Outer Banks Beachcomber Museum

Welcome to the

Outer Banks Beachcomber Museum

Located in Historic

Mattie Midgette's Store

on North Carolina's Outer Banks

in the heart of Old Nags Head

Home of the

Nellie Myrtle Beachcomber Collection

Updated 5-3-2013..........

OPEN HOUSE

The Beachcomber Museum will be open for viewing of the

Nellie Myrtle Collection

Friday, May 24 and Monday May 27 from

10 AM ~ 5 PM

Admission is free!

We hope you can make it by for a visit!

The Beachcomber Museum is located on

the west side of Hwy 12, the Beach Road,

at Mile Post 13 just south of Jockeys Ridge.

It is between Dune Street to the south

and Soundside Road to the North.

4008 South Virginia Dare Trail

Nags Head, NC 27959

Post Office Drawer Three

More info HERE...

Discovering Nature's

Vanishing Gems

"This beautiful book written by

Richard LaMotte is a fascinating reference for anyone who loves beachcombing. It shows the reader how to find the most advantageous times and

locations to hunt sea glass

and to identify the possible source of the glass shards,

their age, historical

significance,

and rarity."

Richard currently serves as the North American Sea Glass Association president and has visited the Beachcomber Museum twice and appraised the collection for its rare treasures.

LaMotte says,

“When it comes to beachcombers of the 20th century, no one single collection comes close to the wealth of artifacts as those amassed by Nellie Myrtle Pridgen. Her trove of gifts from the shoreline and dunes of Nags Head serves as a 60-year time capsule of life on the Atlantic as items adrift from north and south found respite along North Carolina's Outer Banks. The shelves of a once thriving grocery store display thousands of stunning sea glass shards and dozens of antique bottles.”

“Like the reclusive collector herself, the diverse items from our past have remained mostly out of the public eye,” LaMotte says. “She passed away in 1992 and never desired attention for her collection. Dorothy Hope and Chaz Winkler now carefully watch the store and its treasure. Their reluctance to move anything out of the nest is easily understood. Members of the beachcombing community would likely agree this is the immaculate collection.”

"I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull's way and the whale's way

Where the wind's like a whetted knife."

From ~ Sea Fever ~ By John Masefield

"For most of her 74 years, Nellie Myrtle – as everyone called her – walked at dusk and dawn, day in and day out, along the oceanfront, the sound side and the dunes at Jockey’s Ridge, scouting for beach glass, bottles, old dolls, anything interesting that the sea tossed aside or the sands gave up. By the time she died in 1992, she had amassed jar after jar of sea glass, sorted by color; seashells of every distinction; colorful plastic toys that fill a big basket; bottles of every color and size, some containing messages; and numerous nautical artifacts."

Catherine Kozak ~ The Virginian Pilot ~ Norfolk Virginia