MANTEO - A weathered cookhouse salvaged from a remote lifesaving station will help preserve the heritage of black lifesavers who once rescued shipwreck victims off the Outer Banks.

The cookhouse will be a focal point for the Pea Island African American Heritage Center in Manteo, a living history museum dedicated to the all-black crews that served from the 1880s until 1947.

"It's such a great story that needs to be told," said Kermit Skinner, Manteo's town manager.

Skinner said many of the surfmen lived on Roanoke Island, and their descendants are still in the area. The town contributed $200,000 for the project, while Dominion North Carolina donated $10,000.

The 483-square-foot cookhouse was moved to Manteo last February from Rodanthe on Hatteras Island and will be restored to hold artifacts from the lifesaving station. Darrell Collins, 51, whose uncle was an officer at the lifesaving station, said that although the men served at a time when blacks faced racial prejudice, they were respected on the Outer Banks where they patrolled for shipwrecks.

The Pea Island crew received the Coast Guard's Gold Lifesaving Medal for the 1896 rescue of survivors from a three-masted schooner, the E.S. Newman, that sank in a storm two miles south of the station. The rescuers tied themselves together and fought through the breakers 10 times to rescue the entire crew.

East Carolina Pathway to Freedom Coalition, a nonprofit group, is spearheading the project, which will include construction of a replica of the station's living quarters.

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