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Bodie Island ( ) is a long, narrow barrier island peninsula that forms the northernmost portion of the Outer Banks. The land that is most commonly referred to as Bodie Island was at one time a true island, but in 1811 Roanoke Inlet, which had separated it from the Currituck Banks in the north, closed. As a result, the Currituck Banks and Bodie Island are now one contiguous peninsula, joined at the Nags Head area, where the inlet once flowed. Today, either name can refer to the peninsula as a whole, but both portions colloquially retain their historical names.
From the southern tip at Oregon Inlet, the peninsula stretches largely northwest out of North Carolina and into Virginia until terminating at Rudee Inlet at Owl Creek in Virginia Beach. At Sandbridge, Virginia Beach, Virginia, the peninsula is tied to the mainland by low tidal swamps and causeways road. The entire peninsula is approximately 72 miles in length, following the shoreline.
Bodie Island was named after his descendants who settled in the area. The family was originally from Ingatestone, Essex, England which is where their coat of arms< originated as well, with an augmentation by Elizabeth I to John Boddie for service during the naval battle with the Spanish Armada. At that time, three pelicans vulning themselves were added to their coat of arms. The heraldic pelican, one of the few female beasts in heraldry, is shown with a sharp stork-like beak, which it uses to vuln (pierce or wound) her breast. This is per the bestiary myth that a female pelican wounded herself thus to feed her chicks. This symbol of sacrifice carries a particular religious meaning (usually a reference to Christ's sacrifice). In reality, pelicans masticate food and then feed this bloody liquid from their beaks to their pelican chicks.
The Bodie family history is noted extensively in Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia Folklore sometimes attributes the naming of the island to the dead "bodies" of drowned sailors that washed up from the ships that ran aground and sank off the Outer Banks in what is now known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic but that is incorrect.
Inlets frequently open and close along the Outer Banks, making landform naming inconsistent. When it was an island, Bodie Island extended farther south than it does today. The island was initially formed around 1738, when New Inlet opened, separating Bodie Island from Hatteras Island to the south. The opening of Oregon Inlet in 1846 truncated the southern portion of Bodie Island, forming a new island situated between Bodie and Hatteras. The new barrier island was given the name Pea Island, but the wider, more powerful Oregon Inlet led to the eventual closure of New Inlet around 1933. Pea Island thus became a part of Hatteras Island until 2011 when New Inlet reopened during Hurricane Irene.
Near the North Carolina-Virginia state line, the Currituck Inlet and along with Caffey's Inlet to the south in the vicinity of Duck once existed, which made the Currituck Banks itself a chain of barrier islands. Currituck Inlet served as the boundary between the two states in the early 18th century. The old Currituck Inlet closed around 1728, Caffey's Inlet closed in 1811, New Currituck Inlet had closed by 1828 and Musketo Inlet finally closed in 1882 creating the long peninsula extending from Sandbridge to Oregon Inlet that is seen today.
Explorer John Lawson mentions Bodies Island just once in his 1709 book A New Voyage to Carolina, when discussing fauna of North Carolina, in particular, a species of rabbit. He wrote the following: "I was told of several that were upon Bodies Island by Ronoak, which came from that Ship of Bodies." This would indicate that Bodie Island was so named as early as 1709.
The north end of the peninsula is accessible by Sandpiper and Sandfiddler Roads via Sandbridge Road, but there is no highway connecting the Virginia portion of the Currituck Banks with the North Carolina portion, and even driving on the beach is no longer permitted north of the North Carolina border. Plans for an additional access point near Corolla which would be called the Mid-Currituck Bridge are currently on hold.
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