THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 6, 1994 TAG: 9407020190
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 168 lines
WHEN WILLIAM BYRD II, one of Virginia's landed gentry, and his party surveyed the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728, they divided the loyalties of Knotts Island residents, too.
Before then, Knotts Island, which is attached to the southern end of Virginia Beach by a marshy causeway, was thought to have been a part of the Old Dominion. Byrd's survey showed, however, that the greater part of the island was actually in North Carolina's Currituck Sound.
Suddenly, most of the residents discovered they were living in Currituck County, N.C., and only a precious few still had addresses in old Princess Anne County, Va. Not only that, but by virtue of the odd configuration of the marshy island-peninsula, the new state line actually isolated the Virginians from their state. They found themselves surrounded by the waters of Back Bay to the north and east and by Tarheel country to the west and south.
Today, one must drive south down Princess Anne Road and into North Carolina, cross the Knotts Island causeway, take a sharp left at the historical marker commemorating the dividing line, and travel back north, up Knotts Island Road, to reach the state line again. In all, one must cross more than six miles of North Carolina soil to reach Virginia.
``The line is straight,'' notes Virginia Beach Agriculture Department Director Louis Cullipher. ``It's the road that's crooked.''
Knotts Island is in such an out-of-the-way corner of Virginia Beach that when the powerful House Appropriations Committee of the General Assembly met here last month, committee member Del. Glenn Croshaw asked Cullipher to take the members all the way to Knotts Island as they toured the southern half of the city.
``He said he wanted them to see how diverse and far-reaching Virginia Beach is,'' Cullipher said.
In fact, Virginians on Knotts Island were so cut off from Princess Anne County and the rest of the state in the early part of this century that the only way to reach the island-peninsula was through the marsh on a private corduroy (logs laid crosswise) road.
``Every able-bodied man on the island had to give so many `road days,' so to speak, to keeping the road open,'' Cullipher said. ``It wasn't publicly maintained.''
Even when a paved road was built across the causeway in 1935, ``remote'' still described Knotts Island. To prove it, Cullipher took the delegates to the 50 or so acres owned by Russell Simpson on the northernmost part of the island.
Although Simpson doesn't live on the property now, he grew up there, has a cabin there and is planning to build a retirement house there soon. Like many Knotts Island families, Simpson's family has been on the Virginia side of Knotts Island since before William Byrd II even drew the dividing line.
To establish his family's long presence there, Simpson shows off an artifact that has been in the family for generations. It's a hand-wrought brass bolt attached to a piece of wood from the bow of a boat that was once owned by his great grandfather.
``The Yankees were here in 1864,'' Simpson said, ``and burned all the boats, and that's all that's left.''
Simpson carries a pistol in his back pocket for protection against vandals who have been drawn to the isolated area in the past. The pistol is also at the ready for the huge, poisonous cottonmouths, or water moccasins, that are among the many species of wildlife that have lived on Knotts Island for centuries, too.
``We have too many raccoons, too many nutria and a whole herd of deer,'' Simpson said. ``When the field's plowed up, they look like a herd of cattle crossing through.''
Simpson and his son, Russell IV, are working this summer to repair his duck blinds out on Back Bay for hunting this winter. His son gill-nets out on the bay, too. Quail, rabbits, song birds, buzzing katydids and other insects, including deer flies and mosquitoes with notorious reputations, also are a part of the Knotts Island flora and fauna.
About 30 humans live on the Virginia side of Knotts Island - officially in the Pungo Borough of Virginia Beach.
Two of them are Jane and Buster Brumley. They own Brumley Farm, 50 to 60 acres on the east side of the island along Capp's Creek, a waterway between Back Bay and Currituck Sound.
Their modern living room with the vaulted ceiling is for a far different lifestyle than Simpson's rustic hunting cabin. The Brumleys look out over a green lawn to open water with a view of False Cape State Park across the way. They keep horses, cows, dogs, cats and other animals and revel in quiet country living.
Their home may be modern, but the Brumleys are not Knotts Island newcomers. Like Simpson's family, their families have been on the island for centuries. True representatives of the island culture, one is a North Carolinian and one is a Virginian. Jane Brumley grew up close to the United Methodist church on the Carolina side, and Buster Brumley was raised in a house across the road from the land on which they now live.
``But now, I'm a Virginian all the way,'' Jane Brumley said.
When the Brumleys and Simpson were growing up, it could be understood if the children didn't know what they were. For a while, Jane Brumley and others her age were able to attend Princess Anne High School in Virginia, and Simpson was able to attend Knotts Island Elementary School in North Carolina.
``That was before the politicians got into it and ruined it,'' Simpson explained.
Now, Virginia Beach runs two school buses to Knotts Island to pick up a handful of kids for elementary school and high school. North Carolina children go to elementary school on the island but then must take the long ferry ride across the sound to high school in Currituck County.
Emergency services still cooperate. The Knotts Island Volunteer Fire Department is in North Carolina, but it is given logistical support primarily by the Virginia Beach Fire Department. And although Virginians call 911 in Virginia Beach, North Carolina police will come if needed.
Everyone's water comes from wells. Utilities are supplied by Virginia companies, but the Brumleys and Simpson still remember the days when it required long-distance to call off the island.
Other governmental services are pretty well divided. For example, city mosquito control trucks travel all the way to Knotts Island to spray. Virginia Beach garbage collectors also travel down to pick up city residents' trash. North Carolinians put up with the mosquitoes and carry their own garbage to the dump.
It's the best of both worlds for Simpson, who is a retired pharmacist, and Buster Brumley, who recently retired from the city's Public Utilities Department. And even for Jane Brumley, who's a nurse in the Cardiology Department of Virginia Beach General Hospital. She doesn't mind the daily drive all the way into town. Not at all.
``Not when you come home to here,'' she said. ``Where else can you have this freedom with your life?'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
KNOTTS ISLAND
[Color Photo]
Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
With a vaulted ceiling and large windows, Jane and Buster Brumley
enjoy a spectacular view of Back Bay from the Virginia side of
Knotts Island.
Jane and Buster Brumley aren't bothered by the long drive into town.
``Not when you come home to here,'' said Jane, a nurse at Virginia
Beach General. ``Where else can you have this freedom with your
life?''
Buster Brumley shows off his quarter horse, Smokey. The Brumleys
also have four cows, two chickens, dogs, cats and a variety of
wildlife visitors.
Photos by MARY REID BARROW
To establish his family's long presence on Knotts Island, Russell
Simpson, above, shows off an artifact, left, that has been in the
family for generations. It's a hand-wrought brass bolt attached to a
piece of wood from the bow of a boat that was once owned by his
great grandfather. ``The Yankees were here in 1864,'' Simpson said,
``and burned all the boats, and that's all that's left.''
STAFF Map of Knotts Island
Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Buster Brumley, a retired pharmacist and native of Knotts Island,
plays a game of fetch with his dog, Spike.
by CNB