This newspaper has just learned from an authoritative source that the North Carolina Fisheries Commission Board has called for plans for the construction of an inlet connecting the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the waters of Pamlico Sound at what was New Inlet, about 20 miles southeast of Croatan Sound. The plans and estimate of cost are to be submitted to the Board at its next meeting in December.
Utmost secrecy seems to have been used in calling for these plans and one of the up-state members of the Board is quoted as having whispered that the fact that plans were called for does not necessarily commit the Board ot the letting of a contract for the cutting of the inlet. The Board seems to have lost sight of the fact that it was Governor Morrison’s promise among other things to open one or more inlets on the North Caroln coast that got the last legislative appropriation of $500,000 for the Fisheries Commission to spend in behalf of the fishing industry.
And so, while the plans for New Inlet have been called for, this newspaper has a hunch that the Fisheries Commission Board as now constituted isn’t going to make haste in getting the inlet constructed unless the fishermen of the East get busy and make loud and insistent demands for it. This newspaper’s information is that the East is going to have to fight for everything it gets from Governor Morrison’s board.
Many places for the proposed experiment at inlet making have their advocates, but New Inlet has always appealed to the older members of the board. Chairman J.K. Dixon himself has set forth his reasons for favoring New Inlet. Mr. Dixon says:--
First. It is so situated geographically that its natural advantages for a permanent opening are far superior to those of the others in that its location places it in a direct line with all the great forces of water from Albemarle Sound and its tributaries. It is situated about 20 miles southwest of Croatan Sund, through which Albemarle Sound empties its entire flow of fresh water; and while it is but 33 miles north of Hatteras Inlet, it is so situated that the flow of tide from the Neuse, Bay and Pamlico Rivers through the Pamlico Sound northward and passing Hatteras Inlet, continues directly, or almost so, to New Inlet by reason of an extended neck or arm of land 12 miles north of Hatteras Inlet and immediately southwest of the Cape Channel, which forces the tide well into Pamlico Sound at that point and directs it toward New Inlet.
“It is by far the oldest inlet in the northern section of the State, having been in existence, according to available records, since about 1700, and so far as we know, much longer. It is, therefore, no experiment but an actual fact.
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From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, October 19, 1923
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