Featured Stories
Dare to host community meeting on recent NC 12 closure
From our news services
Dare County will host a community meeting to discuss communication and coordination related to imminent closures of N.C. Highway 12 from...
State plans September public listening sessions as part of ferry tolling mandate
From our news services
MANNS HARBOR – The N.C. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division plans to host public listening sessions in September as the division...
Bennink joins N.C. Catch Chef Ambassador program
Observer staff report
Executive Chef Daphne Bennink, owner of Ocracoke’s Back Porch Restaurant, has joined the NC Catch Chef Ambassador Program, the organization’s first to...
Gold found on Ocracoke
Editor's note: This story was first published in the May 2026 Ocracoke Observer issue.
By Connie Leinbach
It wasn’t the fabled Blackbeard’s treasure, but finding a...
‘Ocracoke Untamed’ captures the island’s rich natural world
By Peter Vankevich
Island residents Karen Rhodes and Matt Janson present a photographic and narrative journey through the Ocracoke’s ecosystem in their 160-page coffee...
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
Northern lights seen on Ocracoke Nov. 12, 2025. Photo by Ocracoke Harbor Inn
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
August 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.
