Carolina stories: Along the Cape Fear

The Henrietta on a Cape Fear cruise

The Cape Fear River is a richly diverse ecosystem that winds its way for 200 miles from Central North Carolina through the port of Wilmington to Southport where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. For centuries, the river has been integral to life in Wilmington, for which it has always been a hub of transportation, recreation and commerce.

WHQR is Wilmington’s public radio station, richly diverse in its programming and commitment to the local community. The station takes its name from the hope of a merry band of visionaries back in the 1980s for High Quality Radio to serve a burgeoning cultural Mecca. For 27 years, 91.3 FM has offered the soundtrack for life and culture in the Cape Fear region.

On Friday night, August 5, these two Southeastern North Carolina treasures came together for me, as I enjoyed a Cape Fear River cruise with friends, old and new, who are the backbone of WHQR, my radio station of choice. When you are a WHQR listener, you feel as though the local hosts are your friends, and when you meet them in person, they are as interesting and friendly as you hoped they would be.

I listen to WHQR in my car, in my home, and, when I have to be away at work out of town, I listen on my computer. WHQR is simply the best in community public radio. WHQR’s innovative, sophisticated, eclectic mix of original local programming is the perfect complement to a roster of programs that are among the best that national public radio has to offer – Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Garrison Keillor’s shows, Talk of the Nation, This American Life, Fresh Air, Selected Shorts and many more.

There aren’t many radio stations on which you regularly hear the likes of Mozart, Vivaldi, Rogers and Hammerstein, Gershwin, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, the Metropolitan Opera, Duke Ellington, a little Celtic music, and emerging artists like North Carolina’s own Jeanne Jolly, all in one day! There is no other radio station where you will hear the voice of the late Claude Howell, Wilmington’s most famous painter and one of its most colorful characters, as he tells stories of the city’s past. The local commentaries, the talented and knowledgeable local hosts, and the weekday interviews with the movers and shakers of the local community and the cultural calendar keep you thoroughly entertained, informed and in the loop on all things Wilmington. WHQR, itself, is a major player in the arts community, partnering with Thalian Hall on the Cinematique film series, hosting art exhibits in its Front Street studio gallery, and serving as a media sponsor for many cultural activities.

WHQR is an invaluable community resource, and it’s up to listeners like you and me to send a few dollars each year to make sure it continues to grace our airways and lives.

The Cape Fear River is another vital resource that represents the heart and soul of Wilmington, which originally developed as a thriving port centered on the river.

Like I said, the river has always been an important part of life in Wilmington. The more you learn about the Cape Fear, the more you will want to support the ongoing efforts to preserve its natural beauty and historic charm as a major port of call and an environmental wonderful.

Our group found out first-hand that a Wilmington Water Tour cruise aboard “The Wilmington,” a state-of-the-art catamaran river tour boat, is a great way to learn more about the Cape Fear. Captain Doug Springer gives you an eye-opening tour along the river, sharing historical and environmental points and facts of interest. He clearly has a passion for the Cape Fear and visions of great things in its future. He offers a variety of excursions from morning to night, but we took a sunset evening cruise this time around, which took us up the Northeast Cape Fear River where the landscape looks much as it has since the 1600s, when the first development took place along the river at old Brunswick Town and Wilmington. We also crossed under the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge to get a glimpse of the modern-day NC State Port and its cargo ships, giant cranes, and the tug boats that work the river.

Captain Doug, a Cape Fear Community College graduate, has not only made a thorough study of the history of the Cape Fear and the port of Wilmington, he knows a great deal about the birds, fish, turtles, otters and alligators that make their home in and around the Cape Fear River basin. We were all captivated by his commentary and local knowledge.

As a Wilmington native, I have a lifetime of memories associated with the Cape Fear River, from the day in October 1961 when, perched in the window of my father's riverfront office in the historic U.S. Customs House (now the Alton Lennon Federal Building and Courthouse), I watched the Battleship North Carolina come to town, to the day in 1969 when my dad took me to walk over the towering new Cape Fear Memorial Bridge on the special pedestrian day before it opened to vehicular traffic on October 1 that year. Another childhood memory is eating with my family in the early 1960s at Fergus Ark, a floating restaurant docked at the foot of Princess Street.

Thanks to my WHQR friends, old and new, and Captain Doug for an enchanted Wilmington evening that I will treasure among my favorite Cape Fear River memories.

Mary Virginia Swain

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