The Smithsonian Features Ocracoke’s Blackbeard 300th Anniversary

Ocracoke Island gets on a lot of lists, and now it has landed on a Smithsonian Institution top-ten destination list of world anniversaries worth traveling for this year.

Smithsonian activities and articles focus the educational and historical, and Ocracoke has a big one coming Oct. 25 to 28–the 300th anniversary of the pirate Blackbeard’s demise on this little island off the North Carolina coast. Among other places in the world with notable anniversaries, ranging from the 50th- to 500th, Ocracoke is listed third. The article mentions the road races April 28 and 29 and the island’s undeveloped beaches.

“2018 marks the 300th anniversary of this storied encounter,” the article says. “North Carolina is without a doubt the place to be for pirate enthusiasts this year. Stroll the wild, undeveloped beaches of Ocracoke Island’s Cape Hatteras National Seashore, break a sweat in the Blackbeard Half Marathon on April 29, or join Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree in late October, which promises a “historically accurate pirate encampment” and a reenactment of Blackbeard’s final battle.”

To read the article, click here.