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Cape Hatteras National Seashore

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Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Image credit

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1949, CC0

Protected since

1937

Size · acres

30,000

State

North Carolina

Nearest town

Nags Head, North Carolina

The wildlife this land supports

Not Just Made for You and Me

Sea Turtle

Pelicans

Dolphins

Piping Plover

Drawn here for generations

Art Inspired by this Land

Bodie Island Light Station, Off Highway 12, Nags Head, Dare County, NC

1933 Historic American Buildings Survey Courtesy Library of Congress

Second Day’s Action at Hatteras Inlet. Shelling Fort Hatteras

Sketched by A. Waud, Esq. Illustration published in NYIN, Volume IV, No. 98, 1861

Drawing Showing the Spiral Stripes Design for the Lighthouse at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

Department of Commerce. Bureau of Lighthouses. 1913-7/1/1939

A North East Headland

1901 Childe Hassam Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

North Carolina - Cape Hatteras - NARA

War Department, Army Air Forces, 1941-1947

Bodie Island Light Station, Off Highway 12, Nags Head, Dare County, NC

1933 Historic American Buildings Survey Courtesy Library of Congress

A North East Headland

1901 Childe Hassam Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second Day’s Action at Hatteras Inlet. Shelling Fort Hatteras

Sketched by A. Waud, Esq. Illustration published in NYIN, Volume IV, No. 98, 1861

North Carolina - Cape Hatteras - NARA

War Department, Army Air Forces, 1941-1947

Drawing Showing the Spiral Stripes Design for the Lighthouse at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

Department of Commerce. Bureau of Lighthouses. 1913-7/1/1939

North Carolina

Nags Head, North Carolina

Cape Hatteras is a shifting coastline where dunes move with the wind and the Atlantic constantly redraws the edge of the land.

Plan your visit

Conditions on the ground

Travel conditions

—

under threat

Why this land is at risk

Staffing Reductions; Habitat Management Risk

Staffing shortages could impact habitat protection and beach access management.

Coastal erosion, storm impacts, and infrastructure vulnerability are ongoing challenges.

More info: https://www.nps.gov/caha/learn/management/index.htm

Take action

Stand up for Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Public lands belong to all of us — and they stay protected only when people pay attention. Plan a visit, share this place, and add your voice to the people working to keep it wild.

Visit the official site

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