarters for offshore charter fishing, did not even exist until 1846; and New Inlet, which “periodically opened and closed from about 1730 to the 1930’s”, is now closed, perhaps permanently – even though, “When it was open, it made Pea Island an island” (p. 49). This process is ongoing, as anyone knows who has tried to drive southward along N.C. 12 on Hatteras Island after a major storm, only to find that the state highway department has had to establish a hastily constructed detour where another new inlet is trying to form.
A key theme of Ribbon of Sand relates to the challenges posed by the continued growth of the resort economy that draws thousands of visitors to the Outer Banks each year. A chapter titled simply “Woods,” for example, takes as its subject Buxton Woods – a 1,000-acre stretch of maritime forest on Hatteras Island. A Virginia-born artist named Shay Clanton, who had relocated to the village of Frisco, was enchanted by the way in which, “forty miles out to sea, the dogwood bloomed that spring, as it blooms so brightly every spring throughout North Carolina” (p. 100). But then she learned, to her dismay, that a group of investors planned to build a new golf-course community “on 163 acres in the heart of Buxton Woods” – a development that “would effectively cut out the heart of the woods” (p. 101). The story that follows, of the attempts by Clanton and others to prevent the building of the golf-course community, illustrates well the ongoing challenge of balancing economic development and environmental preservation along the Outer Banks.
Other chapters deal with historical highlights of Outer Banks life that have now become hallmarks of the region’s tourism economy. The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, with the still-unknown fate of its colonists dramatized each year in a popular summertime play at a sound-side outdoor theatre, receives due mention. A chapter on Blackbeard reminds one of how important pirate tourism has become on Ocracoke Island.
And another chapter, called “Flight,” calls to mind how the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk has led to the establishment of a much-visited national park at Kill Devil Hills. In the process, Alexander and Lazell remind the reader of what drew the Ohio-born Wright Brothers to this part of the North Carolina coast: the “fickle winds [that] are so much a part of life and lore on the Outer Banks” (p. 152). It turns out that “The Outer Banks, [which] are ideally situated to experience all the caprice that winds and weather can muster” (p. 151), were also ideally situated to provide the outdoor laboratory in which Wilbur and Orville Wright could try out their new ideas about powered flight – and, ultimately, get their Wright Flyer successfully off the ground.
A final chapter, titled “Convergences,” illustrates well the ongoing environmental issues and policy problems facing the people of the Outer Banks. A 1990 dredge accident, which temporarily closed the Bonner Bridge that spanned Oregon Inlet and connected the Outer Banks mainland to Hatteras Island, sparked a fierce policy debate over what to do about Oregon Inlet as the natural forces mentioned above move the inlet slowly but inexorably southward. Should jetties be built? Should the dredging continue, or be accelerated? Should sand be pumped out of the channel? Should the inlet be permitted to close, if that is what Nature wants to do?
Anyone who drove across the Bonner Bridge back in the 1990’s or early 2000’s – as my family and I did, every summer, for the many years that we made the Outer Banks our summer home – would probably agree with Alexander and Lazell’s 1992 observations regarding the effects of sand transport:
To the present traveler, the bridge seems to begin well inland, on the northern, upstream side of Oregon Inlet….As one crosses the span, the stricture of the channel and its displacement southward are strikingly apparent….[T]he inlet has moved south….We believe any fair-minded person can see that Oregon Inlet wants to close. (p. 202).
Thirty years after the publication of Ribbon of Sand, the Bonner Bridge is gone – demolished in 2019 and 2020, and replaced by a new bridge called the Marc Basnight Bridge (though many Bankers simply call it the “New Bonner Bridge”). Climate change, which Alexander and Lazell mention a couple of times in their book, has become even more prevalent as a concern than it was in 1992, with years of record high temperatures and rising sea levels following upon one another - raising the question of whether there will even be an Outer Banks of North Carolina a century from now. One finishes Ribbon of Sand with a strong sense that the Outer Banks constitute a unique ecosystem and environment that should be saved – but that can only be saved if enlightened leaders can mobilize their constituents, at all levels, to make difficult decisions and take action now rather than later.
Alexander, at the time of this book’s publication, was a former journalist who had become president of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina; Lazell was president of The Conservation Agency, a non-profit organization based in Jamestown, Rhode Island. Accordingly, it should be no surprise that these two co-authors, in their look at The Amazing Convergence of the Ocean and the Outer Banks (the book’s subtitle), focus on two core themes: the importance of preserving the unique and fragile ecosystem of the Banks, and the equal importance of finding innovative leaders who can make policy decisions that will keep the Banks alive and healthy.
