Featured Stories
Hyde County launches ferry toll resource website
The Ocracoke Observer is taking a survey regarding possible loss of a priority, to take it, click here.
Hyde County has set up a webpage...
If you lost your priority pass, would you have to move off Ocracoke? Take...
If you, as an Ocracoke resident, were to lose your priority pass for the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry, would the resulting difficulty in travel to and...
Figs star at the Ocracoke Fig Festival
By Connie Leinbach
Jamie Davis, executive chef of The Hackney restaurant in “little” Washington, is on a mission to showcase eastern North Carolina with his...
The ferry problem: A 72-cent solution
Bad math makes a bad tax
By Greg Piner, reprinted by permission from Town Dock of Oriental
As best as I can piece it together, a...
Some golf-cart parking now available at Springer’s Point
By Connie Leinbach
Parking is a premium all over Ocracoke Island and no more so than the entrance to the popular Springer’s Point Preserve at...
General Island Information
The Ocracoke lighthouse was 200 years old in 2023. Photo: C. Leinbach
Island Images
A Snowy Owl over the Ocracoke dunes. Photo: P. Vankevich
Snowy South Point Road. Photo: P. Vankevich
Another amazing cloud seen on Ocracoke. Photo: C. Leinbach
An Ocracoke canal. Photo: C. Leinbach
The Ocracoke ponies. Photo: P. Vankevich
Ocracoke summer surf. Photo: C. Leinbach
The Island Inn Commons in bloom. Photo: C. Leinbach
Sunset cruise on the Pamlico Sound. Photo: C. Leinbach
September 2026 print issue
The Ocracoke Observer website won first place in the 2020-2021 NCPA contest Online Division, plus four other awards. It has won more than 60 awards, many in first place, since joining the N.C. Press Association in 2015 and entering the contest starting in 2016.














