Tides & Towns
Outer Banks · NC

Corolla and Duck

The northern Outer Banks, where wild horses still roam the dunes.

Duck population
742 (2020 census)
Duck incorporated
2002
Currituck Beach Light
Lit in 1875, never painted
Tides
Two highs, two lows a day

Then

  1. 1500s

    Spanish horses arrive on the Outer Banks. Corolla's wild Banker horses are believed to descend from them.

  2. 1875

    The Currituck Beach Light is first lit on December 1. The 162-foot tower, built of about a million bricks, is left unpainted.

  3. 1876

    A Victorian stick-style keepers' house is finished beside the lighthouse.

  4. 1922–1925

    Edward Collings Knight Jr. and his wife, Marie-Louise, build Corolla Island, a winter retreat on the sound where their guests hunt waterfowl. It is now known as the Whalehead Club.

  5. 1940s

    During World War II, the Knights' former house serves as a Coast Guard base.

  6. 1980

    The Outer Banks Conservationists begin restoring the lighthouse and its grounds with private money and volunteer work.

  7. 1992

    Currituck County buys the Whalehead Club and restores it as a public historic house.

  8. 2002

    Duck, named for the waterfowl of Currituck Sound, incorporates on May 1 as Dare County's sixth town.

Now

Wild Banker horses roam a 12,000-acre sanctuary north of Corolla, and in summer more than fifty thousand people a week come to see them.

Duck is a small town of shops and restaurants between the ocean and Currituck Sound, with a 0.78-mile boardwalk along the sound.

Today's tide here comes from NOAA's station at the Duck pier, on the ocean side.

On the water

From NOAA's predictions for Duck, NC over the next 365 days. Heights are in feet above mean lower low water (MLLW).

Pattern
Two highs and two lows a day, close in size
Typical daily range
3.5 ft
Biggest swing
5.0 ft on Nov 25
Smallest swing
2.0 ft on Feb 27
Highest high
4.7 ft, Oct 1 at 8:51 AM
Lowest low
−0.9 ft, Jan 23 at 1:19 AM

Tide stations around Corolla and Duck

Sources