The various chapters of Ribbon of Sand look at how sand, land, and water work in an unusual sort of harmony along the Outer Banks. Several factors – (1) the longshore current that moves from north to south along the coastal waters of the Banks, (2) the outflow current that pushes brackish water from the sounds out through coastal inlets into the sea, and (3) the oceanic overwash that occurs when big storms push sand off the beach, over the line of sand dunes, and westward toward the sounds – ensure that some of the old inlets that divide the islands from each other will inevitably close, while others will just as inevitably open up.
Oregon Inlet, today the headquarters for offshore charter fishing, did not even exist until 1846; and New Inlet, which “periodically opened and closed from about 1730 to the 1930’s”, is now closed, perhaps permanently – even though, “When it was open, it made Pea Island an island” (p. 49). This process is ongoing, as anyone knows who has tried to drive southward along N.C. 12 on Hatteras Island after a major storm, only to find that the state highway department has had to establish a hastily constructed detour where another new inlet is trying to form.
A key theme of Ribbon of Sand relates to the challenges posed by the continued growth of the resort economy that draws thousands of visitors to the Outer Banks each year. A chapter titled simply “Woods,” for example, takes as its subject Buxton Woods – a 1,000-acre stretch of maritime forest on Hatteras Island. A Virginia-born artist named Shay Clanton, who had relocated to the village of Frisco, was enchanted by the way in which, “forty miles out to sea, the dogwood bloomed that spring, as it blooms so brightly every spring throughout North Carolina” (p. 100). But then she learned, to her dismay, that a group of investors planned to build a new golf-course community “on 163 acres in the heart of Buxton Woods” – a development that “would effectively cut out the heart of the woods” (p. 101). The story that follows, of the attempts by Clanton and others to prevent the building of the golf-course community, illustrates well the ongoing challenge of balancing economic development and environmental preservation along the Outer Banks.
Other chapters deal with historical highlights of Outer Banks life that have now become hallmarks of the region’s tourism economy. The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, with the still-unknown fate of its colonists dramatized each year in a popular summertime play at a sound-side outdoor theatre, receives due mention. A chapter on Blackbeard reminds one of how important pirate tourism has become on Ocracoke Island.
And another chapter, called “Flight,” calls to mind how the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk has led to the establishment of a much-visited national park at Kill Devil Hills. In the process, Alexander and Lazell remind the reader of what drew the Ohio-born Wright Brothers to this part of the North Carolina coast: the “fickle winds [that] are so much a part of life and lore on the Outer Banks” (p. 152). It turns out that “The Outer Banks, [which] are ideally situated to experience all the caprice that winds and weather can muster” (p. 151), were also ideally situated to provide the outdoor laboratory in which Wilbur and Orville Wright could try out their new ideas about powered flight – and, ultimately, get their Wright Flyer successfully off the ground.
A final chapter, titled “Convergences,” illustrates well the ongoing environmental issues and policy problems facing the people of the Outer Banks. A 1990 dredge accident, which temporarily closed the Bonner Bridge that spanned Oregon Inlet and connected the Outer Banks mainland to Hatteras Island, sparked a fierce policy debate over what to do about Oregon Inlet as the natural forces mentioned above move the inlet slowly but inexorably southward. Should jetties be built? Should the dredging continue, or be accelerated? Should sand be pumped out of the channel? Should the inlet be permitted to close, if that is what Nature wants to do?
Anyone who drove across the Bonner Bridge back in the 1990’s or early 2000’s – as my family and I did, every summer, for the many years that we made the Outer Banks our summer home – would probably agree with Alexander and Lazell’s 1992 observations regarding the effects of sand transport:
To the present traveler, the bridge seems to begin well inland, on the northern, upstream side of Oregon Inlet….As one crosses the span, the stricture of the channel and its displacement southward are strikingly apparent….[T]he inlet has moved south….We believe any fair-minded person can see that Oregon Inlet wants to close. (p. 202).
Thirty years after the publication of Ribbon of Sand, the Bonner Bridge is gone – demolished in 2019 and 2020, and replaced by a new bridge called the Marc Basnight Bridge (though many Bankers simply call it the “New Bonner Bridge”). Climate change, which Alexander and Lazell mention a couple of times in their book, has become even more prevalent as a concern than it was in 1992, with years of record high temperatures and rising sea levels following upon one another - raising the question of whether there will even be an Outer Banks of North Carolina a century from now. One finishes Ribbon of Sand with a strong sense that the Outer Banks constitute a unique ecosystem and environment that should be saved – but that can only be saved if enlightened leaders can mobilize their constituents, at all levels, to make difficult decisions and take action now rather than later.
August 1, 2010
This story of the Outer Banks has its moments, but is largely a meandering slop-pot of history, ecology, and social commentary. Rather arrogantly written, it hasn't worn well after 18 years, being pockmarked with scientific errors.
June 5, 2015
Multidisciplinary look at the Outer Banks
I've adopted North Carolina as home for almost 10 years now, and of all the places in the state, I love the Outer Banks the most. The ocean, sand, wind, weather draws me to it like the moon draws at the tides. I have found more peace there than any other vacation place we have ever gone (don't get me wrong, I love Disneyworld, but it isn't ;always peaceful).
