The lighthouse at Edenton is the last remaining screwpile lighthouse in North Carolina. The scuttlebutt in Edenton still revolved around the infamous Little Rascals child abuse case that resulted in Ofra Bikel's

documentaries - Innocence

Lost, The Verdict, and The

Plea . But many citizens were proud that the Will

Patton movie, Dog Days of

Summer, was filmed there.

We, however, were more interested in the town's historical buildings, especially the courthouse, the lighthouse, and the waterfront park. The Chowan County Courthouse began life in 1712 as the seat of the North Carolina provincial government. The building was completed in 1718, rebuilt in 1724, and again in 1767. It is the oldest extant government building in North Carolina, a National Historic Landmark.

The most curious landmark we found in Edenton was the lighthouse. It sits drydocked on high metal supports a hundred feet or so from Albemarle Sound, much like a giant spider waiting for the tide to come in. It was moved to this location in 2007 and is being refurbished. When it was functional, it sat on metal legs screwed into the bay bottom. A keeper and his family used to live in the lighthouse and used a rowboat to go to and from shore.

Civil War cannons still protect Edenton harbor. This type of lighthouse, called screwpile, became popular after the Civil War. There were over 100 built in the sounds and bays of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. Edenton's is North Carolina's last remaining screwpile lighthouse.

The waterfront at Edenton is delightful. During the colonial days, it was the second largest port in the colonies. Today, however, there is no commercial activity, but the town park and easy access to Albemarle Sound is bringing new residential development.

My wife Linda and I left Edenton and continued our trip north. We passed alongside the Dismal Swamp Canal, which connected Albemarle Sound and Chesapeake Bay in 1805 and is now part of the Intracoastal Waterway. It is the oldest operating man- made canal in the US. It was completed five years after South Carolina's Santee Canal, which stopped operating in 1840 and was flooded by Lake Moultrie in 1941. Pleasure boats cruised on the canal next to Highway 17 giving Linda an erie feeling. "I've never passed a sailboat while driving before."

The Dismal Swamp Canal is the oldest operating man- made canal in the US. The Chowan County Courthouse in Edenton is the oldest building in Nor th Carolina.