The dynamics of a beach community are unique in the American experience, for it is rare to find any other place that so captivates its residents and visitors with its breathtaking scenery, imbued with images or romance and nostalgia, and intertwined with the very tangible and visible dangers of the seas. The beaches surrounding Wilmington truly possess this mystical sense of place, beckoning thousand of people every year to find refuge and relaxation along its flawless sands.

In Cape Fear Beaches, with more than 200 rare, black-and-white photographs, you will step back into affectionate memory, when early residents slept in hammocks in precarious beach shacks, when grand buildings, such as Lumina and the Oceanic Hotel, dotted the beachscape, when road repair meant a shovelful of oyster shells to mend a pothole, and when bathing suits left almost everything to the imagination. This volume also recounts the black community's experiences along these beaches, primarily at Seabreeze and Shell Island, and shares their personal stories and triumphs in a changing social scene, in which Reconstruction values slowly gave way to Civil Rights - era equality.

Throughout the book, scenes of proud fishermen, both amateur and professional, with their daily catches, snapshots of family picnics on the beach, and photographs of friends posed with the ocean as a backdrop remind us that at the beach, the pace of life is measured not by the hands of a clock, but by the steady, changing tides.