MIle 950 - Belhaven, NC

The town of Belhaven, North Carolina is the home of the River Forest Manor & Marina. This marina was a stop for us, when we brought the houseboat Water's Edge up the InterCoastal Waterway (ICW) from Orange Park, Florida.

I can to this day (July 8, 2001), clearly remember a couple things about this stop.


Someone I don't know modelling the golf cart

One was a wild golf cart ride across town on the Main Street to the supermarket (a Food Lion) to get fresh vittles and supplies for the boat. We laid on the speed and nearly had the cart on two wheels trying to get to the market before a big black cloud dumped rain on us. The marina supplied these carts free of charge to folks staying there overnight.


Eye-in-the-Sky View of Belhaven

The River Forest Manor & Marina is on the far right. The Food Lion is at the center near the top. The wall in the water is a dam across the Pantego Creek. The town sits at the junction of this creek and the Pungo River.


River Forest Manor

The other thing I clearly remember were some scrumptious Oyster Fritters and a buffet smorgasbord at the Manor house.

Building the Manor house started in 1899 by John Aaron Wilkinson, Vice-President of Norfolk & Southern Railroad. Italian craftsmen carved ornate ceilings, and by 1904, the mansion was complete – with carved oak mantels for each of the eleven fireplaces, cut glass leaded windows, crystal chandeliers, and tapestry above the mahogany wainscoting in the dining room.

At his death, the house changed hands a couple times until it was purchased by Axson Smith of Belhaven, whose had worked at the Drake & The Palmer House in Chicago.

The property has since become world famous and has attracted the wealthy and famous, with James Cagney, Tallulah Bankhead, Robert Ripley, Harvey Firestone, Burl Ives, Twiggy, Roy Clark, Neal Sedaka and Walter Cronkite, among others, (and me!) numbered as its guests.

Virtual Walker mumbles, "Orange Conehead this, Orange Conehead that, that Real World Walker guy is totally insane!"