U.S. Weather Bureau Station - Hatteras, NC Restored Historic Treasure Opens as Welcome Center on the Outer Banks

PRESS RELEASE
from http://www.outerbanks.org/

U.S. Weather Bureau Station - Hatteras, NC
Restored Historic Treasure Opens as Welcome Center on the Outer Banks

HATTERAS, N.C. (July 10, 2007) – With great fanfare, the U.S. Weather Bureau Station in Hatteras Village, NC ceremoniously reopened its doors as the Outer Banks’ newest Welcome Center on Monday, July 9th. The building which dates back to 1901 is on the National Register of Historic Places, and served until it was decommissioned in 1946. The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau in partnership with the National Park Service officially opened the distinctive butter-yellow building with its cedar-shingled widow’s walk where it will serve as a visitor resource center in Dare County’s southernmost village on Hatteras Island.

“It is long been a goal of the Dare County Tourism Board to establish a permanent physical presence on Hatteras Island and to provide daily travel information to all visitors that pass through the Cape Hatteras National Seashore,” explains Carolyn McCormick, managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau. “The bonus is to provide visitor services in one of the most beautiful and well maintained historic structures in the Outer Banks, and to be a partner with the National Park Service and have the ability to open these doors to history.”

The first of eleven similarly constructed outposts built at the turn of the 20th century, the U.S. Weather Bureau Station, Hatteras, NC is the only standing structure of its original architectural design. Several dozen weather bureau stations of varying construction followed over the years. The station was manned by an observer and a maintenance man and was equipped with telegraph communication to the District Forecast Center in Washington, D.C. Hourly checks were made of the temperature, humidity, wind velocity, solar radiation, barometric pressure and precipitation. An important part of the national weather network, the station received information from lifesaving stations, issued coastal forecasts and storm warnings.

Renovations by the National Park Service totaling $850,000 were completed on the U.S. Weather Bureau Station, Hatteras, NC in 2005, but the historic national treasure was closed to the public until now. With the re-opening of this National Treasure, the Outer Banks visitor experience will be greatly enhanced and will round out welcome centers at each main entry to theses fragile barrier islands. The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau operates Aycock Brown Welcome Center in Kitty Hawk, the Outer Banks Welcome Center on Roanoke Island, and the Hatteras Island Welcome Center at Whalebone Junction in Nags Head.

For more information and a free travel guide, please visit the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau website at outerbanks.org or call 877-629-4386.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For high resolution photos, please contact Aaron Tuell at tuell@outerbanks.org

About The Outer Banks
The Outer Banks of North Carolina is a chain of barrier islands midway on the Atlantic Seaboard. The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau is a public authority and the lead marketing and promotional agency for Dare County's Outer Banks. The Bureau’s web site is www.outerbanks.org.