Alvah Ward, Jr. Papers, PC.5083

[identification of item], PC.5083, Alvah Ward, Jr. Papers, Outer Banks History Center, Manteo, NC, U.S.A.

The Alvah Ward, Jr. Papers, 1902-2017, consists of papers primarily related to the professional interests of Alvah Ward, Sr. and Alvah Ward, Jr. The bulk of the collection consists of material related to the Oregon Inlet Project, Wanchese Harbor Project, Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park, and Manteo/Shallowbag Bay Project. Papers include correspondence, articles, reports, maps, meeting minutes, reference material, planning documents, briefs, and proposals from vendors. In addition to these major projects, the collection also includes documents related to the seafood industry generally and other organizations associated with North Carolina fisheries.

A significant portion of the collection consists of material related to Alvah, Jr.'s book, When Ice Came to the Outer Banks. These papers include drafts and proofs of the book's first and second editions, publicity and promotional material, and research materials gathered by Ward when writing the manuscript. Most of the research materials are original records related to the Dare County Ice and Storage Company left to Alvah, Jr. by his father, but reproductions of photographs and other items found by Alvah, Jr. in private collections, archival repositories, and online are also included.

The collection also includes Alvah, Jr.'s personal papers, including correspondence, news clippings, photographs, family papers, and publications.

This collection is arranged into 7 series: Oregon Inlet Project, 1947-1975; Wanchese Harbor Project and Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park, 1965-1981; Manteo and Shallowbag Bay, 1965-1981; Other Organizations, 1967-1978; When Ice Came to the Outer Banks, 1902-2017; North Carolina Fisheries Association, 1958-1968; and Personal Papers, circa 1918-1981. Original order has been retained.

This collection primarily focuses on Alvah Haff Ward, Sr. (1894-1952) and his son, Alvah Haff Ward, Jr. (1929-), and their efforts to maintain an accessible waterway at Oregon Inlet, as well as their professional interests. Oregon Inlet is the northern-most inlet in North Carolina and an important waterway for charter fishing boats, commercial fishing vessels, and recreational boaters. Although the inlet has existed since 1846, it has migrated at least two miles to the south since that time and changed in shape and appearance. The inlet's channel, which continually shoals with the ever-moving sand created by the outflow, is maintained by a dredge.

The initial efforts to provide access from Pamlico Sound and adjacent waterways to the sea through Oregon Inlet, began during World War II under the leadership of Alvah Ward, Sr. (1894-1952). Alvah, Sr. owned and operated the only ice manufacturing facility in the area, the Dare County Ice and Storage Company, so commercial fishing was especially important to his business. By the 1940s, North Carolina's commercial fishing fleet was mostly shrimp trawlers from the southeastern coast, which were forced to navigate Hatteras and Drum Inlets, as well as maneuver around Cape Lookout, Cape Hatteras, and the treacherous Diamond Shoals. The traditional fishery was on a rapid decline, and so was the economy of Dare County. After Alvah, Sr. mounted what became a ten-year, coastal-wide grassroots effort to have Oregon Inlet deepened, Congress finally authorized the Manteo-Shallowbag Bay Navigation Project. It provided for a deepened channel 14 feet across the bar, with a channel 12 feet deep from the bar to deep water in Pamlico Sound and to Manteo Harbor with a side channel to Wanchese Harbor.

In 1954, following Alvah, Sr.'s death, his son, Alvah, Jr., returned to Manteo to manage family interests. Alvah, Jr. had graduated from the Citadel in 1951 and had been commissioned into the United States Army. The Dare County Board of Commissioners asked Alvah, Jr. to continue to pursue the Oregon Inlet deepening project. After considerable effort, which included briefs written by Alvah, Jr. and Ben Dixon MacNeill, and through the efforts of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, Congressman Herbert C. Bonner, and Walter B. Jones, Sr., the actual construction and deepening was finished in 1958.

Soon after the deepening of Oregon Inlet, Wanchese and fishing interests throughout eastern North Carolina began to expand operations. As a result, fishery landings greatly increased, and Wanchese emerged as a leading fishing port, despite continued shoaling in the inlet. At the request of industry and county government, Alvah, Jr. agreed to address the justification for the permanent stabilization of Oregon Inlet with a jetty system. Proper justification was presented on several occasions and finally Congressional approval for construction was granted in 1970. Almost immediately, opposition by organized environmental groups throughout the nation emerged, led by the Department of the Interior who saw the loss of land required for anchoring the north jetty as a threat to their national mandates. This project would go uncompleted.

Alvah Jr. joined the North Carolina Department of Commerce in 1969 as a Marine Industries Consultant to the General Development Staff in Raleigh. In this position, he submitted the concept of a seafood industrial park to the Coastal Plains Regional Commission (CPRC), headed by Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. This would become the Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park. Alvah, Jr. conducted marketing plans for the facility and engaged seafood and marine related interests nationwide, who were committed to locating, receiving, processing, and marketing facilities within the park after completion. The Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park was completed on schedule, and under budget, without a large outlay of state funds. All plans were based on the concept of offloading ocean-going vessels of considerable tonnage at Wanchese. After it became clear that Oregon Inlet would not be stabilized, interest began to wane, and the state amended the mission of the facility to include all marine interests.

After retirement, Alvah, Jr. used his father's papers to write a historical nonfiction book with coauthor R. Wayne Gray entitled When Ice Came to the Outer Banks: A Local History of Ice and its Impact on the Development of the Coastal Region. As of 2020, Alvah, Jr. still resides in Dare County.

1. Oregon Inlet Project, 1947-1975

2. Wanchese Harbor Project and Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park, 1965-1981

3. Manteo and Shallowbag Bay, 1965-1981

4. Other Organizations, 1967-1978

5. When Ice Came to the Outer Banks, 1902-2017

6. North Carolina Fisheries Association, 1958-1968

7. Personal Papers, circa 1918-1981

Ward, Alvah Haff, 1894-1952

Dare County Ice and Storage Company (N.C.)

Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park (Wanchese, N.C.)

Dredging--North Carolina

Fisheries--North Carolina--Roanoke Island

Ice industry--North Carolina--Roanoke Island

Trawls and trawling--North Carolina

Seafood industry--North Carolina

Oregon Inlet (N.C.)--History--20th century

Wanchese (N.C.)--History

Oregon Inlet (N.C.)--Environmental conditions

Shallowbag Bay (N.C.)--History--20th century

Donated by Alvah Ward, Jr., October 1997, October 2015, and May 2017, and June 2017.

Processed by Samantha Crisp, February 2020.