Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_11 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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A HISTORIAN'S COAST
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The Navassa G but the tow factory, with its own school, a livery stable, a restaurant, about 20 houses and at least five bunkhouses for unmarried workers. Moss' mother vividly recalled the commu- nity life in Pocomoke. "We would get together, cook and talk and eat and have church in each others' home," her mother told her. "They'd go to each others' houses and sing and pray. It stayed that way for years." Other fertilizer factories depended heavily on the local mining of marl, fossilized seashells rich in a calcium that had the much-desired effect of fixing nitrogen in manured soils. Expansive marl deposits can be found throughout much of the North Carolina coast, and they were first mined commercially just after the Civil War. G.Z. French's lime and phosphate facility at Rocky Point was perhaps the best- known of these operations. Like many fertilizer pioneers, French got into the uano Co. has fallen into disrepair, n it built boasts 600 residents. business via his agricultural interests. He was an innovative farmer with extensive holdings of truck vegetables, and he continued to farm while he engaged in the fertilizer trade. A different kind of fertilizer company operated at Cronly, about 17 miles west of Wilmington. Established in 1883, the Acme Manufacturing Co. concentrated on cotton- seed oil. According to the 1884 North Carolina Business Directory, the 10-acre factory complex also made fertilizers out of "peanuts, palm kernels, linseed, flax-seed or any other oil-yielding substance which they can obtain" and experimented with using oil distilled from longleaf pine needles. Even the menhaden industry was a part of the guano business. According to Barbara Garrity-Blake, author of a fascinating portrait of the menhaden industry called The Fish Factory, the name "menhaden" comes from the Native American word munnawhatteaug, meaning "that which manures." The menhaden factories in Beaufort, Morehead City and Southport would eventually produce mostly fish meal, an important additive to livestock feed. But into the 1910s and 1920s, the menhaden catch was used principally for oil and guano. By 1907, North Carolina had at least 10 fish factories that processed about 57 million pounds of menhaden, much of it destined for the Navassa Guano Co. This forgotten tale of our fertilizer industry may not be the most romantic part of our coastal history. We're talking about bird droppings and manure, after all. But that doesn't mean that we should forget it. Countless souls shoveled guano and phosphate rock in our ports. Many others sweated through 12-hour shifts in sulfuric acid factories or trudged through the darkest nights to make the first shift at fish factories and marl mines. These mostly unremembered workers tried to make a decent living and build a better future. They worked hard, a lot of them died young — and I don't expect many of them got a fair shake. But they're as much a part of our coastal past as anybody. Their stories remind us of how many coastal voices have not yet been heard. And, lest we forget, they remind us that there is often a big story in even the smallest places. □ David Cecelski is a historian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's Southern Oral History Program. COASTWATCH 23

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