Kill Devil Hills, NC

Kill Devil Hills, the oldest town in the Outer Banks, offers visitors a rich history and heritage within the beautiful coastal town. With beautiful strands of enormous sand hills, many reaching over one hundred feet high, it's no wonder the Wright Brothers chose Kill Devil Hill to launch their first automotive airplane. While many speak of the Kill Devil Hills, it is a single hill, Kill Devil Hill that the Wright brothers experimented. Some say it's for the hill and that famous first flight that the area garners its named. Some locals explain that the town, home to the Killdeer (a species of bird) and this combined with Hills (for the huge sand dunes) is what early native called the area.

Others have much more colorful explanations of the origination of the town's name, though they're no less part of the full history. Some locals tell a tale of a greedy man, who forced people to give him money. One day this man's greed went so far that he even threatened the Devil to give him money, and trapped him in one of the large mountains of sand. Others say the town was named after a popular brand of rum called Kill Devil Rum. Still others say that ships returning from the tropics with huge cargo boxes of rum were victims of ship wrecks; the ship's cargo washed up on the shores after the wrecks and the locals were able to enjoy huge amounts of rum - enough to kill the devil! Whatever story you choose to believe, the beauty of the area with its warm breezes and huge sand dunes is unquestionable.