On our way home from Ocracoke, I had two LSS that I wanted to stop in on and see if anything new was going on. One of them was of course Little Kinnakeet. We have visited this site a couple of different times and each time, we could tell that some work was being completed and that things for the station were improving. At our last visit in October, scaffolding surrounded the 1874 station and I could tell major work was occurring. Imagine our surprise when we pulled in and the 1874 station and the 1892 summer kitchen were painted an orange color, which was accurate to the 1892 time period.
There is a chain link fence that surrounds the property and because if this, it makes it hard to get good photos of the station buildings. Staying out side the fence, I started taking photos of the station and one of the men working there spoke. He asked if we wanted to come in and take a few photos.
We drove around and parked, and went into the office to pick up our hard hats. Yes, I have photos, and we introduced ourselves and were given some information about what is going on there. When the Historic Structures Report (HRS) was mentioned, I told them that I had two photos in the HRS for the Bodie Island LSS. He flipped out the Bodie HRS, and there were my photos. I have the actual hard copy of the report, and they had to print theirs from a CD. The NPS didn’t have the hard copies of the report yet, but I have had mine since November. If that wasn’t cool enough, that got us a personal guided tour of both buildings. You know we took a number of photos that we will share if you are interested.
By the way, the Bodie Island station buildings are going to be moved to the entrance to the Bodie Island LSS access road later on in the year. The buildings at both stations are going through stabilization at this time only; restoration will be coming later when funding is gathered.
Here is one of the 1874 station now that it is almost painted so you can get an idea of what we are talking about and other photos are on my site.
The 1904 Station Building
1892 Summer Kitchen