Outer Banks Beachcomber Museum


UNDER CONSTRUCTION:  Updated  ~  4-16-2025......


The beach in front of Mattie's Store where Nellie walked every day in search of things the tides brought in.

~ The Beachcomber ~ 

~ BY Marimar McNaughton  ~ 


 ~ Wrightsville Beach Magazine ~ Published May 29, 2014 ~


"Nellie Myrtle Pridgen was pretty fussy about who shared the contents of her sea chest. Pridgen a Nags Header was part sleuth part scientist pioneer environmentalist feminist recluse and curmudgeon. 

Though she passed away in 1992 she remains the 
Outer Banks legendary beachcomber. Walking the 
same stretch of sand daily hands clenched behind 
her back and head bent in observation she sought 
what the ocean fetched by tide or storm and pirated 
rare finds for her personal cache. 

 When it comes to beachcombers of the 20th century 
no one single collection comes close to the wealth of artifacts as those amassed by Nellie Myrtle Pridgen 
says Richard LaMotte president of the North American Sea Glass Association. 

Her trove of gifts from the shoreline and dunes of 
Nags Head serves as a 60-year time capsule of life 
on the Atlantic as items adrift from north and south found respite along North Carolina's Outer Banks. 
The shelves of a once-thriving grocery store display thousands of stunning sea glass shards and hundreds 
of antique bottles."  More... HERE

"Discover the beauty and wonder of sea glass in this captivating book 
by C. S. Lambert. A must-read for sea glass enthusiasts and crafters alike." HERE



We met  Carole S. Lambert and Richard LaMotte, at the first Sea Glass Festival, held in Rockport Massachusetts 
in October, 2004. After seeing Nellie's collection, both included her in their next book about sea glass.

Lambert in "A Passion For Sea Glass", 2006 and LaMotte in "The Lure of Sea Glass", 2015.



2018 Centennial Open House Banner 
& 
Argonaut Flag Flying From MMS Deck
A short video of the 2014 Christmas Open House can be seen... Here


Outer Banks photographer Wes Snyder's 2017 extended video on Facebook, showing the collection as it was before being packed up in 2019 ...HERE

Beachcombing Center Executive Director Mary
McCarthy talks about some of the items from
Nellie's collection that we donated to her in 2018... HERE

Ca. 1943 photo of Jockey's Ridge by 
Nellie Myrtle Pridgen

Nellie's Story...

Nellie_Booklet_cover photo.pdf Nellie_Booklet_cover photo.pdf
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“The entire collection is like a microcosm of what went on in history between 1930 and 1980,” said Richard LaMotte,” author of “Pure Sea Glass, Discovering Nature’s Vanishing Gems,” a reference book for beachcombers published in 2004, and “The Lure of Sea Glass” published in 2015. 

“The relics that she found are not only extremely rare, they’re components of that era. “



“The entire collection is like a microcosm of what went on in history between 1930 and 1980,” said Richard LaMotte,” author of “Pure Sea Glass, Discovering Nature’s Vanishing Gems,” a reference book for beachcombers published in 2004, and “The Lure of Sea Glass” published in 2015. “The relics that she found are not only extremely rare, they’re components of that era. “

Nell Myrtle Pridgen ~ 1918-1992

In July 1992, at age 74, Nellie Myrtle Pridgen took her last breath of salt air. Although she passed        away   in mid-summer, Nell's private, invitation-only sunrise service was held well after the million tourists had driven past the grocery for the last time and gone home.

The engraved invitations simply said: "Please join us for a Celebration of Life Memorial Service for    Nellie Myrtle Pridgen at seven o'clock in the morning Sunday, September 20, 1992, on her beach."

Carmen, who passed away in 2007, spent the night of Sept. 19 in the old grocery, surrounded by her mother's obsession. Thunder cracked and lightning lit up the skies. "She blew through here with the  most violent thunderstorm I have ever seen," Carmen recalled.

The next day was Nell's kind of day, overcast and raw with a chopped-up sea. As the sun squinted over the horizon, 192 people moved softly over the dune to Nell's beach, leaving the first footprints in the sand. Billy Gray cradled the box of ashes in the crook of his arm as he climbed over the sides of a flat-bottomed dory. Carmen's childhood friend, Eddie Reber Jr., started the outboard and the men made  their way through the swells toward the point where heaven meets the earth.

When Billy released the beachcomber's ashes, there was no sound, save the slapping of the dory                              against the sea and the breakers on the beach.

The memory of what happened next still brings chills to those who were there. A school of dolphin                                    glided by, their glistening fins breaking the surface of the ocean. A line of pelicans swooped down,                                  skimming the waves as if to salute a kindred spirit.

Suddenly, skirts blew up and the congregation shielded their eyes from the blowing sand.                                                  A stiff nor'easter rushed in, hurrying the end of the service.

"It was over," Carmen said, rubbing her arms. "She was tired. It was finished." She was back in the sea.  Here





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