Alexander and Lazell take a multipdisciplinary look at the "ribbon of sand" that is the Banks, calling on geology, meteorology, biology, and history to explain why its there--the why a question of debate for many centuries, and the there a shifting point of reference as the sand, unanchored except by man's futile attempts, ever shifts in response to wind, sea, and storm. In fact, Alexander and lazell, point out, the Banks are just a pile of sand 30 feet deep resting on the ocean and the edge of the continental shelf slowly migrating south and west in response to those natural movers.
One particularly interesting chapter talks about the future of the Outer Banks, and though the book was written in 1992, was as fresh as this month's headlines in talking about the risks of oil spills and disturbances to commercial fishing grounds if off-shore drilling is approved east of the islands. America needs oil, true, but the BP accident in the Gulf shows the attendant risk to the environment of off-shore platforms, and while the Outer Banks have blcked North Carolina's industrial growth over the centuries, they have become a source of economic strength for their natural beauty and tourism, so any risk to that economic engine is a risk that North Carolina may not be ready to take. As a realistic citizen I am torn. I want my prisitine Outer Banks to restore my soul, but I need gas and oil to fuel my car to get there.
It will be interesting to see where we are another 18 years into the future on this issue.
I've adopted North Carolina as home for almost 10 years now, and of all the places in the state, I love the Outer Banks the most. The ocean, sand, wind, weather draws me to it like the moon draws at the tides. I have found more peace there than any other vacation place we have ever gone (don't get me wrong, I love Disneyworld, but it isn't ;always peaceful).
Alexander and Lazell take a multipdisciplinary look at the "ribbon of sand" that is the Banks, calling on geology, meteorology, biology, and history to explain why its there--the why a question of debate for many centuries, and the there a shifting point of reference as the sand, unanchored except by man's futile attempts, ever shifts in response to wind, sea, and storm. In fact, Alexander and lazell, point out, the Banks are just a pile of sand 30 feet deep resting on the ocean and the edge of the continental shelf slowly migrating south and west in response to those natural movers.
One particularly interesting chapter talks about the future of the Outer Banks, and though the book was written in 1992, was as fresh as this month's headlines in talking about the risks of oil spills and disturbances to commercial fishing grounds if off-shore drilling is approved east of the islands. America needs oil, true, but the BP accident in the Gulf shows the attendant risk to the environment of off-shore platforms, and while the Outer Banks have blcked North Carolina's industrial growth over the centuries, they have become a source of economic strength for their natural beauty and tourism, so any risk to that economic engine is a risk that North Carolina may not be ready to take. As a realistic citizen I am torn. I want my prisitine Outer Banks to restore my soul, but I need gas and oil to fuel my car to get there.
It will be interesting to see where we are another 18 years into the future on this issue.
January 29, 2012
Ribbon of Sand is a good book to take with you on your Outer Banks vacation, especially if you are new to the region. One of many fine Outer Banks regional books published by the University of North Carolina Press, this book provides helpful chapters on a variety of topics specific to the region, such as the Lost Colony, Blackbeard, and the Wright Brothers. All of these topics receive full-length treatment in other books, and therefore Ribbon of Sand can be a good place to start learning about these historical highlights. I particularly liked the authors' discussion of how oceanic overwash pulls sand off some islands and distributes it to others, as well as a chapter that explores how, in Buxton Woods (the largest stretch of forest on the Banks), three species -- a wax myrtle, a rice rat, and a king snake -- seem to have evolved into a sort of biological symbiosis, with each species helping the other two to survive in a harsh environment. The closing chapter, "Convergences," emphasizes well the fragility of the Outer Banks "ribbon of sand" as ecosystem and as human community. If you do read this book on your Outer Banks trip, don't be surprised if you find yourself harboring a greater appreciation of the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a unique place that needs to be preserved and protected.
May 11, 2021
An amazing look into the ecology and history of the Outer banks. I just wanted a quick overview to prepare me for a beach vacation, but I got sooo much more. I was very surprised to find this was published in 1992. The details change, but the larger issues remain the same. Thankfully the Cape Hatteras lighthouse has been saved!
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February 28, 2023It was interesting to learn the history of this little strip of sand off the coast of North Carolina.
December 1, 2014
Although it was an interesting read, it seemed to jump around a lot with the actual science behind the ribbon and how humans effected/used it. Instead of an interesting well written science book, this book is a perfect book for someone who is possibly visiting this area and wants to learn a general idea of the history and background of this area.
February 26, 2020
The authors repeatedly misspelled my surname when referencing a man who co-authored something in the 17th century. When I got to the chapter on snakes, I decided I'd had enough. The book is fairly academic in tone. It's boring. I abandoned it about halfway through.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews