"For some, scouring the seaside for beach born treasure is compulsive, a therapy perhaps, as in the case of the Outer Banks most famous beachcomber, the late Nellie Myrtle Pridgen of Nags Head. Her collection includes vintage fishing tackle, ancient peace pipes, china dolls, whale bones, colorful glass bottles and beach glass, bricks or ballast enough to build a house, broken shells, rare shells, a massive fulgurite, and all manner of treasures sufficient to attract coverage in National Geographic and the interest of a Smithsonian Institution curator. Nell kept it all. Some say she was trying to safeguard the Outer Banks’ heritage and her birthright.

To an outsider she was a notorious, fussy, confrontational curmudgeon. The few people she allowed into her world, however, understood how deeply she loved nature and her Outer Banks. More than an archivist, she was an activist, attending county meetings and writing many letters to newspaper editors. She was well-versed and prized accuracy. Nellie Myrtle Pridgen wanted to protect the Outer Banks environment from the price of development and tourism. It soothed her raging mind to swim far into the sea and make her daily treks in the wee morning hours and again at twilight along the shores of the ocean and the sound. It was her obsessive ritual that lasted for more than 60 years – her life-blood. 

After her parents, Jethro and Mattie Midgette, passed away in the mid-seventies, Nell moved lock, stock and booty into their old grocery store on the Beach Road, now known as Virginia Dare Trail, where she lived out the remainder of her days. Her vast collection of beach finds fills every shelf, stretch of wall and remaining floor-space.

The store and Nell’s collection is now listed in The National Register of Historic Places, and beloved Outer Banks author and historian David Stick has said, “Next to Jockey’s Ridge and the Wright Brothers National Memorial, it is the most historically significant place on the northern Outer Banks. It is an integral part of the Nags Head Historic District.”

From:

The Art of Scavenging (a.k.a Beachcombing)

A Passion for Sea Glass Author: C.S. Lambert Photographer: Amy Wilton Hardcover, 96 pages, 162 color photos, 8-1/2" x 11". "There’s something about sea glass that captures the imagination of anyone who loves the romance and mystery of the sea. But some people take their passion for ocean-tossed bits of glass and pottery a step further. Their days are punctuated by the rhythm of the tides no matter what the weather. For some, their quest for sea glass has turned into a career; for others, a life-changing environment. Carole Lambert is the perfect guide to take us into the worlds of major sea glass collectors. In her first book, Sea Glass Chronicles: Whispers from the Past, which continues to be a best-seller, she leads readers through the adventure of collecting and identifying glass and pottery shards from untold journeys -- decades and centuries past. Now, in A Passion for Sea Glass, she opens up homes and workshops of collectors who give new purpose to these shoreline finds. Here you’ll meet an artist who created a series of stained-glass windows made entirely of sea glass, a diver who brings up rare and valuable glass from the deep, designers of sea glass jewelry and hair ornaments, those who make mosaics, bird houses, and even gnome homes, all embellished with sea glass. This volume will not only arouse a renewed sense of wonder in those who are already passionate collectors of sea glass, but it will also win legions of new sea glass devotees."