The Mighty Midgetts of Chicamacomico

by Nell Wise Wechter cover photo - Nelson Midgett 1974/Times Printing Co.Inc., Manteo, NC 27954

(excerpts)......."No, the (United States) Coast Guard was not invented along the shores of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But if North Carolina did not invent coastal lifesaving, its citizens served to perfect the techniques of coastal lifesaving stations and were the saviors of many shipwrecked mariners. The name Midgett has stood out in the history books, giving each succeeding generation a giant of a legend to live up to. More than 150 living members of the Midgett family have made the Coast Guard a career (as of 1974).." Seven men of the Midgett family have been awarded the nation's highest award for saving a life, the Gold Lifesaving Medal."......"Don Wharton, writing in the August, 1957 issue of "American Mercury", gave his opinion:..Most Midgetts are stocky, broad-shouldered, with fair complexions, usually blue or hazel eyes. Their speech has touches of Elizabethan English. No one knows where they came from, though it is generallly believed that the first Midgetts on the Outer Banks were themselves shipwrecked mariners. Court records show they have been on the Outer Banks 223 years (as of 1957)..."

In Memory

Watson Lewis Midgett, Great-Grandfather William Gray Midgett, Grandfather Seldon Ray Midgett, Father

U.S. Life Saving Service

The predecessor to our current day United States Coast Guard

By Act of Congress, 1915, the USLSS became the modern day USCG. These USLSS buttons and hatpin were recovered on the Outer Banks by Ray Midgett.

A native of Manteo, NC, Ray Midgett is retired and lives in Southern Shores on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Having been involved with the relic hunting/metal detecting hobby for nearly thirty years, Midgett once produced a video on metal detecting/relic hunting, entitled TREASURE TRIPS (now out of production). The film covered over 40 hunting trips with "Seaweed and the Soda Pop Pirates" in and around the historic Outer Banks and Albemarle region of northeastern North Carolina.
Treasure hunting articles by Midgett have appeared in WESTERN & EASTERN TREASURE magazine, the OUTER BANKS SENTINEL newspaper, OUTER BANKS LIVING and published in THE BEACH HUNTER'S GUIDE (by Donald A. Barthel, Real World Productions)..His Outer Banks photographs have appeared in local, state, national and international publications and he has been recognized by the North Carolina Press Association with awards in news reporting and photojournalism.

TIDBIT: Legend says that early pirates kept black cats aboard their ship for good luck. Capt'n Seaweed's family cat, "Shafer" was the grand prize winner of $10,000 on ABC's "AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS."